McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

editor's wordcount (as opposed to actual wordcount)

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Starbeam:

--- Quote from: Gruud on August 10, 2009, 05:20:27 PM ---Which is?

--- End quote ---

It varies by publisher, from what I've seen.  DAW had minimum of 80,000.  I don't remember if Tor had an actual number, and Roc was something like 75-125,000.  I don't really pay too much attention at the moment cause I'm still a long way from finishing my story, and even then, there's going to be a lot of rewriting and revising.  Don't think I'd submit straight to the publishing company anyway.

LizW65:
I've gone back and checked the post I was commenting on, and it looks like I misinterpreted what was said:  Apparently Avon books encourages, or used to encourage, a wordcount of 120,000, which fits quite neatly into 384 pages, and for a while all their books were formatted to meet the 384 page requirement.  Don't know where I saw the post about editors not accepting anything longer, but it wasn't there.

EmmettSpain:
Hey! From what I understand each publisher is different, but a common expectation of length from a first novel is 80,000 to 120,000 words. They tend to look at it that way so they can keep their publishing costs within a certain area.

I can tell you for a fact, though... publishers won't really care if it's a bit longer if it's got a good, strong selling proposition. At the end of the day a publishing house is a business, pure and simple. If you can convince them that what you've got will sell copies, then they'll be all over it...

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