What’s the optimum number of words for your novel? How many words should your book be? Does that word count change with genre? Do agents freak out when they see your 120,000 word MS submission?
This is the question that’s often buzzing around my writer’s world. Agents and publishers have always instructed me to keep to around 80,000 words. That advice made sense because two publishing contracts, The Promise and Death in the Mountains were for 80,000 words. So that seemes a sort of standard aspect of publishing contracts. I’ve signed contracts for less words, though. Naples, A Way of Love was for around 30,000 words. Walking Sydney was about 50,000 words.
But for writers who are in the middle of their first drafts, or culling their second drafts, the overall advice from agents is to keep it very tight.
A writer once told me that Lianne Moriarty’s books are around 130,000 words. Personally, I wouldn’t dream of trying to write a 130,000 word book. I’m just not that confident. Even Lianne Moriarty’s first book was apparently 130,000 words. Not sure that we should take Lianne as a yardstick.
Perhaps it’s best not to over-reach with your first book. Stay on point, stay tight, and focused. Make sure you’re snaring your agent with those first five pages. That the story and themes in the body of your book don’t waver. I do know a writer who sent out a first MS submission of well over 200,000 words. Every agent sent her MS back saying her attachment was too long for them even to consider opening. Actually, I know several writers who have experienced this. Keep it tight!
To find out more I wrote to Folio Literary Management’s Jeff Kleinman. Jeff was also our special in-house agent during a recent Art of Writing Retreat.
- Jeff says: Romances and women’s Fiction: 65-85K (women’s Fiction can be longer though)
- Regular novels: 80-120K
- Fantasy: 100-200K
- Many publishing professionals don’t have a problem with longer works as long as EVERY single word is necessary. If you’re not sure every word is necessary, ask a good reader who’s a friend if s/he can cull any words from your opening page. Offer to pay her/him 1 euro for every word culled. There shouldn’t be any.
Know too, that if your word count feels as though it’s going overboard, you can always talk to your agent, or publisher. They plan to make good money out of your fabulous words so they are keen to keep you on track too.
As writers, we work with words, not pages. A page can be muddling when you consider your font size and line spacing. So your work as a writer is always on word count. Try to become accustomed to that. As well as 12 Font and double spacing.
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If you’d like to share any comments or thoughts, I’d be happy to hear from you. Email me directly at lisacliffordwriter@gmail.com.