{"id":6733,"date":"2022-02-18T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-18T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/townhouse\/articles\/how-many-words\/"},"modified":"2022-02-18T14:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T14:00:00","slug":"how-many-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/","title":{"rendered":"How many words"},"content":{"rendered":"

The length of your manuscript matters. Partly, there\u2019s just a crude commercial standard, varying somewhat by genre, as to how long a book needs to be. Subject to one major qualification (more on that later), the crude commercial standard is a thing of iron. You need to live within its constraints, or not be published.<\/p>\n

But also \u2013 word count has a kind of Zen quality. Every story has an ideal weight. If the length of your manuscript is wrong for the story, then your manuscript won\u2019t work even if, technically, you fall inside the publishing industry\u2019s demands.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with the Crude Commercial Standard.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every market for books has a set of largely standard prices. In the US, for example, a standard hardcover novel will retain at about $25. The same book with paper covers will sell at about $16-17.<\/p>\n

The cost of manufacturing a 200-page book is very largely the same as manufacturing a 400-page one. Most of the actual cost of the book lies in things like the author\u2019s advance, the editorial process, the publicity and marketing, and so on, most of which are largely independent of length. That\u2019s the main reason why price doesn\u2019t vary much with quantity.<\/p>\n

But customers don\u2019t think like that. If a customer notices that Someone Dies on a Train by Chris Agather is 400 pages long and selling for $25, they\u2019ll resent paying the same price for the 200-page Someone Dies on a River by Aggie Christopher. Readers will buy the first book and ignore the second, while the latter\u2019s publisher will learn not to put out a 200-page book.<\/p>\n

At this point, most actual readers will want to scream at me that some of their favourite books are very short. And OK, they are. But the customer hesitating between Someone Dies on a Train and Someone Dies on a River doesn\u2019t know much about the quality of either book. The one certain piece of data is that the longer book will deliver more hours of reading than the shorter one \u2013 and for the same price. So (subject to the big qualification we\u2019ll come to later) very short books don\u2019t sell. They, mostly, aren\u2019t even published.<\/p>\n

Following this logic, the Crude Commercial Standard therefore says that commercial novels need to be a minimum of 70 or 75,000 words to sell. Literary novels might start a bit smaller \u2013 say, 60,000 words or even 50,000. Nevertheless, the damn things need enough heft to satisfy the reader\u2019s demand for value.<\/p>\n

The CCS doesn\u2019t really have a firm upper end. There are sites on the internet which will tell you that 120,000 words is a hard upper limit, but it really, truly isn\u2019t. My first book was more than 180,000 words long when published. The entire editorial process with HarperCollins didn\u2019t shave more than a few thousand words from the original manuscript \u2013 and that shaving came mostly from me, not them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Likewise, epic fantasy fiction is meant to run long. Plenty of big historical fiction runs long. Plenty of thrillers run long. And of course, children\u2019s and YA books run short. In every case, you just need to figure out how the CCS affects your particular market.<\/p>\n

OK. So much for the basics.<\/p>\n

The more Zen point is this<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

A professional reader \u2013 a Jericho editor, a skilled mentor, or a literary agent \u2013 will be able to read a synopsis and feel how long the book should be. Some stories feel like 80,000 words ones. Others feel like they need 120,000 words or more.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t pretend that this is an exact science, but it\u2019s a real one all the same. I remember once reading a manuscript which was really good. A love story, with some extra trimmings, set in a great location, with good characters and some strong writing. That story should have been easy to sell. But it was 120,000 words long and the (fairly simple) story called for 80,000 words, or 90,000 tops.<\/p>\n

I told the author to delete text without removing content. That feels like a puzzling instruction \u2013 but I meant it literally. If you have five sentences of description about (say) a Victorian horse-market, you will almost certainly find that you can convey all the relevant atmosphere in three. If you have four paragraphs describing a rail journey from Vienna to Trieste, you can probably handle that in one or two. Authors who tend to the prolix, will also find that an eighteen-word sentence can be reduced to twelve without actually saying anything materially different.<\/p>\n

The mantra has to be, \u201cReduce length, maintain content\u201d. If you do that, you\u2019ll find you actually enhance your content, because you\u2019ll be deleting the least effective words \/ sentences \/ paragraphs, so the impact of what\u2019s left will be all the greater.<\/p>\n

