How many words is the average published novel?

1. 58

   Resolver2009posted 13 years ago

   How many words is the average published novel?

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2. 61

   lifeisabeachposted 13 years ago

   Average page count of 200, 400 words on each page, should be 80 000 words.
   
   If you thinking of being a writer many would say that it's bad to think about page and word count, but many fiction writers tend to have daily quotas they have to fill before they can go home. I've heard about writers who sit down and write 3000 or 5000 words each day whether they feel "inspired" or not.

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3. 61

   Jaggedfrostposted 13 years ago

   I will second Life on that.  I have been told and work under the assumption that I will finish a book when the original thesis or overriding point of the book has been satisfied.  If you end up considering writing a series, in my mind, I would cut it up in stages of the hero's journey so that it is kinder to the reader but heaven knows that some of the most famous books in history such as War and Peace had no such charity for the reader and even in present times Tolstoy still makes for a good paper weight on many coffee tables but also forms the back bone of many modern ideas on political theory.

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4. 57

   tirialposted 13 years ago

   If you are considering submission, it depends on the publisher - headline for example will only consider books that are at least 90,000 while several smaller presses consider that their maximum.

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5. 0

   RBWalkerposted 13 years ago

   Once you go over 120,000 words, printing costs climb significantly, and if you go lower than 80,000 then people will consider your work too short for the money. Most books fall somewhere between this bracket though many don't.
   
   If you want to write a novel, fine, but don;t worry about this too much. I planned my first at twenty five chapters, expecting 80-90,000 words. I ended up with thirty five chapters and 114,000 words. My agent made me cut down to 100,000.
   
   Just write it is my advice. Then worry about length.

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