Can You Have Your Cake and Eat It Too?

We are told time and time again that our writing must be tight, concise and driven. Each word should carry meaning and add to the sentence and scene. It is for this reason that we scrutinize our manuscripts during the revision and editing process; hacking away the words that don't carry their weight. Entire paragraphs are laid to waste with the single stroke of a red pen.

Once we have completed this task and tortured our poor manuscripts to the very edge of their existence we step back and admire the diamond we made from the lump of coal we started with. It gleams with a shine only the sun can match. We are proud of the work we have completed and the goal we have accomplished. After a bit of revelry we move on to the next task at hand; getting it published. This is when we discover an awful truth.

We worked so hard making our manuscripts sharp and polished only to discover through research, conversation or letter that it doesn't measure up. The truly painful aspect about this is that the story is strong, the characters have depth and the writing is solid but the manuscript is not long enough. What? How is that? I spent weeks honing my story only to find out it is too short. What is there left to do? What options are there for me to fix this? Your only option is to go back and add words. Be mindful that those added words need to be concise and add to the novel which is not an easy task at this stage.

I don't know if you have ever experienced this but it seems to be a paradox; a game of cat and mouse if you will. There are publishers out there that require your manuscripts to be a certain word count (typically a minimum of 60,000 words from what I've seen and this was for small publishers). There are agents who think you need to work on your skills if your book is not of a certain word count. In the case of the large publishers there are required word counts for each genre. Yes, that surprised me. Why is that?

I discovered that the large publishers set a standard for themselves. If readers buy books from them that are a certain length then that is what they want to deliver. They fear a shorter book will cause the reader to think they did not get their monies worth. Is this true? If your story delivers the goods will the length of it really matter? In a way I can see their logic in this thinking but is the word count something they should put this much emphasis on or is it something more telling about the story itself?

What is the accepted length (or word count) for genres? Keep in mind, since we are new authors I'm focusing on the word count for debut novels. Here is a general guideline taken from the Guide to Literary Agents blog post prepared by Chuck Sambuchino.

Between 80,000 and 89,999 words is a good range you should be aiming for. This is a 100% safe range for literary, romance, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror. Anything in this word count won't scare off any agent anywhere.

Now, speaking broadly, you can have as few as 71,000 words and as many as 109,000 words. That is the total range. When it dips below 80K, it might be perceived as too short—not giving the reader enough. It seems as though going over 100K is all right, but not by much. I suggest stopping at 109K because just the mental hurdle to jump concerning 110K is just another thing you don't want going against you. And, as agent Rachelle Gardner pointed out when discussing word count, over 110K is defined as "epic or saga." Chances are your cozy mystery or literary novel is not an epic. Rachelle also mentions that passing 100K in word count means it's a more expensive book to produce—hence agents' and editors' aversion to such lengths.

In short:

80,000 - 89,999: Totally cool

90,000 - 99,999: Generally safe

70,000 - 79,999: Might be too short; probably all right

100,000 - 109,999: Might be too long; probably all right

Below 70,000: Too short

110,000 or above Too long

Chick lit falls into this realm, but chick lit books tend to be a bit shorter and faster. 70-75K is not bad at all.

You may wonder where SciFi/Fantasy falls into this list; while it doesn't really. SciFi/Fantasy is the exception to the rule because they tend to run long. When it comes to this genre the target word count is 100,000 - 115,000. It is interesting to point out that Young Adults (YA) are popular and also has one of the shortest word count totals coming in at 55,000 - 69,999.

What does it all mean? Well, it means a couple of things. One, we must always remember that this is a business; when publishers and agents look at our manuscripts they are looking at the story, our writing skills but also at the length. If it is to long then it will cost more to publish; to short and we didn't give the readers enough. The cost of publishing is a big one now a days with the recession and economic problems. I believe the small publishers want that 60,000 to 80,000 mark because that is the comfort zone for giving the readers what they want and keeping publishing costs under control; a win-win sort to speak.

I found this to be helpful information but to be honest you have to write with your passion and what is in your head and heart. If that comes out to be 50,000 words then maybe you can take this information and expand your story but if it comes out to be 150,000 then you also know that you may want to cut it back. You can also stick with what you have and not change it at all. The decision is ours because we wrote the story. I will leave you with one final thought from Chuck on this topic:

You have agents like Nathan Bransford and Kristin Nelson who say that you shouldn't think about word count, but rather you should think about pacing and telling the best story possible—and don't worry about the length. Yes, they're right, but the fact is: Not every agent feels that way and is willing to give a 129,000-word novel a shot. Agents have so many queries that they are looking for reasons to say no. They are looking for mistakes, chinks in the armor, to cut their query stack down by one. And if you adopt the mentality that your book has to be long, then you are giving them ammunition to reject you. Take your chances and hope that excellent writing will see your baby through no matter (and I hope it does indeed break through).