Published Books - how long?

I have read a bunch of how to books from Stephen Kings to "will write for shoes"

They vary in advise. Word count seems to be a thing people harp on alot. A new author wishing to get published should have between 80K and 120K words seems to be the common consensus. To short and your dismissed, two long and your dismissed...

What do you all think?

I am working on a urban fantasy/mystery at the moment:

My average chapter length seems to be about 4K words... thats means I need between 20 and 30 chapters in my book. I currently have the summary at 14 chapters and a prologue..this means a book of about 60K words when I am done. Thats 20K to lshort.

do I add more words for the sake of the word cout. Do I not worry about it since upon rewrites I tend to add words any way. Do I just write it out and then worry about word count on second and third drafts...waht do you all think?

Published writers - how long where your first published works?

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Permalink Reply by B.R.Stateham on July 29, 2010 at 2:40pm

Tell the story. When it's done--its done. Keep the word count above 50,000 and below 120,000. Throw all the rules out the window when you become a well known as a Stephen King or James Patterson.

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Permalink Reply by Gwen Hankins on May 15, 2011 at 12:00pm

This is what I have learned: It depends on what publisher you are trying to reach for

With epublishing: You write till the story is done

Publishing is on its ear--that's no surprise for anyone watching the morph. How to handle it? I doubt you hear the same thing twice.

Amanda Hocking became a millionair over night essentially because she had several novels out just before the Christmas everyone got a Kindle. Then Nook. I buy more books since I got my Kindle--even though I love paper and am awaiting a Sue Grafton to the letter "U" set of books that I bought on Ebay since I could never afford it on Kindle. I got the Lincoln Lawyer by Micheal Connelly (who I just in the past few years have become an avid fan). My Kindle allows for regular size print or large size print--for whomever is borrowing it. The nook book is color and has other gidgets and whistles and authors who make children's picture books on Nook seem to be doing very well. I mean the New York times is now rating the top e-books. It's not a new time-its a new world--I'm borrowing that line from a lyric but I don't remember what song. Hmmm that's my take on it. Peace, my new friend.

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Permalink Reply by Steph King on May 23, 2011 at 5:13am

I've been researching this a lot at the moment because I am about to start looking for an agent for my first novel. At the moment, anything over 100,000 is considered a hard sell in traditional publishing for a debut author. There is more wiggle room in epic fantasy, but 90,000 seems to be the sweet spot for most genres. The submission guidelines for the POD and E-publishers seem more forgiving of short length, but there's the question of how much reach they have and how many they will actually sell.

The best post I've found is this one: http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-word-counts-and-novel-leng...

I would worry about it in your second and third drafts, not your first. I added about 15,000 words to mine in revisions, but I fear it is still too short at 75,000. I'm going to try anyway.