Ideal word count

[caitysdad]

I realize every story is different, and some stories are shorter or longer than others, but I was wondering if the publishing industry has an ideal word count that they are looking for. My target word count was 100,000 and I came in closer to 110,000. Is there a word count where an agent/editor will say "too short" or "too long?" My hope is that any such judgment would be reserved for the actual story and not something else, but hopes aren't often realistic.

[RJK]

It depends on the genre and your target audience. Middle grade and YA books are significantly shorter than 100K (around 5oK). Fantasies are somewhat longer than 100K. Thrillers, crime suspense, are in the 80 to 100K range. Mysteries are about 75-80K. There's a chart around here somewhere, if you have more patiences and search abilities than I, you may be able to find it.

[seun]

Depends on the genre and book. I'd say aim for around 80,000-100,000.

And make your post bigger. I had to squint to read it. :D

[scarletpeaches]

There are eleventy billion threads on this matter and they all conclude "a novel is as long as it needs to be."

[SPMiller]

There are eleventy billion threads on this matter and they all conclude "a novel is as long as it needs to be."And not a single word longer or shorter.

But to play along a bit, I personally feel that the ideal novel length is about 275 pages in paperback with small font size and reasonable margins. If anyone ever figures out about how many words that is, let me know.

[unicornjam]

And not a single word longer or shorter.

But to play along a bit, I personally feel that the ideal novel length is about 275 pages in paperback with small font size and reasonable margins. If anyone ever figures out about how many words that is, let me know.

If you're going by the 250 words per page, 68,750 words.

[Danthia]

The Swivet did a great post on this a while back. Here's the link. (http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-word-counts-and-novel-length.html)

[ccv707]

Generally, around 100,000 words is a good length. But I hate to hear when people (whether they be other writers, agents, etc.) that a book HAS to be a certain length and there are no exceptions. And I'm not so naive to think that trying to sell a massive ms is either easy or very possible, especially for someone like myself, who has not established a name in the literary community as of yet. That does not mean I'm going to dumb down a story I want to tell that I believe has to be told a certain way. Believe me, I've considered paring some of my manuscripts down, but each time I think about it, I realize that if I did so, I might as well throw the entire ms in the garbage, because it would lose far too much.

I'll transplant something here that I posted from a previous forum...

A few of my completed manuscripts run well over that, as you might see in my signature (that isn't a typo). And it's not that I've filled those books with endless pages of needless descriptions. On the contrary, they deal with dozens of characters over a long period of time and events, so the length, in the end, is justified. I've divided them into separate "acts", which are in and of themselves connected as a single story, but could just as easily be printed as individual books. The first book in that book series, my 3rd ms, is three acts, the second book (4th ms) is four acts, the third book (5th ms) is two acts, so I have a particularly interesting task ahead of me in trying to sell each as a part of a much larger series (it spans 5 books, two of which aren't written yet, made up of 13 total acts) which will probably become 13 individual books if and when they are published.

This isn't to say every ms I write from here on out will be as long as these (in fact they will not be, I've already planned half a dozen new projects and the stories don't call for that), but if it is necessary to get a massive tale told, then there should not be a reason to fear doing what needs to be done. And if you think otherwise, ask the ghosts of Chekov, Dostoevsky, Flaubert, Proust, Faulkner, Mann, and Nabokov if they thought War and Peace or Anna Karenina were too long (they would damn you to hell for saying so). I am not comparing myself to Tolstoy, please don't misunderstand me. I'm merely pointing out that even incredibly long books can work, so long as they're well written.

Most people will still call me insane or simply have a hard time believing that what I've done truly is necessary. Until you've seen it yourself, you cannot know. Just like so many people have probably already said, a book should be as long as it needs to be.

PS...I write on MS Works, 12-point font, Times New Roman, single-spaced, 1-inch margins

[blacbird]

Every agent I've queried has explicitly indicated the word count they want to see from me:

Zero.

caw

[Cyia]

Hang the code, and hang the rules. They're more like guidelines anyway. ...

[Ken Schneider]

I'll say it before Uncle Jim says it.

As many as it takes to tell the story.

Depends on how many books you have in print.

I large word count won't cut it for a first book unless it's a super duper novel.

A short word count won't cut it unless it's a super duper novel.

First time novels come in at around 75,000 to 80,000 words.

Why would I want to publish a big novel from a first timer not knowing how it will sell, and waste my paper.

Or, follow the publisher's guildlines for word count.http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/images/icons/icon12.gif