Q&A Thursday

Someone Told Me That Edition

Friends!

It’s the end of August! Let’s answer some questions!

K asks: I'm finishing up revisions on a YA book and hope to begin querying soon. I recently joined a critique group. One of the members mentioned that she was told by a publishing industry professional (they didn't specify the exact position) that debut authors need a low word count due to the cost of printing, somewhere around 65k words for YA. My book is 85k words and I'm freaking out a little. Maybe a lot. Do I really need to cut 20k words?!

Uhhhhhh, no. Someone’s cousin’s friend’s roommate’s sister who interned at Penguin Random House always has some kind of proclamation like this, which does little other than to throw writers into a tizzy. It is true that the costs of printing and paper have risen greatly in the last few years and yes, it is more expensive to print and ship books.