Why is Word Count Important?

There are three main factors that you should keep in mind when determining how long your story should be: target audience, genre, and method of publication.
This essentially boils down into risk factor. Every book published has risk associated with whether it will be a return on the investment for both the publisher and the author. Because a book is generally sold within a certain price point determined by the age of the reader and genre, longer stories can cut into the overall profit margin.

Target Audience

The target audience is who has the best potential to buy your book and who the book is written for in terms of readership age. Younger audiences tend to have shorter attention spans and can’t follow complex stories, so it is recommended to keep their books shorter. As the age of the target audience increases, the recommended word count is more dependent on genre, as epic fantasy and science fiction readers have more tolerance for longer and more complex stories.

Genre

Readers of different genres have different expectations when it comes to length. Serial stories in contemporary settings tend to be shorter, while fantasy and science fiction novels that need to create entirely new worlds are often longer. When writing for a particular genre, it’s good to find similar books from the last two years and see how long they usually are, and how much the word count varies.

method of Publication

A book can either be self-published by the author or traditionally published by a publishing house. For traditional publishing, more pages means more money spent on ink and paper. However, eBook authors have the option to be paid based on the number pages read, so it can be beneficial to write longer stories as long as the reader remains engaged.

In the end, it’s about the story. These numbers are just general guidelines. If you can hold a reader’s attention and keep them engaged, then it matters less how long the story is. If you focus writing the best story you can, a good editor can help you trim your story down to the necessary word length, or cater the ornamentals to the right audience.