Word Count
Posted by CM under Writing on Thu 4 Jan 2007
o.
Jenna Petersen tells me that my computer word count is meaningless, and I need to go by the Courier-formatted page-counted thingy.
Miss Snark says “DO NOT start counting up pages and multiplying by 250.”
According to my computer word count, I’m at 39,145 words. According to the Courier/12 pt/25 line method, I’m at 47,500. Obviously, there’s a huge difference between the two.
So–who’s right? And does it really matter all that much?
January 5th, 2007 at 12:50 am
Wow. I just tried that, and it bumped my word count from 59,050 to 67,750. Quite a difference. The more dialog you have, the bigger the discrepancy, I’m guessing.
Well, aren’t most of these supposed to be between 95K and 105K? So if we aim for 95K in Word, we should be good to go? I dunno. You’re the Mathlete.
So long as you’re somewhere in the ballpark, I would think they can fiddle with the margins to fit it in that 350-400 page range. I’ll be interested to see what others have been told.
January 5th, 2007 at 2:17 am
I would say not to worry about word count. Just write until you’re finished. And if you’re finished and you don’t have enough words, just add some extra sex scenes. Always works for me. Just kidding. Maybe. Wait, what am I talking about? Where am I? How did I get here?
…Ervin…
January 5th, 2007 at 6:28 am
The Zombies have got Ervin again.:) I think everything winds up “shorter” anyway. They may say 100,000 words, but you know some of your precious word babies are going to get cut. Several publishing companies (Avon and Harlequin for example) are putting out books considerably under 90,000 words. I think the trend ahead is fewer words, bigger print, less paper.
But, as Miss Snark says, good writing trumps all. Write and they will come!
January 5th, 2007 at 8:24 am
I’ve had extensive discussions with my critique partners and others about this. It used to be the case that word count was calculated exactly as you say: 12 pt Courier pages x 250 words per page. (My first manuscript is a whopping 136,250 words by that method.) And even though it wasn’t “accurate” in terms of the actual page count you’d end up with in the final printed version, it was a pretty good way for the publisher to have an idea how many pages would it would wind up being. As long as everyone did it the same way, the results translated across many, many manuscripts.
Buu-uuut, what I’m hearing now is that a lot of publishing houses are now accepting the MS Word count instead. For me, that’s a heck of a lot better, because my manuscript is at a little over 126,000 by that count and I can get 20,000 to 25,000 words out of it a lot easier than I can get 145 Courier pages out of it!
Basically, what I’ve been told by the “experts” is to choose a method of word counting and stick with it. Your manuscript isn’t going to be rejected because it’s a few thousand words over or under some magical word count value (atlhough my 126Ker doesn’t stand a chance at that length!). You might have to add a little or subtract some, but either way, as Maggie said, it’s the writing (and story) that matter.
Oh, and hi Ervin! Long time, no see…
January 5th, 2007 at 11:01 am
I’ve heard the print publishers still go by the Courier method (which I’ve heard is supposed to be 10pt instead of 12) and the epublishers go by “actual word” count.
Alice
Ps. Hi Ervin!
January 5th, 2007 at 4:55 pm
In the end, it’s your story content, not your word count, that’s going to grab the reader’s attention, including those in the publishing industry, or so I’d like to think. Word count can always be tinkered with in the editing stages, right?
Oh, and it’s nice to see Ervin escaped the zombies long enough to pop in!
January 5th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
As one of Jacqueline’s CPs, I was part of the “extensive discussions.” After seeing this topic discussed ad nauseum in many different forums by all manner of people, I’ve decided to use Word’s count and round up a bit (since it’s shorter than the Courier version). It gets even more convoluted when you enter contests because there’s a page count limit and you’re often given the choice of Courier or TNR (same size though). Um, I’ll take TNR ’cause I can give you ten more pages!
I agree with everyone who’s said it’s a target and the editor is more concerned that your kick-ass ms is “around” that word count than anything else (emphasis on the kick-ass ms as opposed to the word count).
Darcy
January 5th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Times New Roman, it is. I keep wanting to make this horrible joke that goes: “When in Times New Roman . . . .”
January 6th, 2007 at 7:38 pm
The thing is, it’s hard to get your aim right when the difference can be as much as 20,000 words.
Alice
January 7th, 2007 at 11:10 am
Jacqueline’s got it right, in my experience. The 250 words per page thing used to be the way print publishers wanted manuscripts tallied. Now that the majority of people are writing on their computers, they’re starting to want computer word count instead.