| ently spoke to an entrepreneur interested in | | | | my clients has a target audience of hospital |
| working with me to help her complete a | | | | doctors. After interviewing many doctors to find |
| manuscript she'd been trying to finish for several | | | | out what they wanted in the type of book she |
| months. She had some concern about the length, | | | | might write from them and they said the book |
| as all new writers do, and she told me it was | | | | had to be thin, so they could roll it up and put it in |
| about 120 pages. I thought that didn't sound like a | | | | their back pockets to read when they had a |
| lot - but page count can be deceptive since it | | | | moment to spare. So, as you can imagine, her |
| depends on the fonts and line spacing the person | | | | book is not going to be the size of War and |
| used on the file - and I told her as much. When | | | | Peace. |
| she sent me the file I checked the word count. It | | | | On the other hand, you might have an audience |
| came in at just over 60,000 words. In the | | | | that wouldn't take a book seriously if it wasn't a |
| publishing process, depending on the page size of | | | | certain length. "It's not a real book" they might |
| her book and its layout, this book could become | | | | say. It's up to you to figure out if you have this |
| 200-250 pages. That's your average-size book - | | | | kind of audience and whether you have enough |
| maybe even on the big side. And she had no idea | | | | material to satisfy them. |
| she had written so much! | | | | Getting Your Point Across |
| What's Important | | | | The length of your book will also depend on how |
| When you think about book length, always think in | | | | long it takes you to say what you have to say. |
| word count. Consider it the language of the | | | | Ideally your book is planned to do certain things - |
| publishing business. This is easy to figure out | | | | perhaps teach a technique or inspire by telling |
| because most word processing programs will | | | | stories. You could say the book has a mission. At |
| automatically count the text for you. In Microsoft | | | | the beginning you tell the reader exactly how the |
| Word you can have a running count at the | | | | book works and what they will be getting out of |
| bottom of your document's window. | | | | it. Then you write the book until it delivers on that |
| Now, how long should your book be? The | | | | promise. It could take you 35,000 words to do |
| concerns are different for fiction and non-fiction. | | | | that. It could take 60,000. The point is that if |
| With fiction, there are some general numbers | | | | you're trying to pad out the book so it's a certain |
| editors look for: | | | | length, the reader will be able to tell. They'll also be |
| • Novel: 75,000-120,000 words | | | | able to tell if you're shoving a lot of stuff into a |
| • Novella (and this includes many mystery | | | | small number of pages and leaving out key points. |
| books): up to 60,000 words | | | | Either way, the book won't succeed. |
| • Short Story: up to 10,000 words | | | | So, how long should your book be? Unless you're |
| For non-fiction you have a couple of things to | | | | working with an editor who is asking you for a |
| consider: | | | | specific word count, I'd say "as long as the book |
| Target Audience | | | | needs to be". Write the right book. Write your |
| You have to think about who you are writing | | | | best book. Let the folks who have to produce |
| your non-fiction book for, what that audience | | | | print your book figure out the rest. |
| expects and how they will use the book. One of | | | | |