Worrisome Word Count

There a few different ways to measure the length of your novel as you write it, the most common way is word count. I know some authors who count the amount of pages, which is ridiculous considering the format changes when published. But word-count is what a lot of publishers rely on, and it can affect the final decision whether or not too publish.

‘Is it too long?’
‘Is it too short?

Etc...

Crime novels are usually shorter, where as fantasies tend to be longer. The main problem is, what is the ideal length for a novel? There is no straight answer.

If you are a first time author, publishers don’t really want to print a book longer than 110,000 words. Any longer than that and it could get costly. If you already have a good sales record behind you, then they may be ok with extending the word count, but only because they have evidence that your books will sell. Look at the Harry Potter series for example; The Philosopher's Stone was 76,944 words, but The Deathly Hallows was approximately 198,227, with Order of The Phoenix reaching over 250,000 words. When the success of the first books was apparent, the publisher knew they could make their money even with novels of a much larger size. 

The main worry is, that although you may want your book to be longer or shorter, don’t worry about it until you come to editing it. My first book was 110,000 at its first draft. By the time I finished editing, it was 95,000 words. A very decent size for anyone’s first time novel and still acceptable in length for most publishers. I have a novel however that I have not yet edited, and it is 65,000 words in length. I know there are to be quite a few changes, a little cut out and a lot added in, but I’m not thinking about it until I have finished writing my current one which is set to finish at 75,000 words. This is only the first draft and the content, I’m sure will change dramatically.

The point to this blog is to calm everyone down about the ‘word-count’ obsession. Just write the book the way you want to. The first draft is yours; the rest is to make it marketable, to make it ‘reader friendly’. Tell me what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x