Will word count send me to the trash bin?

You'll be okay.

70K seems about fine to me, especially for humor. From what I've seen here, that word count shouldn't be a problem.

That's fine. 70-90 is pretty safe for most genres.

I think you're fine. I know adult fiction generally runs a little longer than that, but I'm sure 70K isn't going to get you an automatic rejection--especially if your query and sample are really strong. Ultimately, agents just want to rep an awesome novel!

(But I totally hear you about WC insecurities. I'm beating my head into a wall because I'm nowhere near finished on my YA novel and I'm pushing 70K. Lots of that will go when I edit, but *sigh* and *grumble* and *worry* and all that.)

amyashley said:

Finishing up the last bits this week and I am trying to beef up the book as much as I can. I am a sparse writer, and I did NOT go into lengthy details in this book for a number of reasons. It's a cross between humorous mommy type women's fiction and urban fantasy. I'm going to estimate that it will end up at just under 70,000.

I'm beginning to worry that I won't get any requests simply due to word count! Is this going to be a problem? I don't want to ruin the book by adding in crap it doesn't need.

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I'm sparse too. I see all these posts about high word count and I wonder why it's so difficult for me to get my word count higher. I'm writing women's fiction as well and I'd like my final word count to come in around 80K but I'd settle for 75K.

Like others have said, I think you'll be fine

Tracey

You shouldn't have any issues with this up front. Later, when you find representation, they might ask you to adjust it (or not). Good luck!

I guess we Texan just like things big.

I agree that 70,000 words won't hurt your chances. Have you ever read Animal Farm by George Orwell? It's a tiny book that was one of the best sellers of all time.

Here's a tip that might be helpful. You can always add a character in trouble to beef up your content. So if my main charater is an old lady who sometimes talks to the post-woman, I could make the post-woman an abused wife who show up at the mail box with bruises and black eyes and needs someone to talk to ... someone to tell her where to buy a gun to go postal on her husband. Just his brains on the kitchen table and the cops picking her up has got to be woth 8,000 words.

ha. I wish I had your problem. I'm crossing my fingers that my wip ya will come out no shorter than 45k. Originally I was hoping for 50 but that probably won't happen.

adgrogan said:

Here's a tip that might be helpful. You can always add a character in trouble to beef up your content. So if my main charater is an old lady who sometimes talks to the post-woman, I could make the post-woman an abused wife who show up at the mail box with bruises and black eyes and needs someone to talk to ... someone to tell her where to buy a gun to go postal on her husband. Just his brains on the kitchen table and the cops picking her up has got to be woth 8,000 words.

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Yes, there is always the option of adding a good sub-plot if you're well under word count, but your WC seems fine. And if your betas like the overall pace and structure of your ms, then I wouldn't worry.

Better short-ish than longish, especially for a first novel, IMO!