Does size matter?

Does size matter?
 
How long is your manuscript?
 
How long should it be?
 
Is shorter better? Or is longer the way to go?

Here are the basic guidelines (the long and the short of it)*:

• Short story: 7,500 – 15,000 words (Wild Rose Press)
• In-between shorts: some presses accept stories less than 25,000 words, usually in erotic romance (Carina Press)
• Novella: 20,000 up to 40,000 words 
• Category romance (Harlequin, Mills & Boon): 50,000 words for most lines, but 70,000 words for romantic suspense
• Single title novels: 70,000 – 120,000 words (Entangled)
• Category/Lines (including Historical, Contemporary, Fantasy, Teen): 45,000 – 100, 000 (Tule Publishing, Entangled, Wild Rose Press), 75,000 – 100,000 (Lyrical Press)
• Romantic Suspense: 65,000 – 80,000 (Harlequin), 75,000 – 100,000 (Lyrical Press)

 
Then there are those publishers that don’t mention word counts as a hard and fast rule (Harper Impulse, Bookouture, Avon).
 
It’s a good idea to make sure that your book’s length matches the publisher’s or agent’s requirements before setting out querying. Or writing for that matter. No point writing a 150,000 word epic that no-one will publish. 
 
I’ve just read through a series of pitches that were rejected because their word counts were either too short or too long. Don’t let that happen to you!
 
Different publishers have different rules about what length they publish. And some publish digitally up to a certain word count and only then publish in soft cover. I’ve mentioned a few romance publishers here but there are others. Do the research! Check, check and check again.
 
You don’t want to come short with your word count!
 
*This list is not exhaustive and all information is correct as at 19/02/2019

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