Should I count the I?

[Scott R. Forshaw]

I'm currently 50,000 words into my latest WIP, but I'm writing as the first person, (through the eyes of my protagonist.) Upon performing my latest word count, a question thrust itself upon me. If I was to submit to a publisher, would I give them the complete word count? (Including the oh-so many I's I've managed to use,) or would I discount them as they are a single letter word? How important do you feel it is to disclose such information?
Thanks in advance.

[Hex]

Um. Why wouldn't you count 'I'?

[alchemist]

It's a pronoun and it's a word, so it counts.

As for being honest, I presume they do at least a limited check themselves. Not that they mistrust you, but different programmes count in different ways. So I'd suggest honesty.

[Peter Graham]

would I discount them as they are a single letter word? How important do you feel it is to disclose such information?

These things are traps for the unwary. When calculating your word count, you must ignore all pronouns, all proper names and all prepositions (words like under, on etc) aswell as all single letter words (a and I, but also O! if you are writing 19th century romance). This is one of the many fixed rules of writing, but agents don't tell us as it gives them an excuse to reject our work.

I also ignore all words that have come into English via French, Greek or Latin on the basis that they cannot be proper English words and merely pollute the purity of the tongue. But that's just personal preference - not a rule as such.

Agents will usually say in their submission guidelines if they need to know the wordcount, but I think it's pretty good practice nonetheless. For one thing, it shows you have actually finished!

Regards,

Peter

[The Judge]

Er... the reason agents want to know word count, is so they have an idea of how big the book is going to be, which in turn they want to know as it has a bearing on how publishable the book is -- under 60,000 and over 200,000 words and the SFF market may not want you (not in a single volume anyway). Now, I can see that a m/s littered with a lot of "I" may be marginally smaller in page count than one with all "he" and proper names once it's actually printed out, but I really don't think it's the kind of difference that anyone's really concerned about, do you?

In any event, you round the figures -- as you have in your opening post. You haven't written exactly 50,000 words, as opposed to something like 49,983 or 50,024 have you? See? And don't start fretting about whether you round up or down or whatever. Outside of the competitions where word count is strictly monitored, the odd thousand isn't relevant.

[HareBrain]

And don't listen to Peter, anyone. I submitted my epic trilogy to a short story magazine, following his wordcount guidelines, and barely escaped with my life. (Mind you, I'd also left out misspelled words, on the grounds that they weren't proper words at all.)

[Scott R. Forshaw]

Thank you for the replies, folks. I only wanted clarification on the subject; I had a niggling feeling that I may have been cheating by their inclusion, but it seems not.
Thank you, once again.

[Peter Graham]

Originally Posted by HareBrain

And don't listen to Peter, anyone. I submitted my epic trilogy to a short story magazine, following his wordcount guidelines, and barely escaped with my life. (Mind you, I'd also left out misspelled words, on the grounds that they weren't proper words at all.)

Perhaps this is why my seventeen volume history of the Graham family, written in authentic Old English, is finding so little favour with publishers.....

[HareBrain]

Originally Posted by Peter Graham

Perhaps this is why my seventeen volume history of the Graham family, written in authentic Old English, is finding so little favour with publishers.....

If you called it "Graham Crackers" you could tap into the serial market ...

[I, Brian]

So far as I understand it, agents may ask for a word count, but then do their own anyway, according to their own black art methods.

[Interference]

Using Peter's method, my 150,000 word novel is now a 50 word synopsis. I'm thinking of adding some chapters and entering it in the 75 word challenge.

[Peter Graham]

Originally Posted by HareBrain

If you called it "Graham Crackers" you could tap into the serial market ...

It's a great idea, but I'm not sure that one can render "Crackers" in any of the Runic alphabets.

Inter - good idea. I've always wondered why no-one ever got above ten words in that challenge......

Regards,

Peter

[Interference]

They probably used the wrong alphabet.


And "crackers" - isn't that a fissure of speech?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

So far as I understand it, agents may ask for a word count, but then do their own anyway, according to their own black art methods.

No, I think it's the publishers who have arcane methods of figuring out the word count -- methods so dangerous, they fear to release them to writers, in dread that someone might do themselves harm.
.
.
.
.

[TheDustyZebra]

Originally Posted by Interference

They probably used the wrong alphabet.


And "crackers" - isn't that a fissure of speech?

See, then, my Bulgarian pangram WOULDN'T have counted in anyone's word count! It just needed to be rendered as Abernovo wrote it, and we'd have been fine.