alt Hacker NewsSupposedly the latest trend deciding what novels get accepted by literary agents isn't the total number of words in the book, it's the total number of words in each chapter. They're getting much more strict about wanting chapters that are 1250-1500 words.
The reason is audiobooks: Having shorter chapters is a better user experience and audiobooks are really hot (money makers) right now.
This is just an anecdote though. I'm not an expert (only wrote one novel and my chapters were like ~2,500-3,500 words).
my comment was based on what i heard directly from a literary agent in november (also an anecdote). as a debut, my book needs to be 15k words longer in order for it to be worth the publicists time. because it needs to sell for enough so they get their time investment. which means, short novels don't sell enough for it to be worth an agent's time.
unless i found the right indie press or self-publish or already had a big platform.