A couple of years ago I ordered the bundled ebook of A Game of Thrones. It weighed in at 3936 pages! I’m just thankful I don’t have to lift the book in order to read it. We all hear about mega books and mini books. One of my favorite novels of all time is Helen Hooven Santmyer’s And Ladies of the Club. It has 1176 pages. And of course, who can forget the raised eyebrows when a 350 page debut YA novel was released by an unknown J.K. Rowling? Or even when a blockbuster nonfiction book, The Prayer of Jabez, took the world by storm despite it’s petite postcard size at just 96 pages long.
Looking at those bestsellers it makes sense to conclude that book length hardly matters, right? It’s what’s inside that counts. I recently heard a writer ask a panel of experts a question about book length. One of the panelists smiled and said, “Your book should be as long as it takes to cover your subject or tell the story. Not a word more or a word less.”
That makes for an clever little answer but it’s wrong. Utterly and completely wrong if you are writing for publication
Each genre, each kind of book has an expected size. We expect a children’s picture book to be 32 pages long. If I pick up an historical novel, I expect it to be around 400 to 500 pages long. A skinny historical novel just doesn’t promise the read we’re anticipating. And a hundred-page picture book would overwhelm the average child.
So how long should a book be? There’s a simple answer to this: Look on the shelves of your library or bookstore. Take a stack of books in your genre and record the page length of each one. You’ll get a feel for the average size book in your own particular category or genre.
Here are a few more things to know:
- A quick rule of thumb for estimating printed pages from manuscript word count is that a printed page is usually about 250 words. So a 50,000 word manuscript would net about 200 pages.
- When you sign a contract with a publisher the target word count is usually specified along with the variation allowed. For instance your contract might say 80,000 words plus or minus 15%.
- There is a direct correlation between number of pages and the list price of a book. This is the reason publishers are careful about word count. If you are a debut author would you want your unknown book to be $14.99 when all the other books on the shelf from well-known authors are $12.99? Readers are notoriously price conscious.
- It’s easy to make a case for your book being longer than most in your field and you can certainly point to some of the examples I used in the first paragraph but, trust me, a book outside the normal parameters will have one strike against it when you submit it to a potential agent, a second strike against it when being considered at a publishing house and the third strike at the cash register. Is it worth it to keep trying to peddle that 150,000 word novel?
- By the same token, a 75 page book is more like a pamphlet. It won’t have a wide enough spine to even carry the name of the book. And buyers will expect it to be ninety-nine cents or even free.
- As you continue to write in your category or in your genre you’ll come to sense the rhythm and movement of your book and the word count will almost come naturally.
- Sometimes a certain subject will necessitate a shorter length. For instance books on grief tend to be shorter because a person walking through loss finds it difficult to concentrate for long periods. Books on caregiving are short because there’s precious little time left in a day for a full time caregiver. But you’ll observe these unique trends by doing your shelf research. Always point out the reason in your proposal– it will show a real grasp of your readers’ needs.
I could create a rough list of expected word counts for you but I’m not going to do it because it is important for you to do the work of analyzing the books in your field, in your category or in your genre. Until you begin to understand what the reader has come to expect, it’s very difficult for you to create a commercially viable book.
And here’s an insider secret: We professionals can judge if you’ve done your homework and know your market by your word count. When someone comes to us with woman’s fiction at 60,000 words, we know they have a steep learning curve ahead of them.
So now it’s your turn. Does it bother you to hear the words “commercially viable?” Does it stifle creativity to have to conform to a word count expectation? Should you worry about word count on your first draft? If your book is too long, how do you cut? How about paragraph lengths?
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To Rewrite or Not to Rewrite
Can we say we know Him
through the prophet’s tales?
Is He found in the epistles slim
that Paul wrote from his jails?
To find His heart, His essence
must leap from Bible pages
and give to us His presence
to ring through darkling ages.
It was left to the beloved John
that he might with grace evoke
the love that we depend upon
in a single grass-hand stroke.
Our Lord’s care for us is kept
in just two words: “Jesus wept.”
‘grass-hand’ refers to a kind of Japanese calligraphy that has a very natural and free appearance that is the product of years of training and practice.
Many years ago, I was talking with a university professor who had been asked to write a commentary on a particular book of the Bible. He was discussing the constraints he had to deal with because the publisher wanted ALL of the commentaries to have a uniform size and shape. To think that one can fit a credible commentary on Psalms or Isaiah into a book spine that also fits Philippians or Colossians is asinine. I understand the desire for the books to look pretty when aligned on the bookshelf, but they also need to be useful. I’d not purchase a commentary set like that.
Do commercial word count demands stifle creativity … at first, yes, yes they do. I run a writer’s camp and also volunteer with your writers in the public school system and I have learned not to mention word count until a young writer has several manuscripts under their belt or is wanting to start working toward getting something published. At the beginning, writers need to write, write, write! When we did a short story class, with the goal of submitting a piece, we talked about word count and looked at the magazine’s requirements. But I told the kids they could just submit to me and not worry about it, if the words were flowing and they didn’t want to submit to the magazine. Older writers who are new need to get a manuscript completely finished, perhaps several, before buckling down and looking at the market requirements. They need time to hone their craft and delight in creation. But once a writer has their eye on publication, yes, they need to learn the beauty of creating to a specific form. If they choose to break the standard format, they need to know how they are going to offset that disadvantage in their story! I have watched all 3 of my sons blaze through a trio of 1,000 page books. Yes, each book is over 1,000 pages long and the author wasn’t published for years because of just that. But my 12-year-old finished half of the first book (yes, that would be 500 pages) in a single sitting! The author made up for the length with intrigue, characters, and epic action. Anyway, all that to say yes and no, ha! It can stifle creativity at the beginning, but can become a source of creativity with time. Although, the exceptions are always fun.
Knowing the expectations for your genre is essential, as you say, Wendy. But looking at physical copies of the books in your genre can be misleading.
*Numerous formatting choices can make a 65K-word book look like an 80K-word book or 80K look like 100 in terms of the number of printed pages. Does every chapter start on the right-hand page? That could add 30-50 pages to a book with many chapters, all ending on the right-hand page. What is the font size? More subtly, what is the line spacing? What is the margin? If there are different scenes within a chapter, what spacing is used between the text and the scene flourish or the small symbol, like a diamond, that is used for POV changes within an extended scene? So many variables that the publisher controls can change the final page count.
*E-book file size might seem like it would be a better indicator, but if there’s a map at the front (not uncommon in historical novels), a photo of the author, or images at the back where other books by the author or publisher are advertised, file size will be inflated by the images.
Perhaps appropriate:
“Preach the Gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.” St. Francis of Assisi
And use exactly the right number of them!
Not one more, nor less.
Thank you so much, Wendy! Such good reminders. This actually reminds me of a 20 mile backpacking trip we took with our three sons. My middle son packed a 1,000 page (400,000 words) Brandon Sanderson tome in his already heavy pack. I took it away … and he settled for the much smaller 600 page book. He lugged that thing all twenty miles and definitely enjoyed reading in his tent. But, such books really are not great for backpacking, ha!