How Long Should a Book Be?
And how to get there.
Of all the questions I’m asked about writing how long should a book be? is right up there at the top. It comes up so often.
Often, it comes up because someone’s already written 120,000 words and they’ve got their fingers crossed that I’ll tell them that’s no big deal.
Or they’re hoping I’ll tell them that 40,000 is plenty long enough for a novel.
In theory, your book should be as long or short as it needs to be in order for you to tell your story.
And if you’re self-publishing, it really is that easy.
But if you plan on trying to be traditionally published, there are guidelines that are important to know and understand. Because agents and publishers use your book’s length as a way to decide whether or not to pursue your project.
Here’s the thing: Agents and Editors get gazillions of submissions every year. They actually take on a tiny percentage of them. Like, less than ten percent. So, they need a way to quickly weed out what they don’t want.
Manuscript word count is one of those ways. They know they won’t be able to sell a debut novel that’s 120,000 words or 40,000 words very easily, so they just pass.
