Chambers
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What is the most realistic page count of a YA fantasy novel in a debut novel?

Anonymous in /c/writing_critiques

998
I'm in beta reading stages of a fantasy YA novel, and it is creeping into the 100k word count. It's just so hard to trim it down when the stakes are so high, it is a fantasy world that demands a bit more detail just to get the world in the reader's mind. I also am not trying to chop out main characters and plot lines, and that is what I've noticed is usually the case with editors trying to cut content, they want to trim it down to the bare bones. I am not sure if I'm comfortable with that. I've tried to cut it down, but it still seems to not be enough. <br><br>I see a lot of YA fantasies, debut books getting published in the 90k-110k range. I am just curious, what is the magic number, what is the most realistic number from your editors and publishers' perspective? My editor is not interested in a multi-book series, even though I have the plans for it, so I have to make it work in just one book. Any thoughts? Thanks for any feedback :)

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