Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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Everybody talks about ensuring that your manuscript falls in line with industry averages, but what ARE those averages? And why does it really matter?

In this video, Reedsy expert Martin Cavannagh reveals the average word counts of popular genres in 2025 and talks about the importance of staying within those boundaries if you're a first-time author.

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How Many Words in a Novel? (Updated for 2025): reedsy.com/studio/resources/how-many-words-in-a-novel

CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
00:36 What is the ideal word count for books?
01:58 Editors and agents don't want to hold your hand
02:41 Why word count matters more than you think
04:13 But... what about all those best-selling authors with long books?
04:47 My draft is too long. What should I do?

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