Blog for Bristol Services Intl.

A question from one of my clients: “I’ve read so many ways of word counting, what way would you recommend? The one I use is one by Chuck Rothman which counts spaces and not just words. It gives larger word counts, but his point was that’s how publishers want it, as it more accurately represents their actual page count. What is your advice?”

I read through Rothman’s explanation and, yes, I know about this method, and I’ve used it myself, but that was back in the days B.C. (before computers). It isn’t so much that he counts the spaces between words as much as he calculates for the overall space the entire piece will take up in print. Okay, the theory still sounds great … it makes sense … but I just don’t recall any recent publisher’s guidelines that I’ve seen recently requiring that method.

My advice on marketing is to pay strict attention to the specific guidelines of each publisher or agent you submit to. Each has their own quirks–oops, I mean requirements–and following them to the letter (or space!) will give you an edge on the competition: writers who didn’t pay attention. I’ve seen lots of different specific requirements: fonts, sizes, spacing and file formats.

I don’t recommend even thinking about any of that until you are ready to actually send the manuscript off. What is important at our stage is to get the story “right on” in itself. The reformatting is a breeze by comparison. And if no method of word counting is detailed on a publisher’s guidelines, when it comes time for you to market, you might want to use this method for Rothman’s key reason: you get a larger word count, hence more money!

In the meantime, I accept MSWord’s automated count. And I rather expect that most editors, agents and publishers do, too, unless they specifically state otherwise. To use that method, just click on Tools in the top toolbar, and then Word Count. The total words, characters, etc. will be shown. If you want to know the wordage of just a certain section, like a paragraph, first highlight only that paragraph and then click on Tools and Word Count.

A client recently said, “I envisioned this 1,900 word story to be a picture book, but I hope you can help to establish the guideline to meet this criteria. If too lengthy, I am open to alternatives and suggestions.”

This is a frequent problem. Writers have a story idea and write it prior to finding the niche it will fill. In particular, writers seem to get confused between picture books and easy reader books, which do have some similarities.

So let’s look first at the niches and ask a few questions about your story:  

Picture Book Criteria (determine the appropriate age first) 
     Two-year-olds: simple but lively stories 
     Three-year-olds: involve more exploring of ideas and places 
     Four-year-olds: involve more questions and answers 
     Five and six-year-olds: start to explore the greater world than the one just around them

  
As for length, picture books come in 32, 40 or 48 pages, due to printing requirements. And, in theory, they can have as many as 100 words per page. However few books in the picture book category are more than 1,000 words in total. The reason is that space is needed for the pictures (hence, “picture books”) which must be vital to the story too. The story can be written in a full (but comprehensible to the reader’s age) vocabulary in an interesting tone and with playful language because picture books are traditionally read aloud by an adult to the child. 

Early Reader Books are different from picture books in many ways even though some pictures may still be involved. Most easy reader books are still only 1,000 to 1,500 words long. These books must be written in language and vocabulary that can be read and understood by the young reader. For this reason, the sentences are shorter and less complex than many picture books.  

You need to hone your story to a suitable niche before I (or anyone) can suitably edit it. Then you can feel comfortable marketing it to just the right publisher for just the right young audience!

Pete of Seattle recently said he was working on his final chapters but couldn’t seem to get it done. It wasn’t writer’s block, he said, but he blamed procrastination. Robin of Maine recently found herself floundering to write her book’s ending, even though she’d sped through the rest.

The fault is probably neither procrastination nor lack of planning. There is a niggling part of any writer’s brain that really doesn’t want a book to end. It enjoys the writing process and a looming “The End” can make it set the brakes and derail the writing altogether. We aren’t consciously aware of this roadblock. It just seems the ending, even if you’ve planned it neatly, doesn’t want to get itself written! Here are some tricks to get you back on track:

1. Plan a Sequel. Start your creative juices flowing towards the NEXT book, seeing how those same characters react to the ending of the current book, what happens after they recover or sail off into the sunset. Ask yourself: What happens next? And plan—mentally only, no writing yet—what the sequel will involve. (Now, shhh, don’t tell this to that brakeman part of your brain, but I’m not actually saying you must write a sequel. Just that if you set your “The End” further down the track, at the conclusion of the sequel, it will free up your mind to get this current final chapter finished without fear that the journey of writing is over.) A side benefit: You might find you WANT to write a sequel. And the ending to the current book might slightly change to accommodate a second book.

2. Plan an Epilogue. You probably already have in mind the basics of what the final chapter will include regarding all the major characters. Now consider the ramifications of on the minor characters and how they might react.  Mentally plan an epilogue, one that follows the final numbered chapter, where you can explore these results.  (Again, shhh … you don’t actually have to write this epilogue. But it sets “The End” at a later spot, allowing you to write directly through the final chapter in anticipation that another will follow.)  Side benefit: You may find tidbits of fun in the planned Epilogue that you will want to add to the real ending.

3. Dangle a Carrot. I’ll just bet you have another idea of a different book altogether, right? Something fun or intriguing that you’d like to tackle. Mentally start thinking of the scenes and people and settings that intrigue you on this new book–but don’t write a word of it! Let the new book build in your brain until it is ready to burst out. Then promise yourself you can start it the same day you finish the last chapter of this current book.

We writers write because we enjoy it–even if we do all complain (at least a bit!) about the hours and agony of it all. So let your subconscious know that the process of writing will NOT end with this final chapter. With the incentive of more wordplay to come, you’ll barely get to “The End” on this book before you can plunge back in to the fun of writing all over again!