On Word Counts

This is something I remember struggling with when I first started writing, so you will now be inflicted with a long, boring explanation of everything I know about word counts.

The page: one page is generally considered to be 250 words. This has a vague sort of resemblance to the reality of how many words actually end up on a page, though of course it varies with the actual size of the book, the amount of dialogue, and the current climate of Pluto. Mostly it’s just a convenient rule of thumb.

The page count calculation: to calculate how many pages your manuscript is, divide the word count by 250.

Therefore, a 25k (k being shorthand for thousand, as in 25,000 because I am not writing out all those zeroes every time) novella is about a hundred pages, a 50k harlequin romance is about 200 pages, and an 80k novel is about 320 pages. Got it? Okay.

The meaning of the word count:  generally if you’re in the 500-1,000 word range, it’s considered flash fiction. If you’ve never heard of flash fiction, it’s a lovely thing invented by internet induced short attention spans. If you’re practicing your condescending sneer right now, just think how much skill it takes to pack an entire story into 750 words. Yeah. This stuff is pretty much incredible.

Past that you’re in short story range until you hit about 10k. Then follows the no man’s land of dead manuscripts before novellas begin at 20k. Okay, I kid. I’ve seen places that accept 10-15k as legit short stories, but if your story is 17k you’re screwed.

YA (young adult) novels begin at about 45k. You might get away with 40k if you’re brilliant enough, but mostly you want to get above that 45k, preferably into 50k.

You might note that I am skipping Middle Grade and Picture Books (which I think I am capitalizing for no good reason) but that would be because I know nothing of those subjects and will therefore be ignoring them. I feel like the tone of this post has gotten really formal. Wassuupp, dude? You gots some wooords? Word. 

50-60k is category romance range, which pretty much means ‘things published by harlequin’ (which I seem to be not capitalizing for no particular reason).

Then comes another deserted wasteland, then I think you might get away with a short thriller at 70k, I don’t know, then what I like to refer to as ‘general novel range’ which is around 80k. 80k is pretty much the default length of most books written for adults. There’s variations, of course, but if you just want to know how long your manuscript should be, I’d advise shooting for 80k. That’s pretty much within the spectrum of everything.

Books that include a lot of world building like fantasy, sci-fi, and historical are always going to be slightly longer than others. This is not to say that there isn’t world building (spell check distracted me with thoughts of world boiling, where was I again?) in contemporary, because there is.

You’re bringing the reader into your own version of the current world and introducing them to this particular set of Texan politics in this particular town in Texas, but it’s not on the level of say, a sci-fi, because you can generally trust that your readers know what a ‘rug’ is and that humans need to consume food to survive. Sci-fi writers, on the other hand, have to not only explain Kreut!zn politics, but also what the hell a Ytv&n is and why it needs to grnn*ft every Rept?n.

Once you’re a rich and famous author you can make your books whatever the hell length you want, and most examples you’ll point to that do not fall within these rough parameters can be attributed to the author achieving enough success to hit the do-whatever-the-hell-they-want zone, otherwise known as the J. K. Rowling diagonal.

A note on self publishing: I would highly recommend that you stick to the normal traditional publishing word counts even if you're self publishing. Readers have grown accustomed to certain genres of books being certain lengths, and if you disappoint their expectations they will come after you with pitchforks and torches in the reviews. Not even your mother is going to read the entirety of your 600,000 word contemporary romance, and if you publish your 25k book without specifying it's a novella the good people who paid for it will burn you at the stake on principal. Stick to the normal word counts, at least until you have enough adoring fans that you also cross the aforementioned diagonal.

Let’s see, have I covered everything? Yup, I think that’s everything I know about word count contained in 682 words (now 772 words, because I did some post publication editing).

Finally, a disclaimer: I am not an expert nor do I play one on television. This is simply a collection of things I’ve picked up and stored in my head. Some of it is probably made up and the rest could all be wrong. Honestly, I wouldn't advise listening to anything I write, because it's physically impossible, unless you read it out loud, I think I've gotten off topic. (this is a long, grammatically incorrect and overly punctuated disclaimer) I’m sure I’ve left out all sorts of things I know nothing about, like cozy mysteries and, er, everything that isn’t young adult or romance, basically. Huh. For someone who claims to genre hop, I really don’t seem to vary much in what I actually write. *ponders implications of this epiphany on my life*