Monday, July 27, 2009

Know Your Genre's Word Count

Have you done your homework? Lately, I’ve been noticing the progress bars on blogger sites and have wondered if everyone is aware of the expected word count for their genre. Jessica Faust from Bookends blogged about this last week. Here’s a recap:

-For the most part, 80K is a good number. It’s a little long for YA, but she thinks you can still pull it off.

-Mystery: 70-90K

-Romance: 80-100K (except category, check their specific listings)

-Fantasy or SF: 80-125K

-YA: 50-75K

-Women’s Fiction and others: 80-100K (even up to 125K for literary work)

There you have it. Are you on the right track?

23 comments:

  1. These sorts of things are always reassuring...especially since 80k is considered OK for YA now!

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  2. Yep, right on target. :) Nice post!

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  3. Man, I am way off and don't fit anywhere! My WIP is a historical romance and is 70,000. Too short for romance and too long for category. Hhmmmm. Now what?

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  4. It's always nice to have people reminding us of these publishing standards. Thanks.

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  5. It also depends on the publisher you are targeting--I usually check those word counts too:)

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  6. I've been shooting for 100,000 in my romance novels before I read her blog and now I'm thinking 80,000 is MUCH easier to reach. I always felt like 100,000 was a stretch. Right now I have an agent wanting me to make my young adult novel "younger," for a middle grade or even tween audience. So I'm trying to figure the word count on THAT, but I know it's not 80,000! From what I'm reading even 50,000 is too much for middle grade.

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  7. Thanks for posting this reminder. I always et my goal at 80k and try not to go too far above it. That seems to be a sweet spot.

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  8. This is awesomely helpful (as I throw grammer out the window!). I always fear that I'm writing too much or too little, but now I know. :)

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  9. LOL Apparently I'm not, as I'm writing contemporary romance and shooting for 75k. Looks like I need to shoot for a bit longer...Eeek!

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  10. And MG no more than 40,000 words. Since I'm just beginning my YA mystery, while I query my MG, so far I'm on target. :)

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  11. Thanks for posting this. I honestly had no idea where my genre should be, so this is good to know.

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  12. Thanks for putting these up.
    I was aware when I sent my novel in that it was about 2,000 words short of the mystery genre’s minimum (70,000), but I just couldn’t find any more words in me. I compensate by telling people that, “It’s a quick ready.” (lol)
    Ultimately, that did save me when it went to audio book…they couldn’t find a way to abridge it, so they recorded it straight from the manuscript. :)

    I have to say though, as a consumer, a lot of times I’m just looking for a fun read and extremely thick books don’t suggest that. First impressions are important.

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  13. Hmm...I was told in a very nice rejection letter that YA should be no longer than 65,000. (Mine is 85,000.) Isn't it funny how there are so many different opinions out there. I like these guidelines a little better--only 5,000 words to cut, instead of 20,000! :)

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  14. Thanks, Lynette! Is important to know before we get started!

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  15. That is awesome. Of course I am not a writer, but it is very good to know what they are looking for. Very cool post. :)

    PS Thanks for stopping by my blog too.

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  16. Thanks for the reminder Lynette. I think there is a lot of confusion about word lengths. I write category, so word count is a big issue for me!

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  17. Check! Contemp romance is 80-100, and I'm right in that vacinity. I shoot for 100... then scale back, although the one right now I'm shooting for 80 because I'm pretty sure that's around where I'll end up.

    Sherrinda... some of the catagory ones are I THINK like 65-70 for historicals. Don't quote me on that... but I'd check it out:-) Regular historicals are usually around the 100k mark, if not even a little longer. Probably because you have tons of historical facts you have to sprinkle in there:-)

    Ohhh, I was write. I checked it out.

    http://www.eharlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=1186&chapter=0

    (okay, I'll shut up now!)

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  18. Thanks for the post. :) I'm so glad YA word counts have moved up. :D

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  19. It's great to have an expectation, but you also want to write the story as it needs to be written, which may mean it is a little longer or little shorter than average. Great writing overcomes word count any day.

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  20. I have a chick lit that's about 80-82k and a YA that's approaching 75k... someone told me that's too long, but I figure I'll just finish the story as it needs to be told, and see what happens! There seems to be a lot of different opinions as to how long YA novels need to be... so I guess it just depends!

    Thanks for the straight-up look at word counts!

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  21. These are just guides. Obviously, if the book is really great, the publisher won't mind if you are a little under or over the norm. However, I stress A LITTLE over or under. Too much either way and I believe they'll either reject or make you rework the story before accepting it.

    Lynnette Labelle

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  22. Thanks for pointing me over there. I had not been checking the blogs for the past week. Always reassuring to know you are within the range. :)

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