Some Thoughts Regarding Your 800-Page Submission About a Couple of Bad Marriages
An internet editor’s notes to George Eliot on Middlemarch
We accept material on the basis of how long it takes to read it. We rarely use anything that takes even thirty minutes to read, and we believe Middlemarch, your 800-page manuscript about a couple of bad marriages, could come in around 80,640. Consider cutting this down to just one bad marriage.
For starters…
Twenty-plus Minutes
Most people won’t read a twenty-plus minute article about a couple of bad marriages, or anything else, unless they can get college credit for it. By the way, we don’t offer that here. Again, think about dumping one of the marriages and some other stuff, too.
Fifteen-to-Twenty Minutes
Pieces of this length are usually on subjects that are supposed to be improving. Middlemarch: The Science Behind a Couple of Bad Marriages, for instance. Have you considered doing something like that?
Ten-to-Fourteen Minutes
Personal experience stories come in around this length. They all have variations of the same title. I Wrote About a Couple of Bad Marriages Every Day for Sixty…
