When does word count matter?
How much do you pay attention to your word count? Are you an author who focuses on writing a certain number of words per day? Do you have a target word count goal for your book? Or do you just write until the book is done and ignore how many words you’ve written?
Whether or not you pay attention to your word count during the initial writing process, once you’ve finished the first draft of your book, you should take a look at the word count. Does it fall within the typical range for your genre? (See below for some word count ranges for specific genres.) If it’s an outlier—whether that be much shorter or much longer—you should pay attention to that word count as you work on revisions for your novel.
If you’re self-publishing, especially if you’re doing only an eBook, it may seem strange to worry about your word count. Since all the words are digital, does it matter how many there are? (Publishers often have specific word counts, so if you plan to traditionally publish your book, you’ll need to pay attention for that reason.)
Maybe you’re thinking that word count doesn’t matter as long as a story is complete. You have a specific story to tell, and you might be able to tell it in just 50,000 words or maybe that story isn’t complete until 150,000 words. Isn’t it the story itself that is important and not how long it is? Yes and no. Why?
The short answer is reader expectations. If you’re reading an epic fantasy, the expectation for rather lengthy novels is accepted because an epic fantasy usually has a lot of characters, massive world-building, and plots where entire countries or worlds are at stake. There’s a lot going on in those books, so we expect them to be lengthy. But if you’re reading a cozy mystery, part of the enjoyment is to read something that is fairly quick (think about curling up with a cup of tea for an afternoon) and where the mystery is revealed without dragging on for too long. (Can you imagine a cozy mystery that’s the same length as one of the Song of Ice and Fire books by George R.R. Martin? Maybe it would be great, but that mystery would have to be really good for a typical cozy mystery reader to stick around through the whole thing.)
Not too long ago, I had an author send me a query for copyediting her middle grade book, which came in at over 100,000 words. I admit that I had to reread that number a few times before comprehending it. A typical middle grade book would be half that word length! (I have a son who is a middle grade reader and although he doesn’t completely shy away from longer books, he’d definitely be intimidated by a book as long as that.) I declined to copyedit the book at this stage, suggesting that she look into hiring a developmental editor to either help cut down the book or turn it into two books.
So what can you do if your book falls outside the expected range for your genre? That’s where a professional editor comes into play. If you’re very far outside the range—especially if it is on the low end—a developmental editor might be the best choice since you’d be making large cuts or large additions to the text. The developmental editor can help you pinpoint areas of your story that need some expansion or areas where you’ve given too much information. When you’re making large changes like that, you want an editor who will be looking at the story level of the manuscript.
If your manuscript is a little over on word count, it might be okay to bring it to a line editor (meaning go to sentence-level editing). During line editing (I provide this service bundled with copyediting), the editor can find ways to tighten up specific sentences. Maybe you have a tendency to overuse adverbs or use phrases that could be cut down to avoid wordiness. For example, instead of writing “He decided to take into consideration the advice he was given,” the editor might cut it down to “He considered the advice he was given.” From 11 words to 7—doing that for lots of sentence adds up to a much lower word count and also just makes it easier to read.
Ultimately, word count ranges aren’t set in stone and many books out there are outliers. But for first-time authors or authors who are just starting to make a name for themselves, fitting into reader expectations will help your book both find readers and keep them. Once you’ve established yourself and have dedicated readers, it’s easier to go outside those expectations.
Word count expectations by genre
Fantasy: This genre has such a wide range of word counts, depending on the sub-genre. An urban fantasy will usually be shorter than an epic fantasy, for example. But typically, fantasy books range from 90–120k words, with epic fantasy going as high as 150k.
Science Fiction: Like fantasy, the sub-genre can make a difference, but 80–115k seems to be typical.
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense: About 70–90k, but mysteries are usually on the shorter side and thrillers could be even a little longer (up to 100k).
Horror: Typically around 80–90k.
Romance: Mainstream romance aims for 70–100k (I’ve also seen 65–80k listed), but sub-genre romance could go as low as 40k.
Historical Fiction: Some of these can be as low as 80k, but there are also sweeping historical sagas that could go as high as 120k or even rival epic fantasy books at 150k.
Memoir: Around 70–90k.
Young Adult: This can depend on sub-genre, but 60–80k is typical, with genres such as YA fantasy on the longer side.
Middle Grade: I’ve seen both 25–40k and 40–50k as range options, but 50k does seem to be the top end for this genre.
If you want to make sure your book fits into the usual word count for your specific sub-genre, do a little research. Find those titles that are most similar to what you are writing and see how long they are. You can go to the Amazon best sellers lists and keep clicking the genre until you get to your sub-genre and then look at the books listed there. You won’t find word count, but you will find page count. Industry standard averages 250 words per page, so just do a little math and get the word count for the books. (It won’t be exact, but it will give you a close approximation.)
Examples in fantasy
As an example, I started with just the general fantasy genre. Here are the page/word counts for a representative sample of some of the books in the top 30 of that genre, in order from shortest to longest:
239 pages (59,750 words)
254 pages (63,500 words)
296 pages (74,000 words)
360 pages (90,000 words)
398 pages (99,500 words)
448 pages (112,000 words)
492 pages (123,000 words)
625 pages (156,250 words)
757 pages (189,250 words)
1232 pages (308,000 words)
All over the place, right? Fantasy is one of those genres that truly does depend on sub-genre. So I narrowed it down to Paranormal and Urban Fantasy and got results that aligned with one another much more (I’m just listing word count here):
63,500 words
63,500 words
76,500 words
91,000 words
99,500 words
105,000 words
106,500 words
107,750 words
109,750 words
110,750 words
123,000 words
Yes, there is a range, but most of them seem settle into the 90–110k range. Let’s compare that with some epic fantasy titles:
123,500 words
165,250 words
188,250 words
189,250 words
196,000 words
308,000 words
That’s a huge difference! Now we’re in the 120k to over 300k range for epic fantasy, and it looks like 160–200k is about average.
So look at the books that are most similar to what you are writing and aim for the average you’re seeing in those titles. And make use of a good developmental or line editor to help you reach that word count goal.
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