Word Count.
Short answer- yes.
You've written a great story. It has everything. It's polished and perfect. Your beta readers love it. But for some weird reason no agent is showing interest in your 460,000 word Middle Grade romantic suspense.
Hmmm... If you're anything like me, in times of trouble you turn to research.
An exhausting, if not exhaustive, search shows that there are pretty clearly outlined guidelines for word count by genre and age group.
Picture books: 0-1000 words
Chapter books: 5,00-15,000
Middle grade: 20,000-60,000
YA Contemporary: 65,000-85,000
YA Fantasy: 70,000-100,000
Historical: 80,000-120,000
Romance: 50,000-90,000
Suspense: 80,000-100,000
Mystery: 80,000-100,000
SF/F: 80,000-120,000
There's more- just google.
Well, we could start with the idea that fans of a genre have certain expectations associated with the genre. A romance that is only 10,000 words might not be enough to get us through a day at the beach. Your middle grade reader may be intimidated by a book that's so heavy they can't lift it, and skip it instead. We don't want to judge a book by its cover, but we may judge it by the girth of its spine.
True story.
Not only does writing a book that doesn't confirm to genre expectations mess with potential readers, it may make an agent shy away too.
A thriller that clocks in at 150,000 words- maybe a pacing problem.
An epic fantasy at 60,000- you may not have the world building typical for the genre
Word count can raise flags for an agent before they read the first page. And even if you make it past the first page it may be hard to get a publisher to take the gamble. Longer books are more expensive to print. And if you are unproven from a sales perspective a shorter book may give you an edge... but too short isn't great either.
Wait, wait, wait. All hope isn't lost yet. There is always a beautiful thing called revision.
Too short? Maybe you can world build, or add an exciting subplot.
Too long? Edit out unnecessary details, or clean up your pacing.
Everything is perfect just as it is? Cool.
Maybe you've actually got a trilogy on your hands, or the prequel novella to a series. Maybe this just isn't your debut novel. Write something else, conquer publishing, and then, when the world is clamoring for more, you can unleash all 800,000 words of awesome on them.
Happy writing,
B
1 comment:
That's a useful breakdown. I also enjoyed the humour in your post.
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