Getting conflicting advice about word counts. Basically, what is the ideal word count criteria for an historical fiction/saga type work?
Replies
Jonathan's right about the count that is looked for novels being in the region of 70-90k, but there is an understanding that certain genres demand more words. Sci-fi and fantasy and historicals can be longer, but I would try and err on the side of brevity.
13/01/2012
They say publishers look for a first novel of between 70-90K. That's often a problem with historicals which seem to me to be around 100-120K (my self-pub ended up at 113K).
I get the feeling if they think the book's good enough length is not a major problem though I did hear of one writer's doorstep a prospective publisher got her to split into two volumes.
I'm not sure about the different answers you been given since I'm replying to this on the fly, but I think a good idea would be to write between the lowest and highest word count you've been given, that you can be sure it's fine, unless someone can give a better answer.
Jonathan's right about the count that is looked for novels being in the region of 70-90k, but there is an understanding that certain genres demand more words. Sci-fi and fantasy and historicals can be longer, but I would try and err on the side of brevity.
They say publishers look for a first novel of between 70-90K. That's often a problem with historicals which seem to me to be around 100-120K (my self-pub ended up at 113K).
I get the feeling if they think the book's good enough length is not a major problem though I did hear of one writer's doorstep a prospective publisher got her to split into two volumes.
After she did all the work the deal fell through.
http://cavalrytales.wordpress.com
I'm not sure about the different answers you been given since I'm replying to this on the fly, but I think a good idea would be to write between the lowest and highest word count you've been given, that you can be sure it's fine, unless someone can give a better answer.