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80,000–130,000 words · from $13,400

Fantasy that earns its 90,000 words.

Epic, dark, urban, romantasy, low. Senior fantasy ghostwriters who read in the genre and write to the conventions readers expect.

Talk to the fantasy team See pricing

You have a world. You have a magic system. You may even have an outline. What you do not have is 80,000 words of prose that holds up to a reader who has already read everything Sanderson has shipped.

Fantasy mood

What fantasy feels like, in five frames.

Visual reference for the voice, palette, and reader mood the books in this category live in.

Sub-genres we work in

The fantasy categories with their own conventions.

Sub-genres each have their own structural rules, word-count norms, and reader expectations. We assign by sub-genre, not just by parent.

Sub-genre Epic fantasy Sub-genre Dark fantasy / grimdark Sub-genre Urban fantasy Sub-genre Romantasy (romance-fantasy crossover) Sub-genre Low fantasy / historical fantasy Sub-genre Portal fantasy Sub-genre Sword and sorcery

Genre conventions

The rules we will not break unless you ask.

Every category has conventions its readers expect. The right time to break them is on purpose, with eyes open. The wrong time is by accident.

  • World-building bible written before the manuscript starts, updated as the story breaks new ground.
  • Magic system rules locked early. Soft magic and hard magic are different commitments; pick one.
  • Series-friendly structure even on book one. The standalone-with-series-potential is a real shape.
  • Chapter pacing in fantasy is slower than thriller; readers expect breathing room.
  • POV consistency. Multi-POV is hard to make work; we usually start with one and add only if the story demands.

Sample covers

Fantasy covers we shipped this year.

Each cover is a real project. Drag through to see the visual language we work in for this category.

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Comp titles

Books that share your shelf, and the choice we'd ask you to make about which one to compete on.

On the discovery call, we ask which two of these your book most resembles, and which one you refuse to be compared to. The answer shapes the outline.

  • The Way of Kings Brandon Sanderson
  • The Lies of Locke Lamora Scott Lynch
  • The Poppy War R. F. Kuang
  • A Court of Thorns and Roses Sarah J. Maas

Genre lead

Sam Okonkwo reads every fantasy brief that comes through the door.

The same person reads your brief, joins the discovery call, and signs off every chapter. No rotating account managers.

Leads Fantasy, mystery & thriller, sci-fi

Sam Okonkwo

Senior Fiction Ghostwriter, 8 yrs

Published novelist in his own right (under the pen name Samuel Okon) before going full-time on ghostwriting. Writes the kind of mid-list commercial fiction Amazon readers actually finish.

  • Author of The North Quarter Lights (2019) and two sequels, under pen name Samuel Okon
  • Ghostwrote a fantasy trilogy that is, between the three books, now at 380,000 copies sold
  • Workshop leader, Stanford Continuing Studies, Plot Architecture
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Case study

The Salt Throne (Salt & Iron, book 1)

by Priya Narayan-Chen, Self-published fantasy novelist; ex-software engineer ASIN B0CXY94JTD

The brief
Priya could write fast — drafts of 90,000 words in 11 weeks — but her editing was the bottleneck. She also had a cover problem: covers 1, 2, and 3 had been done by three different freelancers and the series didn't read as a series.
The outcome
Year-one royalties on books 1–4 combined: $94,000 net of ad spend. Read-through from book 1 to book 4 sits at 71% (excellent for fantasy). Books 5 and 6 are written; book 5 is currently in copy edit.
  • $94k year-one royalties, books 1–4
  • 71% read-through book 1 → 4
  • 8 books cover system designed
  • 18 days edit-to-delivery cadence
Read the full case study
Fantasy — what a project looks like 01:08 60-second tour of a fantasy engagement from outline to launch.

Services for this genre

What a typical engagement looks like.

The studio

The team behind every genre.

See the full team →

Fantasy — FAQ

Questions we get from fantasy authors every week.

How long should a fantasy novel be?

80–130k for the first book of a series. Under 80k reads as thin in the category; over 130k starts to scare readers who haven't committed to your series yet. Sequels can be longer once you have the reader.

Hard magic or soft magic?

Both work, but mixing them is what fails. Hard magic has rules the reader can predict (Sanderson). Soft magic is mystery and consequence (Tolkien). Pick one. We will push you to decide on the discovery call.

How do you handle world-building for a ghostwritten project?

World-building bible is written in weeks 1–3, before any prose. You sit in on those calls — the world has to be yours. After bible approval, the writer drafts; the bible gets updated whenever something new is invented during writing.

Romantasy specifically?

Yes, it is its own thing now, and we treat it that way. The romance has to land on its own merits, not be a subplot in a fantasy. We pair a writer with romance credentials specifically for romantasy.

Other genres

Twelve in total. Different team for each.

Ready when you are

Ready to talk about your fantasy project?

A 30-minute discovery call with a senior editor — no sales script, no pressure. We'll tell you whether we're the right fit for your project, what it would cost, and how long it would take.

Book a discovery call See pricing