cj Sez: Wanted, Readers and Writers
in the Mobile, AL area. Come on down to the 2018 Mobile Literary
Festival on March 3 at the Ben May Main Library. I’d love to see you there.
Back in
2012, Writers Digest contributor Chuck Sambuchino wrote: Word Count for
Novels and Children’s Books: The Definitive Post. I’ve excerpted his
informative post below because I think he offers “good rules of thumb” for
writers to use as a guide. (I did a Google search for genre word count, and
found Internet sites in 2017 that still reference Mr. Sambuchino’s info.)
“Word count for novels and books is something I don’t think
about too often until I travel to a writers’ conference, and then someone asks
a simple, innocent question: “How long should a book be?” With that in mind,
I’ve tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction
(novels, young adult, middle grade, children’s books and even memoir).
The most important thing here is to realize that there are
always exceptions to these rules. However, aiming to be the exception is
setting yourself up for disappointment. What writers fail to see is that
for every successful exception to the rule (e.g., a first-time 175,000-word
novel), there are at least 100 failures if not 300.
“But what about J.K. Rowling???” asks that man in the
back of the room, putting his palms up the air. Well—remember the first Harry
Potter book? It wasn’t that long. After JK made the publishing house
oodles and oodles of money, she could do whatever she wanted. And since
most writers haven’t earned oodles, they need to stick to the rules and make
sure they work gets read. The other thing that will make you an exception
is if your writing is absolutely brilliant. But let’s face it. Most of our work
does not classify as “absolutely brilliant” or we’d all have 16 novels at this
point.
ADULT NOVELS: COMMERCIAL & LITERARY
Between 80,000 and 89,999 words is a good range you should
be aiming for. This is a 100% safe range for literary, mainstream,
women’s, romance, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror. Anything in this
word count won’t scare off any agent anywhere. Now, speaking broadly, you can
have as few as 71,000 words and as many as 109,000 words. That is the total
range. When it dips below 80K, it might be perceived as too short—not giving
the reader enough. It seems as though going over 100K is all right, but not by
much. In short:
80,000 – 89,999: Totally cool
90,000 – 99,999: Generally safe
70,000 – 79,999: Might be too short; probably all right
100,000 – 109,999: Might be too long; probably all right
Below 70,000: Too short
110,000 or above Too long
90,000 – 99,999: Generally safe
70,000 – 79,999: Might be too short; probably all right
100,000 – 109,999: Might be too long; probably all right
Below 70,000: Too short
110,000 or above Too long
Chick lit falls into this realm, but chick lit books tend to
be a bit shorter and faster. 70-75K is not bad at all.
SCI-FI AND FANTASY
Science fiction and fantasy are the big exceptions because
these categories tend to run long. It has to do with all the descriptions and
world-building in the writing.
With these genres, I would say 100,000 – 115,000 is an
excellent range.
Writers tend to know that these categories run long so they
make them run really long and hurt their chances. There’s nothing
wrong with keeping it short (say, 105K) in these areas. It shows that you
can whittle your work down.
MIDDLE GRADE
Middle grade is from 20,000 – 55,000, depending on the
subject matter and age range, and the word count of these books has been
trending up in recent years. When writing a longer book that is aimed at
12-year-olds (and could maybe be considered “tween”), using the term “upper
middle grade” is advisable. With upper middle grade, you can aim for 40,000 –
55,000 words.
YOUNG ADULT
Perhaps more than any other, YA is the one category where
word count is very flexible. For starters, 55,000 – 69,999 is a great
range.
The word round the agent blogosphere is that these books
tend to be trending longer, saying that you can top in the 80Ks. When it gets
into the 80s, you may be all right—but you have to have
a reason for going that high. Again, higher word counts usually mean
that the writer does not know how to edit themselves. A good reason to have a
longer YA novel that tops out at the high end of the scale is if it’s science
fiction or fantasy. Once again, these categories are expected to be a little
longer because of the world-building.
PICTURE BOOKS
The standard is text for 32 pages. That might mean
one line per page, or more. 500-600 words is a good number to aim
for.
WESTERNS
There wasn’t a whole about this on agent and editor sites,
but from what I found, these can be anywhere from 50K to 80K. 65,000 is a
solid number to aim for.
MEMOIR
Memoir is the same as a novel and that means you’re aiming
for 80,000-89,999. However, keep in mind when we talked about how people don’t
know how to edit their work. This is specially true in memoir, I’ve found,
because people tend to write everything about their life—because it all really
happened. Coming in a bit low (70-79K) is not a terrible thing, as it shows you
know how to focus on the most interesting parts of your life and avoid a
Bill-Clinton-esque tome-length book.”
And cj Sez:
Before you submit to an agency, be sure to check the agency’s website for their
specific requirements.
Is your word count in the ballpark for the genre you’re
writing?
And now, from my sponsors:
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Qrtly
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