james011 Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 I'm still relatively new to Storyist, so hopefully this makes sense. For the title page where the approximate word count is displayed, can't this be automatically calculated? I realize that the total word count for the title page is calculated differently than the general word count that the program measures. With that said, couldn't there still be an automated way to generate that total? I've been using Storyist in it's default setup, without changing any of the styles, font sizes, etc. I suppose anyone changing any of those items would make it more difficult to calculate the approximate word count according to the instructions on the Novel template. Anyway I'm trying to follow best practices so I don't get zinged on any of my manuscript submissions. Any thoughts on this. Thanks, James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james011 Posted July 15, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 Using the instructions on the Novel template, here's how I would calculate this ... Do a character count (including spaces) … divide by 60 to figure out your number of lines … multiply by 10 for your average words per line … round up or down accordingly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marguerite Posted July 15, 2012 Report Share Posted July 15, 2012 James, there is already a word count in the manuscript. All you have to do is round it to the nearest 5,000—up or down according to your need. Even 10,000 is fine. Publishers aren't that picky. Examples: Novel word count 125,875. Title page says 120,000 words (top end of what will keep an agent from worrying that the book is too long). Novel word count 82,496. Title page says 90,000 words (bottom end of what many agents/editors want, although 70,000 is the industry standard for certain genres, such as romance, and YA novels can be shorter still). Editors/agents will nuke you for a lot of things, but an approximate word count that is slightly off isn't one of them. The bigger challenge is to keep them reading past the first page. The exception is short stories. For those, don't approximate at all. Put the exact word count on the title page. Best, Marguerite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james011 Posted July 16, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 Thanks Marguerite. I've been mainly writing short stories. So for example Storyist has one of my pieces at 6,637 words (minus the title). Should I use that exact number on my title page, or round it? Thx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marguerite Posted July 16, 2012 Report Share Posted July 16, 2012 Short stories usually have a word limit, so you want to stay under that. I would use either the exact count in Word, to match what your editor will see, or a round 7,000 words, depending on what the magazine to which you are submitting the story requires. Thanks for the congratulations! Best, M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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