Coming Up Short (or Long) on Word Count

Question of the day: I'm an aspiring author and I was wondering how many words are in your novel The One I Want. I know it shouldn't really matter and I should write until I feel the story is finished but I'm just curious of how many words are in best-selling novels.

Actually, word count does matter, so don't sell yourself short! (I meant with your question, but I suppose with your manuscript as well.) :) 

How long your manuscript is depends on your genre. YA is shorter (I believe it's about 50k, but I don't write it, so someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), historical fiction can be longer (upward to 120k), and most commercial fiction comes in somewhere around 80-100k (usually in the middle - 100k is on the long side, especially for a debut). 

And these word counts matter for a few reasons. A) if you query an agent and say that your novel is 140k words, he or she is going to suspect that you don't know how to properly edit yourself. On the flip side, if you come in way too short, he or she is going to suspect that your book isn't meaty enough. With a few exceptions, it's awfully hard to ask book buyers to pay full price for a less than full-page book. B) Word count matters because it should - at least ideally, once you've gotten the writing process down - help you determine the arcs and beats of your book. What I mean by this is that I know - given that my books generally come in at about 90k or so words - that at around 30k words, I need something to happen in the plot that generates a big conflict that my characters will solve for the rest of the book. And that at about 45k words, I need something else major to happen. At at about 65k words, I need the character to slowly start building to resolution. And at about 80k words, that resolution starts crystalizing. Etc. It's not that I write by numbers, but any author will tell you that writing a good book has a lot to do with the architecture of that book - i.e, you don't just put words down on a page, you put them down strategically, so they build upon each other and lead to the big payoff.

If you're struggling with either paring down or bulking up your word count, I'd suggest plotting out an outline - you can figure out the beats and where you want/need to hit them, and then fill in your plot accordingly. Also, please, please remember that good and smart editing is as important as good and smart writing - if a passage or chapter doesn't truly add to the overall story, axe it.

Good luck! Readers - do you use word count to guide you as I do or do you more or less just write and know that you'll end up at the right point?

Comments

[Kristan]

From what I've read, I think 50k is on the short end for YA. 60-80k is a more comfortable range. Fantasy and paranormal tend to run on the longer end, while contemporary tends to run shorter.

Of course there are exceptions to everything -- Nicholas Sparks's breakout The Notebook was only 51k, I believe -- but that doesn't mean that's where you aim. I think for every book you try to balance between establishing the framework/architecture and following the story.

I do find outlining the major turning points to be really helpful. I'm not this regimented, but the other day at Writer Unboxed, Anne Greenwood Brown had a great post about how to "kick out a fast first draft," and it's definitely worth a shot for writers seeking more structure: http://writerunboxed.com/2011/06/29/kicking-out-a-fast-first-draft-2/