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| Tips & Advice Share your tips, tricks and advice. |
12-03-2007, 12:37 PM
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#1
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Addict
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Far Away
Gender: Male
Posts: 150
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Total Words
How many word should a book have? I have 7000 for now.
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12-03-2007, 02:59 PM
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#2
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Best Seller
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 570
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For a novel, bare minimum 40,000.
Around 80,000 is the suggested number for first time novelists I think? Unless its fantasy work which tend to be longer. Someone else can clear that up anyway.
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12-03-2007, 05:10 PM
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#3
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Moderator
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Location, Location
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,612
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Nowadays, a fiction novel tends to be 80,000-120,000 words long. There are some notable exceptions that are much longer, and a FEW that are shorter.
In the past, genre fiction tended to be short. Nowadays it tends to be in the same 80,000-120,000 word range, except for fantasy, which has a habit of being a tad on the bloated side (say, 100,000-140,000 words, some up to 170,000, per book--so the inevitable trilogies start in the 300k word range).
Non-fiction varies a lot.
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12-04-2007, 09:01 AM
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#4
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Ink Slinger
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Here, usually
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,041
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Can someone please sticky this? I'm a bit tired of seeing the same question over and over and over again. 
__________________
I have traveled across the universe through the years to find her. Sometimes going all the way is just a start. (Meat Loaf)
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12-04-2007, 09:07 AM
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#5
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Florida
Gender: Male
Posts: 222
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Non Serviam
Nowadays, a fiction novel . . .
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All novels are fiction. 
Here's a general rule of thumb on word count:
Epic: A work of 200,000 words or more.
Novel: A work of 60,000 words or more.
Novella: A work of at least 17,500 words but under 60,000 words.
Novelette: A work of at least 7,500 words but under 17,500 words.
Short story: A work of at least 2,000 words but under 7,500 words.
Flash fiction: A work of less than 2,000 words. |
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12-04-2007, 09:53 AM
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#6
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Moderator
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Location, Location
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,612
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Moore
All novels are fiction. |
Mine are fact.  |
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12-04-2007, 10:13 AM
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#7
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Addict
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 195
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My publisher tells me that novels in the 80,000-100,000 are the cheapest to print. Hence their popularity.
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