Instead of cutting into two pieces? I really don't think it makes sense to make cuts you know will hurt the story when you don't have a publisher or agent. And who knows, once you get a publisher or agent maybe they can find a way to help you avoid the cuts. Or find a way to make cuts that don't hurt the story. Why put extra effort into making your story worse? Do you really think lowering the quality to reduce your word count will improve your chances of getting an agent?

I'm with Typo. I'd rather publish a brilliant story at 120k than a good one at 100k.

I've gotten the impression from multiple sources that there really isn't a market for a first-time author over about that size. The choice sounds like a story getting rejected without a look at 140k or getting a look at 120k.

I'll lose some scenes I think contribute to things, but I'm trying to take out the weakest contributors first.

I could inflate it to about 160k to have two 80k stories, but the first one wouldn't really be standalone, and I think inflating would be worse than shrinking. Right now it seems like the ideal size would be about 135k (I started cutting at 153k and I'm down to 140k so far), but that's still too much. I'll still have the parts to put back in if I find a place that's open to larger works.

So how an 80 with 60 K of the second done. If it is accepted then you could add 20 K of short stories maps, legends, history, descriptions of goverment -some sort of end matter that does not ruin the story to the second one. But only do that if hte first is accepted. You point is you have an 80 thousand word first volume of a two parter, and 60K words of the core of second, with 20 K to be writeen of the second. No compromise of quality. Of if you indist you could write the 20 K of supplemental matter before submisison, but not stretching out the work - just supplmental matter that does not compromise the story telling. No quality compromise, but still commercial.

Definitely a thought, though trying to insert a standalone ending at that point would be difficult.

I think I'll end up with something I'll be happy with in a single novel. There'll be some scenes I'll wish I could stick back in, and details I wish I could add, but I think I'll end up with a pretty decent book.

Length issues aside, I'm starting to feel pretty good about it. I'm making plenty of good cuts, tightening things up, making adjustments based on feedback, and I feel like I'm homing in on a finishing line.

I'm about 1/2 way through this hacking revision right now, then it'll be one more round of tightening and clean-up.

"In the spirit of discovering new talent as well as supporting established authors and the bookstores who support them, Tin House Books will accept unsolicited manuscripts dated between August 1 and November 30, 2010, as long as each submission is accompanied by a receipt for a book from a bookstore."

Lots of publication-ma to you Typo.

I've now taken 18,000 words out, putting me at 135k. I have a big cut coming up of around 5,000 words. This is one where I think it does hurt a bit, but not too bad. Cutting out any scene at this point hurts because I had a reason for putting them in there, but a least I'm getting rid of the ones with the weakest reasons.

When I'm done I'm only going to have scenes where pulling one out is going to make something else unravel. It should make for a fairly tight story. Still a lengthy plot, but all of it pretty focused.

This week I am *actually* going to work on my article and send it off to the journal I'm hoping will publish it. I've been putting it off for months because part of me thinks it's not good enough, but that's rubbish and I'm trying to ignore it. I need a publication, so I'm just going to go for it. The journal in question has a 'student perspectives' section that I'm more likely to get published in than anywhere else, so it's by no means impossible. I thought writing my intention down here might help with moving the project from theoretical to actual!

Go team Seska!