If you’re not a thriller author, I won’t keep you in suspense. Thrillers tend to be 70,000 to 90,000 words. Because thrillers are about pulse-pounding action and maybe some character development (especially if it’s part of a series), the word count isn’t massive. That includes scenes like “the hero at the mercy of the villain,” but it also includes book length. But that contract is dependent upon the book’s genre.įor instance, when a reader picks up a thriller, they have certain expectations of what they’re about to read. Word count matters because every book, regardless of genre, has an inherent contract with the reader. The short answer is: long enough to tell the story but short enough to consistently hold the reader’s interest. If you’re writing your first novel or any book, you’re probably asking these questions. But no agent would get to know that because they’d see “Memoir: 270,000 words” and hit delete before reading any further.įor that matter, how long should any book be? How many words are in a typical novel? What’s the ideal book word count? The platform could be as broad as Oprah’s. The life story could be as compelling as Lincoln’s. The prose could be as fleet-footed as Fitzgerald’s. Even if she self-publishes, the cost per copy would be high, and few readers would slog through such a tome - particularly for someone who’s not famous.Īnd no agents or publishers would even look past that number. Soon after I heard someone mention the words in a novel, I held my breathe and let the moment pass.Īs nicely but as directly as she could, she explained to the memoirist that a 270,000-word memoir was excessive.
We gave each other knowing glances, and because I didn’t want to break this poor memoirist’s literary heart, I nodded at Shayla to take the lead.
“My memoir is 270,000 words long.” I heard these words during a breakout session I led at a local writers’ conference.Īn editor friend of mine, Shayla Eaton with Curiouser Editing, was sitting in on the breakout. “How many words in a novel?” is a question many writers ask. How many words per page can you expect in a book?