Book stats & The art of the agent search
A question from a friend, fan, and my Yahoo Group fan club moderator (hi Tairis!) prompted me to look up the word counts on my books. For Ace Books (my publisher and the fantasy imprint for Penguin Group USA), the preferred word count is between 90K-100K words.
When my agent put Magic Lost, Trouble Found out on submission, it weighed in at 116K words (and this was after some extensive editing at Kristin's recommendation). I think it started out at 122K. After Anne Sowards at Ace Books bought MLTF and once she and I worked together on another round of edits (deleting some subplots/characters that were great but were just too much for one book), the word count decreased again to 108K. That's the word count it was published at. BTW -- A lot of those deleted scenes and chapters from MLTF are in my "Fun Stuff to Read" page here on my site under "Outtakes from MLTF" if you're interested in reading them. They contain quite a few characters that didn't make the final cut.
Here are the word counts for my books so far:
Magic Lost, Trouble Found = 108,000 words
Armed & Magical = 88,000 words
The Trouble with Demons = 114,000 words
For those of you who want my books to be longer, so you have more to read and enjoy, The Trouble with Demons will be my longest book so far. And it is jam packed with non-stop action. It'll be out in April, but I should be able to post three sample chapters in December as a Christmas present for you all.
My agent Kristin Nelson, posted about The Art of the Agent Search last night in her blog. There's also a great link in her post to GalleyCat on the Overlooked Art of Agent Research. Be sure to read that one too. Actually, GalleyCat is packed full of book industry insider goodies. If you're looking to get into the publishing game anytime soon, you might want to add it to your daily blog reading.
Lisa
When my agent put Magic Lost, Trouble Found out on submission, it weighed in at 116K words (and this was after some extensive editing at Kristin's recommendation). I think it started out at 122K. After Anne Sowards at Ace Books bought MLTF and once she and I worked together on another round of edits (deleting some subplots/characters that were great but were just too much for one book), the word count decreased again to 108K. That's the word count it was published at. BTW -- A lot of those deleted scenes and chapters from MLTF are in my "Fun Stuff to Read" page here on my site under "Outtakes from MLTF" if you're interested in reading them. They contain quite a few characters that didn't make the final cut.
Here are the word counts for my books so far:
Magic Lost, Trouble Found = 108,000 words
Armed & Magical = 88,000 words
The Trouble with Demons = 114,000 words
For those of you who want my books to be longer, so you have more to read and enjoy, The Trouble with Demons will be my longest book so far. And it is jam packed with non-stop action. It'll be out in April, but I should be able to post three sample chapters in December as a Christmas present for you all.
My agent Kristin Nelson, posted about The Art of the Agent Search last night in her blog. There's also a great link in her post to GalleyCat on the Overlooked Art of Agent Research. Be sure to read that one too. Actually, GalleyCat is packed full of book industry insider goodies. If you're looking to get into the publishing game anytime soon, you might want to add it to your daily blog reading.
Lisa
posted by Lisa Shearin at
8:05 AM
2 Comments:
*Takes deep Breath to prevent hyperventilating* The Trouble With Demons is LONGER!!! Excellent; thanks Lisa!
I adore the front cover for TTWD! Nice and 'Grrr' atmospheric. I CANNOT wait!...and I do believe I've said that before, lol!
Take Care xxx
Thank you, Lorna!
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