Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Writer's Wednesday: Word Count

As promised last Wednesday, here are agent Elana Roth's recommendations for word count.

The sweet spot for Young Adult fiction is 50,000-70,000 words.
Middle Grade fiction: 40,000-60,000 words.
Fantasy is longer because prose is styled a certain way.
Picture Books need to be under 1000 words.
If you submit an adult novel for 150,000, she will roll her eyes.
Adult fantasy: 120,000.
Mystery and Thriller: 80,000 and up.

As a wrap up to some of the good tidbits she offered, be sure that when you write your query you "know what your book is. Don't give all the crazy plot details."  Also, she said to be sure to "include those sample pages."

Happy writing!

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