Word count is very important. I should’ve researched word count early on in the writing process. I didn’t. I mistakenly thought that a longer book must be better. When I finally researched it, I learned:
20,000-50,000 words=Novella
50,000-110,000=Novel (most adult novels are 80,000) Over 110,000 words is considered to be an Epic or a sequel. You might want to consider dividing the book into two parts and making it a series. Otherwise—unless you are Stephen King, who will sell no matter what he writes—it’s time to EDIT. The genre also makes a difference. Science Fiction tends to be longer because the writer must build a world. For the most part, if your book is considerably longer than 110,000, it tells an agent/editor that you haven’t learned to EDIT your work.
Knowing this would’ve saved me countless hours of revisions. Once I learned this, I spent the next several months EDITING my books, getting them down to the proper word count. Thus, making them marketable publications.
But, I wasn’t done yet. I still had so much more to learn.
20,000-50,000 words=Novella
50,000-110,000=Novel (most adult novels are 80,000) Over 110,000 words is considered to be an Epic or a sequel. You might want to consider dividing the book into two parts and making it a series. Otherwise—unless you are Stephen King, who will sell no matter what he writes—it’s time to EDIT. The genre also makes a difference. Science Fiction tends to be longer because the writer must build a world. For the most part, if your book is considerably longer than 110,000, it tells an agent/editor that you haven’t learned to EDIT your work.
Knowing this would’ve saved me countless hours of revisions. Once I learned this, I spent the next several months EDITING my books, getting them down to the proper word count. Thus, making them marketable publications.
But, I wasn’t done yet. I still had so much more to learn.
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