I'm writing a chick lit novel that I wish to publish soon. Does anybody know how important is word count to publishers?

I'm writing a chick lit novel that I wish to publish soon. Does anybody know how important is word count to publishers? I've heard that an average chick lit novel has 100.000 words.

I want to know if literary agents and/or publishers take in account the word count (I mean if it's as important as the plot, for instance). Asked by chimita 50 months ago Similar questions: writing chick lit publish important word count publishers Arts > Writing.

Similar questions: writing chick lit publish important word count publishers.

Some have fairly specific guidelines. While my unpublished novel isn't exactly chick lit, the agents and editors I've spoken to seemed to agree that a novel from an unpublished author should be between 100,000 and 120,000 words, and if you go outside those limits you need to have an exceptional reason why you couldn't edit the story to fit that length. As they never get tired of saying, agents and editors receive far more manuscripts than they could ever hope to publish, and they have to weed them out somehow.

You should narrow your list of possible agents and editors down to the ones that might publish your type of story. Then you can usually find their guidelines on their web sites. These might say specifically what word counts they want.

This site has lots of useful information: writersmarket.com/ More important than the number of words is making sure that every word carries its weight and does useful work. You shouldn't add a bunch of unnecessary words to boost your word count, nor should you trim vital words just to get under some arbitrary limit. If you need to add or subtract to hit a word count range, you might do it by eliminating a character entirely, if that person isn't really pivotal to the plot.

Or you might add a leg to the journey if it would serve to bring out some aspect of one of the central characters. As a general rule, you should never use more words than are necessary to make your point. From what I heard at the conference I attended, another consideration more important than word count is your plan to write a second, third, and fourth novel.

First novels usually don't sell many copies, and a publisher usually won't make any money off an author until the third or fourth book. Agents and editors will be less likely to invest time and money in you if they think you are a one-book author. They want to know that you are possessed with a passion to write, and that you will have a long and productive career.

They don't want to spend their limited time with someone merely exploring a hobby or a pastime. Hope this helps. Bannned's Recommendations Your First Novel: A Published Author And a Top Agent Share the Keys to Achieving Your Dream Amazon List Price: $16.99 Used from: $7.50 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 10 reviews) Video .

Word count... is not as important as plot, characterization, and your general ability with story-telling BUT... if you can't come up with at LEAST 75,000 to 80,000 words, it simply won't make a book--it'll be skimpy. Harlequin romances run about 188 pages, published, and as I recall, they've got a 85,000 or so word count. Customers have a perception of value with the size of a book, and you can write a terrific story--but if it looks the size of a chilren's book, the publisher isn't going to want it.

Let's put it this way--FIRST is going to come the quality of the MS itself. But the book still has to be saleable, and part of that is wordcount. In general, publishers would rather deal with longer word counts, because it's easier to cut, in general, than to add more.

Sources: Personal experience with over 10 years in various aspects of the publishing industry. NancyE's Recommendations Writers Market 2007 (Writer's Market) Amazon List Price: $29.99 Used from: $4.31 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 26 reviews) This is a place to get LOTS of valuable information on the industry.

What I've read Chimita: Only authors like Tom Clancy can actually get away with writing novels that are upwards of 120,000 words because the printing cost goes up so astronomically vs. the profits per book... Most genre novels are actually around 70,000 words. But I wouldn't worry too much about paring down your word count. Once you find a publisher they and/or your agent will negotiate with you as to how to trim it down.

Inevitably you'll be doing a pretty thorough rewrite before they are ready to go to print with it.

This is not that important, this is just an average. This is not that important, this is just an average. Just take a look to your own novels and you will see that the number of pages diverge widely, if this is for the pages, what can we say about the words?

Its a diferent matter if we are talking about a writers contest, in this case the word count is very important to make the contest fair for everyone. Sources: In my Opinion .

1 Publishers don't want to know how many pages you think you've written. They look at word counts. Most major word processing programs have a word count function that you can use, and while they aren't a 100 percent accurate, they work well enough for estimates.

The length range for a novel these days is anywhere from 20,000 words (or 40,000 depending on who you talk to,) to infinity and beyond.

Publishers don't want to know how many pages you think you've written. They look at word counts. Most major word processing programs have a word count function that you can use, and while they aren't a 100 percent accurate, they work well enough for estimates.

The length range for a novel these days is anywhere from 20,000 words (or 40,000 depending on who you talk to,) to infinity and beyond.

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I am looking for the name and author of a chick lit book...

Am I correct in thinking that when I'm writing the word "navy" I do not capitalize, but when I'm writing "the U.S. Navy.

I'm writing a fantasy book series, and I want to publish it through the best which is Tor.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.