Sooo… today I am looking at books in the young YA Genre and trying to figure out if I need more words. Maybe my book is too small, does it have way too much dialogue, is it marketable, am I kidding myself?
A day of doubts study, reading other authors, looking up word count for books in a series. I spent an hour or so just deciding that it is YA not MG.
I think I may have the word count for a middle grade book with Young Adult content. I have read until my eyes are blurry and I have decided that I should try to get it to 30,000 words. It is 24,426 words and 129,531 characters. I have tried to figure out how many pages that would be in a book. It is 106 in manuscript body only. I have read that kids read up so I am marketing to 12,13,and 14 year old kids. The characters are 14 going on 15.
My other concern is there is a lot of dialogue. Whew, glad I actually put this in words. It helps to define what I need to work on. I will pause and think about where I need to go from here.
I have written my synopsis and I am working on a query letter. Mark Malatesta says you should work at least a month refining your query. There is so much information and I have to pick and choose what is right for me. It is a process and an adventure!
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Published by dairsik
I am the mother of three and have been a hairdresser for thirty years and the Owner of Makin' Waves for twenty years. I am embarking on a new adventure by turning my lifetime love of reading and writing into publishing. I hope to share the process with others and learn from others as well.
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