Word Count

I've been reading a number of cozy mysteries lately and began to wonder if mysteries and certain types of romance novels had a lower word count than I'd given in my answer to Q&A #1. Jessica Faust at Bookends must have read my mind because she answered the question of word counts in today's post before I even had a chance to research the topic.

Her post includes this information:

Most novels are roughly 80,000 to 100,000 words. Anything I don’t mention here should be within that range, give or take 5,000 words. And by the way, when I think word count I think 250 words per double-spaced page with one-inch margins. That’s the way most publishers look at word count. ...

Cozy mysteries: 70,000 to 90,000 words. Usually on the short end of that.

Category romance: Anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 (note this is Harlequin/Silhouette only)

Fantasy: Can run longer, up to 120,000 words

If your novel falls outside of these ranges, either too long or too short, you're less likely to get an agent or editor interested in the book.