Thursday, July 22, 2010

WORD COUNT

I am feeling so confused. I did some research on the Internet for submission requirements, just for research. I am not close to submission quality yet. Anyway, I am so screwed when it comes to word counts. Each agent wants a different word count. I currently have a word count of 148 000 words (according to Microsoft word) that gives me 385 pages with double sided print and double spaced lines. Now that can't be right. I write paranormal romance at the moment. But I didn't intend for it to go the romance route, it just ended up like that. Please, don't judge me people. Immortals need love too.

The reason I feel confused is that all the submission requirements asks you for maximum 100 000 words. So, now I have to either split the manuscript in two and make it 2 separate books or reduce my manuscript size drastically (I don't like this option). And for those of you who read paranormal romance, you will notice that those ladies who write in that genre, have far more pages then me. So obviously their word count has to be higher then mine too, right? Is it because they are already published authors that their works can be longer or is there just some simpler answer and I am just being a moron?

I hate to bring her up again, but lets take Stephenie Meyers debut novel, Twilight as an example. Nobody knew her then, but her first book gets to have something like 478 pages, after her editor reduced the final word count. Meaning, she submitted an even bulkier manuscript with a very high word count and still... she got published (it got picked out of the slush pile by the way). No disrespect intended.

I already know if I submit my novel as thick as it is now, I will get rejected on word count alone. So what is a girl to do?

Not quite myself

I have no idea why, but I have not been feeling like myself. Even being in my own skin feels alien.  The good news is that I still managed t...