Another word count question

[Scarfy]

Hello everyone,

I'm just finishing off another revision of my first novel and I just have a small question.

It's my understanding that the word count for the manuscript should be specified not as the actual count, but the character count.

Given there are about 101 variations on the character count formula (all of which can yield different results) does anyone have a suggestion of the best count to use..?

250 words per page then multiply up by the number of pages..?

My first novel is currently 102,000 words (up from the 75,000 I originally wrote). It's soft science fiction too. Does that sounds the right sort of length for a first novel, if it were part of a trilogy..?

Steve

[Teresa Edgerton]

All you need when sending in a book manuscript to a publisher is an estimated word count, and for that the word count your word processor gives you is fine. (After revisions, the count would be different anyway.)

In the upper right hand corner of the cover page where you put the word count say: About 102,000 words.

Going by what's on the shelves right now, that's a little slender, but a publisher might still be interested. If that's really the right length for the story, you shouldn't pad it out. If there are some places where you feel the writing is a little thin or that a little something is missing ... well, at that length there is some room for expansion.

[Scarfy]

Thanks, Teresa

102,000 is a little slender..? I've read a lot of mixed opinions on message boards about word count... Some say 80,000 is the top for an unpublished writer, others 150,000.

But, yeah, 102,000 is where I'm at the tell the first part of the story. The second book I know would be longer.

[Teresa Edgerton]

A lot of message boards are full of information that doesn't apply to genre fiction -- or if it does, it's outdated.

Look at recent debuts in the field -- which admittedly will only tell you what publishers were buying a couple of years ago -- and I don't think you will see anything at 80,000 words.

Also be wary of anything you read on the internet (yes, even this post). So many sites crib from so many other sites without always giving credit, you can read something in several places and think, "it must be true, I've seen it at so many different sites, repeated by so many different people" but it all traces back to the same place and the same person and the same misinformation. Or it comes from a webpage that was created fifteen years ago and hasn't been updated since, although people are still reading and passing the information on.

Check a book like the current edition of Writers Market, or a magazine like Writers Digest -- sometimes they make mistakes, but they're much more likely to have checked their information before blithely passing it on, and they'll give you information specific to particular publishers -- or ask an agent or editor or other professional in the field; these are the best ways to get accurate information.

[Scarfy]

Ta

I'll see how I get on with 105,000 words... My first draft was 75,000 words which was far too short