Elliot Kessler

Word count is something that I have thought about quite a bit when it comes to my stories. How long should my short stories be? How long should my novel be? What length will sell well?

Indeed, certain word counts for novels sell better than others. The typical range for novels is around 80,000 to 100,000 words, and novels below or above that range don’t sell as well on average. However, that does not mean your story needs to be within that range.

The length of your story shouldn’t depend on marketability. It should depend on the story. It will probably be easier to publish your novel if you keep your story within the typical word count range, sure. But your story won’t be the same. Imagine if each book in “The Lord of the Rings” was condensed down to under 100,000 words or if “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” was stretched to 80,000 words. The stories would have been unrecognizable, and they likely would not have become the classics we know them as today.

While word count is important for marketing and traditional publishing, self-publishing has also played a major role in word count (among other things). Amazon’s KDP program, which allows anyone to publish a book for free, has opened the doors for books ranging from short novelettes to massive, 200,000+ word epics.

With ebooks, selling a story that isn’t of a traditional length is much easier. You can see how many pages the story is, but without seeing the thickness of the book or feeling it in your hands, it seems the same as any of the other books on Kindle. There’s even an entire subsection on Kindle dedicated to short reads, whether novelettes or novellas.

I don’t believe authors should constrain themselves to most publishers’ length standards. I believe that story should always come first. If you have a great story idea and write it in its truest form, and it turns out shorter or longer than you expected, don’t force it to be longer or shorter. Don’t make your story worse for the sake of marketability.

If your story is short, write it as a novella, a short novel, or even a short story. If your story is long, consider making it a series or a trilogy. “The Lord of the Rings” was supposed to be one book. It was the publishing company that made Tolkien split it into three because of a paper shortage, and they’re still classics. If your story is too long, you can always split it into shorter books.

Don’t let the word count turn your masterpiece into garbage. Write your story, and the rest will take care of itself.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.