Question - mainstream or genre fiction? page length?

It doesn't matter how long the book is, as long as it's enough to tell the story. You book can be the size of a college dictionary for all we care.

Doesn't sound much like Horror to me, more like Mystery(with keyword Detective)/Thriller. I think it should be a bit of suspense.

BlueLucario is right. While there are industry standards concerning word count, each publisher's guidelines are different. Look at Stephen King's "It"! It is over 1,000 pages long.

BTW, I like the plot of your story. Sounds like something I would read.

Word count, not pages. But even that spans from 65,000 to 110,000, but can go higher or lower if the writing is fantastic; that so-called "break-out novel."

Norma Jean said:

what does BTW mean?

Click to expand...

By The Way.

I found this site for those who want to know what certain acronyms stand for.

The story described could be mystery, if the focus is on solving a crime or puzzle; or suspense, if the focus is on the characters' peril; or mainstream/literary, if the focus is on the characters and language; or some combination of the above. It doesn't sound like horror to me, though it could edge in that direction if there were supernatural elements or extreme violence.

Hi, I live in England, maybe things are different. It's all about words e.g. A competition I am entering requires between 80,000 and 150,000 words for a novel. As for pages, most reputable publishers require submissions to be on, A4, 12 point, Times New Roman, double line spaced. that works out around 400 words per page.

I've heard from some people who have published a first novel that editors are more willing to look at shorter novels rather than phone-book sized ones. We used to call these "trade-paperback sized." I've always thought that writing short novels is the best way for a beginning writer to start.