Caroline Smailes started here writing career with novellas and has recently seen one of her books made into a film by Youtube star Luke Cutforth. This shows that there are alternatives out there for novel success. The average word count in a novel may only apply depending on the book genre. For instance, a science fiction novel word count must be at least 50, words. In order to receive the prestigious Nebula Award, the science fiction novel word count must be above 50, This is just one example of many factors that could influence your novel word count target.
This highlights the importance of being aware of the word count guidelines in your chosen book genre. The Sci-Fi novel word count is on average the largest of book genres. The Sci-Fi genre is all about lengthy word counts. It allows authors to develop an engaging futuristic world within a novel.
Historical novels also have a huge word count due to their complex nature. There is a belief that a debut novel is slightly different. It is sometimes said that for a debut novel you need to be aiming for a word count around 80, words maximum. I am not convinced by this argument, but feel it is something of which you should be aware. The book publishing industry has a belief that when readers are deciding to buy a novel, its physical size plays a part in the buying equation.
Rightly or wrongly, it is felt that very small novels sub, words will appear flimsy and less substantial than the competition, and therefore will, in the mind of the reader, not be worth the retail price. Now, I understand that this may or may not be the case in reality, but all that matters is that this belief persists in the book publishing world. If your novel word count is below 40,, it will be an issue.
This issue could also apply to eBooks. In that case you need to make sure they get the content and quality in your novel that they expected when purchasing. The problem with large novels we are talking above , word count is twofold. The first reason is all to do with cost. If a novel word count is made up of hundreds of thousands of words then it will naturally need lots of pages, and pages cost money.
Large novels with hundreds of pages can quickly become prohibitively expensive to print. All books are a gamble, but those by debut novelists are even more so. A publisher will be looking to print at least a three thousand books in their first print run. It is cheaper to print 60,word novels than it is to print ,word novels. The second reason is also all to do with cost.
When an agent or book publisher is assessing a potential book deal, foreign rights sales will play a part in the thinking. Foreign rights are permission for the book to be translated and sold in other countries. These rights are sold to foreign publishers — giving agents, book publishers and writers an additional cash windfall. Most of our work does not classify as "absolutely brilliant" or we'd all have 16 novels at this point.
Between 80, and 89, words is a good range you should be aiming for. Anything in this word count won't scare off any agent anywhere. Now, speaking broadly, you can have as few as 71, words and as many as , 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 K is all right, but not by much. I suggest stopping at K because just the mental hurdle to jump concerning K is just another thing you don't want going against you. Rachelle also mentions that passing K in word count means it's a more expensive book to produce—hence agents' and editors' aversion to such lengths.
In short, word counts should be: 80,, Totally cool 90,, Generally safe 70,, Might be too short; probably all right ,, Might be too long; probably all right Below 70, Too short , or above: Too long. Chick lit falls into this realm, but chick lit books tend to be a bit shorter and faster. 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 ,, is an excellent range. It's six-figures long, but not real long. The thing is: 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, K in these areas. It shows that you can whittle your work down. Outside of that, I would say 90KK is most likely all right, and K is probably all right, too.
That said, try to keep it in the ideal range. Middle grade is from 20,,, 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 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,, words. You can stray a little over here but not much. Shoot for 20,, words. Learn the differences between middle grade and young adult fiction.
The word round the agent blogosphere is that these books tend to be trending longer, saying that you can top in the 80Ks. However, this progression is still in motion and, personally, I'm not sure about this. I would say you're playing with fire the higher you go. 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. Concerning the low end, below 55K could be all right but I wouldn't drop much below about 47K.
The standard is text for 32 pages. That might mean one line per page, or more. When it gets closer to 1,, editors and agents may shy away.
Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. I remember reading some Westerns in high school and, if I recall correctly, they weren't terribly long. 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.
Memoir is the same as a novel and that means you're aiming for 80,, 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 K 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. However, we do not suggest writing a novel of , words unless you as established as Stephen King is.
Romance is a unique genre because the plot is all about two characters and their adventure with one another. For that reason, writing a long, lengthy book just about their romance can become a problem for the readers.
This book only has 52, words and has become one of the most recognizable romances of our time. For example, Agatha Christie, one of the bestselling mystery writers of all time, write between 40, and 60, words per book. Therefore, we advise writers to stick between 40, to 80, words for horror novels. Typical dystopian novels run between 60, and , words, though this genre has the flexibility to be longer.
Just keep your intended audience in mind young adult, middle-grade , in order to know how many worse to write.
One popular example of a contemporary novel is Simon vs. Young adult books range between 60, and 90, words. Your audience matters because different age ranges prefer different lengths of books. Middle-grade books are best if kept between 20, and 55, words in order to maintain the attention of readers this age. Anything longer can be difficult for a younger audience to consume and retain all of the information.
Keep in mind that these word counts are guidelines. One thing we teach here at Self-Publishing School is that you must first know the rules before you can confidently break them.
Still not sure where to start? Check recommended word and page counts for multiple ages of varied audiences using the calculator below. Once you have that, you can break your total words needed for your novel down into monthly, weekly, and daily writing goals.
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