Often, I hear writers asking how long their books should be.
On average, the mystery books you find on shelves are between 60,000 and 80,000 words. Novels can extend from 17,500 words for a novella to more than 250,000. However, Stephen King’s blockbuster bestseller, “The Stand,” is more than 500,000 words long in its unabridged version. So, too, is Leon Tolstoy’s epic “War and Peace.”
But when you study the classics, those books that have an honored place in our literature culture, there is no pattern or limit to word count. For example, Sir Arthur Conan Doyles’ famous “The Hound of the Baskervilles” fits the average mystery novel size with 62,297 while Jack London’s “Call of the Wild” is only 34,964 words long.
The bottom line? Don’t focus on technicalities when you start to write. Just tell your tale, start to finish as a first draft. There will be plenty of time later to worry about length. And with today’s ebooks, that isn’t even a factor. Word count is more a matter of how a book is printed in format to fit construction guidelines. If you have a good story to tell, length is not as important as content, character development, plot, pace and so many other elements. Just write. Let the words flow. You can count them if you must when the writing is done.