Word Count

Here's a good post from Colleen Lidsay about word count:
http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-word-counts-and-novel-length.html

David McAfee said:

What's a good word count for YA? Is there a range that agents/publishers like to try and stay in?

Click to expand...

If you use the search feature on AW (go to the blue bar under where it shows your PM's unread number, and click on search), and searched for wordcount, you'd probably find lots of posts with all kinds of info.

I'd start by looking in (not asking the question, but searching in) the "Ask the Agent" and "Ask the Editor" sections. For instance, I know Jennifer Laughran has said in that section she doesn't pay attention to wordcount.

But here are also just a few editors' and agents' thoughts I could put my fingers on fast:

Colleen Lindsay:
http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/0...rd-counts.html

http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/0...el-length.html

Read through the comments, too, because some have lists of books and word counts, and well at the bottom there are links to others who have linked to the post and commented.


Rachelle Gardner:
http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com/20...ha-moment.html

Nathan Bransford:
http://nathanbransford.blogspot.com/...ord-count.html

Editorial Anonymous:
http://editorialanonymous.blogspot.c...ord-count.html

And, there's always the standby, go to Amazon and look at the books you think are most similar to yours in tone, substance, genre, etc. Look at the wordcounts. And do pay attention to which were debut novels. Because the count for a debut novel is generally shorter than one from a seasoned and known author.

The general rule seems to be the further your wordcount is from the "norm" the tighter (and maybe more innovative/high concept/orginal) the book needs to be.

~suki

50-70K was what I was always told, though you'll see up to 80K on some sites. When I was revising mine for submission, my agent said as long as we kept it under 70K we'd be good.