Writing and Marketing Conficts?

c2011Shalako

My current work in progress is up to 10,830 words. If it gets too long that will eliminate at least one major market that I can think of, just off the top of my head.

Since I haven't been writing a lot of mysteries, my knowledge is pretty limited, but it seems clear that the longer it gets, the more potential markets will be eliminated.

Fair enough, either write to length or pick a shorter project! While there is no real angst here, I really wasn't thinking of doing a novel. My novels tend to go to the full 100,000 words sort of thing, and maybe I should try thinking in 40,000 to 50,000 word terms.

The thing as it now stands seems pretty barren in some places, just a lot of drawing-room talk without much action, car chases and such like that. Yet in other places its lush--maybe lush bordering on purple prose. While a parody might have some place for that, the readers need to know that it is a parody, (or satire, or opera bouffe,) otherwise they don't know what to think.

If I honestly thought I could wrap this up in another 1,170 words and get a 12,000 word story, I would do it in a heartbeat. The only saving grace is that I can ultimately publish it myself, as an Amazon short maybe, or as part of a book-length collection, or just go and search for some mystery anthologies.

No need to panic. Just write the thing to some sort of logical conclusion, based upon the facts as presented so far, and then let it sit for a while. Polish the snot out of it, and you got something.

Editor's Note: We don't have a clue what 'opera bouffe' means, but it sure sounds cool.