Length of Novels - It Matters

Happy Friday! Welcome back to the humble ablog! Exciting things coming for you next week! Here's the current lineup: Monday - Author Interview with Christina Mercer, Tuesday - Your First 100 Words, Wednesday - Book Review: The Fly House, Thursday - Crypt Keeper Tour K. A. Young, Friday - Fractured Glass Cover Reveal. Yeah, so you wanna come back for all that.

Also, I'll be putting together the official reading list for UtopYA. A page will be dedicated to that endeavor. Be sure you check that out, as well as voting for the official poster design (coming soon)!

Today, we're gonna talk about the length of your novel and why it matters. Remember that post on genre from yesterday? We're keeping with that theme. So, grab your pens and notebooks and let's get going!

Let's begin by thinking about why page count plays into your novel writing. If you write epic fantasy, your books will be really long (think LOTR) because you'll be taking time to explain things and build characters and worlds so the reader can see and feel them. You can't label a book that's 100k words in length as epic fantasy and not expect backlash from fans of the genre. In contrast, you don't want a contemporary romance to end up with a 300k word count, either.

So how to know?

Your research lies in the best seller list. Go look at the most popular books in your genre and see how many pages they have. I'll get to the math on factoring an approximate page and average word count in a moment. Write down the top three best sellers and navigate to their Amazon pages. See how long they are.

Now for the math.

I'm gonna use some numbers I grabbed really quickly from the Young Adult list here:

320 pages: If I Stay by Gayle Forman
337 pages: The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
306 pages: Where She Went by Gayle Forman

See a trend? Yeah... So, we now have a page count that we'll average. Add all the numbers together:

320 + 337 + 306 = 963

Divide by three:

963 / 3 = 321

For every four pages, you have about 1k words. So, divide by four:

321 / 4 = 80.25

Multiply by one thousand:

80.25 X 1000 = 80,250

Now, I don't know about you, but I've heard Young Adult books range from 35-75k. Our number is slightly more. Go figure.

So, you can gather readers of Young Adult enjoy a length of around 80k. 

This matters because you don't want to try and sell a 300k word novel to a crowd that enjoys, on average, 80k words. You won't do well. After all, you write so others will read your work, right?

I hope this helps you in some way.

What do you think? Did you try it for your genre?

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Guest Posting - Topic Turmoil

Yay! Only two days until the weekend gets here! It's a terrific Thursday here on the Jo Michaels blog, and I intend to give you a little something to think about in my post for the day. That's right, I'm talking about guest posts. How do you rock it like a star? Grab those pens and notebooks and let's get crackin'!


Do you ever get invited to guest post on someone’s blog and stare at a blank screen for hours, wondering why in the world anyone would want to hear from little old you? Ever get a case of the heebie-jeebies when you go to write that post, thinking you’ll sound stupid or make crazy errors and look like a complete fool?

Yeah, we all do.

But, here are some tips and tricks to help you write the best guest post ever:

1. Don't be afraid. Yeah, that's my number one tip. Put your insecurities in a drawer and lock that bad boy until you're done writing your post.
2. Write on a topic you’re familiar with or something you’re an expert on (we all have an area of expertise—even if it’s just changing a diaper). Do some research on the blog your post will be appearing on. Find out what their readers want to see and learn about.
3. Be engaging but don't overdo it. Talk with the readers—not at them.
4. Include your bio and why you have the knowledge to write what you sent.
5. Don't be afraid to talk about yourself, your experiences, or what you've seen others doing (whether right or wrong).
6. Write the post in a linear (progressive) fashion. Don't meander around with your thoughts. Point A to point B to point C, please.
7. Give references to back up your words. Links are always fun.
8. Send your host some pictures to go along with your words. Pictures are fun to look at and can set the tone for your post.
9. Proofread (please) so you don't look nutso.

Now, if you follow these easy tips, you'll be well on your way to guest post Heaven. Maybe they'll even have a parade in your honor. *grin*

If you'd like to check out a couple of guest posts I've done, here's a little list (links will take you to the post I wrote on their blogs):
Chapter Book Challenge
Zombie Survival Crew
Rebel Writers

See? Those are all fun and informative, and are all something I know a lot (but not everything) about. Yeah, I schedule my own life and blog down to the day/minute. Remember that huge dry spell I went through the last couple of months? No schedule. It drove me insane. Why do I know about zombie novels? I'm a reader of them and the author of one for young people. I can write on editing before you send your MS to an editor because I am one and know what kinds of things I look for during evaluation.

You may think there's a lot you don't know. I'm not going to argue with you. There's a lot of information in the world; no one knows it all. Impossible! Instead, focus your topic on what you do know. Make a quick list of those and and choose one.

Still stuck?

Try writing down things you've accomplished in life:

• I've self-published a novel (formatted, uploaded, etc...)
• I'm an editor (grammar, plot, etc...)
• I schedule my life (why? what did I learn from it?)
• I read how-to books (which ones? why? how have they helped?)
• I'm a reader (what books? learned what?)

You can take a list like that and make it into something awesome. Again, go research that blog you've been asked to write for and see what they might like to learn more about.

If you follow this very basic outline, you'll be rocking the guest posting world in no time.

Why guest post? It expands your reach to many readers you may not have attracted before. Now that you know how, and what you can write about, go out there and find like-minded blogs. Ask them if you can write up a guest post for them. Easy!

How about you? Care to share some of your guest posts? Leave them in the comments so we can check them out!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo