If you are looking for a traditional publisher, it is also important to note that different publishers may be looking for different minimum word counts. On the flip side, if your manuscript is what they consider to be too long, the publisher may ask you to cut some of it out.
During the process of writing my first book, I read articles and spoke to people in the industry that suggested that a new, unknown author keep their first novel short, for a couple of reasons.
First of all, many publishers are looking for shorter novels for untested authors due to cost and so on, and longer novel lengths are typically reserved for authors who have already proven themselves.
For the first edition of my novel, then, I kept it short at about 60, words. However, I felt it needed more fleshing out, and this thought was echoed in a review or two of the book. When I decided to hire a graphic artist to do the book covers for the entire series, I also decided to re-do the cover of the first book so that the series would look more uniform. This would mean publishing a second edition, and I took this opportunity to develop my story a little more. I would strongly suggest that if your novel is sub, word count, you seriously consider expanding.
Though novellas have their place, they are very difficult to sell to book publishers and you will find it hard to secure agent representation with a novella. So, as a rule of thumb the average word count in a novel is between 80, to , words.
Saying this, if you do want to go down the novella route, here are 33 book publishers and journals seeking novellas. Novellas can be used to start author's careers but not so much nowadays.
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. Within the publishing industry we tend to talk about the length of a book in words rather than in pages.
Typically, a book that is published in paperback format at a length of pages will come in between 80, and , words. Too far over this and agents and publishers might be worried about pacing, or how much editorial work the book will need. There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. So try to stick to the conventions. Ed McDonald, author of Blackwing and Ravencry , has written and spoken a lot about how to write and get published, including being realistic about the length of your work.
Admittedly, his perspective is for the fantasy market, but his advice easily works across all genres. This can vary depending on the genre or age range you are writing in, but generally for adult trade fiction you want 80k to be your lowest possible length.
Interestingly, work has also been done which suggests the ideal chapter length is between and words. View all posts by Claire. This was fascinating. Like Like. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account.
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