This awesome blog gives a list of great books and their wordcounts. Here's a sample:
| The Grapes of Wrath | 169,481 |
| The Adventures of Huck Finn | 109,571 |
| To Kill A Mockingbird | 99,121 |
| Middlemarch | 316,059 |
| The Catcher in the Rye | 73,404 |
| A Tale of Two Cities | 135,420 |
Generally speaking, YA tends to be between 50K and 100K, and I try to stay within these limits if I can help it. Ironically, my adult novel ended up being the shortest of my works until I did a little revising.
Here's a breakdown of my own personal wordcounts over the years:
First novel (A novel meant to be YA and currently TRUNKED):
First and only draft: 126,500
Second Novel (YA):
First Draft: 144,500
Second Draft: 93,000
Third Draft: 114,000
Fourth Draft: 116,000
Fifth Draft: Approximately 117,000
Third Novel (Adult):
First Draft: 64,000
Second Draft: 70,000
Third Draft: 91,000
Fourth Novel (YA)
First Draft: 80,000
Second Draft: 84,753
How about you guys?
How long do your novels tend to be?
Does the length of your final manuscript differ greatly from your first draft?
Miserere topped out at 96,000 with revisions. I believe Garden will be shorter (not nearly the backstory and world building that was involved in Miserere).
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting subject, and I'm glad you mentioned Colleen and Nathan's articles. They're both excellent sources. ;-)
In the 90,000s tends to be a good goalpost for me, since I seem to write longer pieces. Then again, I could surprise myself! :P
ReplyDeleteThe first novel I seriously wrote (adult lit fiction) was 54,000 words originally, and after several rewrites/revisions topped out at 71,000 words. For my current WIP (my third novel, which is more sci-fi/fantasy) I was aiming for 90,000 words, but ended up going to about 115,000. I'm on the third rewrite now, and I've scrapped about 5,000.
ReplyDeleteI tend to overshoot my goals all the time, so perhaps I should aim for a really low wordcount for my YAs. :P
ReplyDeleteI think Sci-fi/Fantasy always tends to be longer than originally expected, which is the beauty of the genre!
My current YA novel is 96,000 after edits. My first (scrapped) novel was 116,000. Think agents are looking for manuscripts under 100,000 from first time authors, but that's just from my experience.
ReplyDeleteNew follower...
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ReplyDeleteSatta king