Ron Seybold asked Juliet Marillier:

Just this week you said in an article that your books have gotten shorter? Is that because your editors are asking you to write shorter, or some other reason?

Juliet Marillier Hi Ron. These days a lot of contracts have a word count specified. Usually for me it's been in the range of 130,000 to 150,000 for an adult book, and 75,000 to 120,000 for a YA book. My contract for the Warrior Bards series specifies a finished length between 125 - 130K per book, which is shortish for an adult historical fantasy novel. In fact the manuscript is quite a bit over 130K but I am hoping the editors won't request more cuts. I suspect the shorter length relates to the shorter attention span of today's readers, but I'm not sure! Also, the longer the book, the more expensive it is to produce the print edition, or so I'm told. So it may be partly a cost-cutting measure.
all the best, Juliet

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