You have questions? Do you constantly miss #askagent sessions on Twitter? Is it impossible, despite a hundred
Google searches, to find an answer to your question? Then you've come
to the right place. Ask a question either on any "Agent Answers" post or
on Twitter, and I'll answer as many as I can. My answers will be
subjective and should not be considered applicable to every agent
(though I do like to assume my opinions are the majority).
A few days ago, I answered a question about rounding your word count--do it to the nearest thousandth. And suddenly I got an influx of people asking about too long, too short, what if this?
I'm going to go on the record here--agents (most of us) hate answering questions about word count. Writers are obsessed. Follow the rules so you know how to break them. Google it. Most agents go with the same guidelines (Colleen Lindsay's post on the subject is a good one, here). One conference I was at this past year, I was on a panel with many other agents, in a huge room filled with hundreds of people. It was open season on the agents--ask anything and we answer. And a few people wasted everyone else's time asking specifics about word count (well, my manuscript is yadda yadda, is 275K too long?). We got tired of it and it became a running joke that most of the writers, but not all of them, got.
I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this. I will most likely reject anything over 140K. I *might* look at something over 110K. I won't look at anything under 50K for any genre. YA runs a little shorter, Adult a little longer, MG shorter still, best selling authors and Diana Gabaldon even longer.
Concentrate on writing the best you can. If that means writing 30K or 400K to achieve that, go for it!
Happy writing!
Showing posts with label word count. Show all posts
Showing posts with label word count. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
Thursday, December 6, 2012
The Agent Answers: Word Count
You have questions? Do you constantly miss #askagent sessions on Twitter? Is it impossible, despite a hundred
Google searches, to find an answer to your question? Then you've come
to the right place. Ask a question either on any "Agent Answers" post or
on Twitter, and I'll answer as many as I can. My answers will be
subjective and should not be considered applicable to every agent
(though I do like to assume my opinions are the majority).
Question: Do you like to be given the exact word count in queries?
Answer: Please don't. It looks amateurish and we don't care that much about those 253 words. Round it to the nearest thousandth. We get the picture from there. So, 60K, 72K, 105K, 193K, etc.
That said, please don't query me with a 193K word project. I will reject you.
Happy writing!
Question: Do you like to be given the exact word count in queries?
Answer: Please don't. It looks amateurish and we don't care that much about those 253 words. Round it to the nearest thousandth. We get the picture from there. So, 60K, 72K, 105K, 193K, etc.
That said, please don't query me with a 193K word project. I will reject you.
Happy writing!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Word Count
I don't believe I've ever had a post yet about word count. Mostly because I assumed writers (those participating online) knew all of that information already. You can find it anywhere.
I just Googled it. BookEnds has a great post here. Colleen Lindsay has laid it out in handy bullet points here. Even Wikipedia puts its two cents in here, by way of a chart to show the word counts for novels, short stories, and novellas.
When reading queries, agents do discriminate based on word length. Even if your query is pretty good, if you're pitching anything over 120k, I'm going to reject it. Only in fantasy or some sci-fi will I look at anything over 100k. On the other side of the coin, I will also reject (most) anything under 60k (including YA--I've mentioned in a previous post here that I prefer longer books; just don't get too long).
If you are a debut author, stick to the guidelines. When you're famous you can do whatever you want.
Based on genres I represent and what I'm looking for, I give you the bullet-pointed list of word counts:
Before you query or pitch, get your word count to a desirable length. Never say in a query or pitch that "I know it's a bit long/short, but I am open to suggestions on how to lengthen/shorten." This your job as the writer--deliver the best product possible. More than once I was being pitched a novel and when asked the word length the writer would reply with the word count while wincing. If you wince when you tell people your word length, you know it's not appropriate. Instead, say that it's not ready to submit and you're aiming for x. Then don't submit until it's edited, polished, as perfect as you, your critique partners, editors, friends, writing guides can make it.
I just Googled it. BookEnds has a great post here. Colleen Lindsay has laid it out in handy bullet points here. Even Wikipedia puts its two cents in here, by way of a chart to show the word counts for novels, short stories, and novellas.
When reading queries, agents do discriminate based on word length. Even if your query is pretty good, if you're pitching anything over 120k, I'm going to reject it. Only in fantasy or some sci-fi will I look at anything over 100k. On the other side of the coin, I will also reject (most) anything under 60k (including YA--I've mentioned in a previous post here that I prefer longer books; just don't get too long).
If you are a debut author, stick to the guidelines. When you're famous you can do whatever you want.
Based on genres I represent and what I'm looking for, I give you the bullet-pointed list of word counts:
- YA contemporary: 60k-90k
- YA fantasy/para/sci-fi: 70K-100k
- Adult para/UF/sci-fi/fantasy: 70k-100k
Before you query or pitch, get your word count to a desirable length. Never say in a query or pitch that "I know it's a bit long/short, but I am open to suggestions on how to lengthen/shorten." This your job as the writer--deliver the best product possible. More than once I was being pitched a novel and when asked the word length the writer would reply with the word count while wincing. If you wince when you tell people your word length, you know it's not appropriate. Instead, say that it's not ready to submit and you're aiming for x. Then don't submit until it's edited, polished, as perfect as you, your critique partners, editors, friends, writing guides can make it.
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