(I should also say that although it\u2019s much more common for people to need to cut their work, it can operate the other way round as well. Sometimes a writer delivers a book that\u2019s fine \u2013 just too short. Journalists in particular, trained in being sparing and factual, are especially guilty of this. The trick here, once you\u2019ve recognised the issue, is to figure out where the book is missing. It\u2019s often textural stuff: descriptions of place, of feeling, of character nuance.)<\/p>\n

The author of that 120,000 word book struggled at first to do what I\u2019d asked. The manuscript came back with maybe 2,000 words shaved off it, then \u2013 after I\u2019d yelled at her again \u2013 another 5,000 words.<\/p>\n

It was only after the book went out to agents, secured plenty of interest, but no firm offers of representation that the writer sat down and really properly addressed what I\u2019d asked her to do originally. The book came down to well below 100,000 words, and it wasn\u2019t just shorter, it was denser, it was better, it was richer, it was more alive. That book secured an agent and, subsequently, a book deal. It deserved to.<\/p>\n

The book had found its proper weight and, at its proper weight, sold easily.<\/p>\n

Oh yes, and the one big qualification when it comes to the Crude Commercial Standard?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Simple. The better the book, the less the CCS matters. If you are an author of genius, then write whatever the heck you want. The market will find a way to sell it.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s it from me. Please don\u2019t die on either a train, or a river, but if you do choose to do either thing, make sure you are travelling in the company of a portly Belgian detective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The length of your manuscript matters. Partly, there\u2019s just a crude commercial standard, varying somewhat by genre, as to how long a book needs to be. Subject to one major qualification (more on that later), the crude commercial standard is a thing of iron. You need to live within its constraints, or not be published.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-harrys-friday-email"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJericho Writers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How many words – Jericho Writers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The length of your manuscript matters. Partly, there\u2019s just a crude commercial standard, varying somewhat by genre, as to how long a book needs to be. Subject to one major qualification (more on that later), the crude commercial standard is a thing of iron. You need to live within its constraints, or not be published.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jericho Writers\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-18T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Harry Bingham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@JerichoWriters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@JerichoWriters\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Harry Bingham\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Harry Bingham\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a\"},\"headline\":\"How many words\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-18T14:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/\"},\"wordCount\":1104,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Harry\u2019s Friday email\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/\",\"name\":\"How many words – Jericho Writers\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-18T14:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How many words\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\",\"name\":\"Jericho Writers\",\"description\":\"Getting you published\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Jericho Writers\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png\",\"width\":512,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"Jericho Writers\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/JerichoWriters\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jerichowriters\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/jericho-writers\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCcs1qhjwLR6bQYDR2x3PbOw\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a\",\"name\":\"Harry Bingham\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Harry Bingham\"},\"description\":\"Write novels and non-fic. I've published trad & self-pub. Love both. Best known for my Fiona Griffiths crime series. Oh yes, and I'm the capo di tutti capi at Jericho Writers.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/author\/harryjericho\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jericho Writers","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"How many words – Jericho Writers","og_description":"The length of your manuscript matters. Partly, there\u2019s just a crude commercial standard, varying somewhat by genre, as to how long a book needs to be. Subject to one major qualification (more on that later), the crude commercial standard is a thing of iron. You need to live within its constraints, or not be published.","og_url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/","og_site_name":"Jericho Writers","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters","article_published_time":"2022-02-18T14:00:00+00:00","author":"Harry Bingham","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@JerichoWriters","twitter_site":"@JerichoWriters","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Harry Bingham","Estimated reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/"},"author":{"name":"Harry Bingham","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a"},"headline":"How many words","datePublished":"2022-02-18T14:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/"},"wordCount":1104,"commentCount":2,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Harry\u2019s Friday email"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/","name":"How many words – Jericho Writers","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-02-18T14:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/how-many-words\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How many words"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/","name":"Jericho Writers","description":"Getting you published","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#organization","name":"Jericho Writers","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/cropped-footer-logo.png","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Jericho Writers"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jerichowriters","https:\/\/x.com\/JerichoWriters","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jerichowriters\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/jericho-writers\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCcs1qhjwLR6bQYDR2x3PbOw"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/#\/schema\/person\/34f531ec178a2b069ca3debe26c60e5a","name":"Harry Bingham","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/harry-bingham_avatar-96x96.jpg","caption":"Harry Bingham"},"description":"Write novels and non-fic. I've published trad & self-pub. Love both. Best known for my Fiona Griffiths crime series. Oh yes, and I'm the capo di tutti capi at Jericho Writers.","url":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/author\/harryjericho\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6733\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerichowriters.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}