Wrangle the Word Count

I've been trolling the #PitchMadness feed these last few days. It's fascinating.

The (Amazing) slush readers are throwing out tidbits here and there about what works in a pitch and first 250.Some of it we've come to expect:

1. Avoid cliches (don't start with a crash! Or a dream! Or looking in the mirror!)
2. The first 250 really have to be TIGHT. Eliminate Dead Wood!
3.  Know your genre
4. Watch your word count

The last pops up repeatedly - seems people are writing long books.

I sympathize with the long writers - I am one of them. The YA ms I am currently querying (and entered in #PitchMadness) was originally 125K.
Yup.
Wow. And I had no idea that was a bad thing!! Until the first agent I queried very kindly told me I needed to cut the book in half.
Gulp!
I did cut dramatically, and, no surprise to my seasoned readers, made the book a billion times better. It is now 80K, which is within that genre's target.

So, for those who don't know or those who need a reminder, here are links to some great word count resources:

http://www.literaryrambles.com/2010/09/word-counts-for-children-books.html

http://literaticat.blogspot.com/2011/05/wordcount-dracula.html

http://yatopia.blogspot.com/2013/04/your-book-is-how-long.html

http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide-to-literary-agents/word-count

 If  you discover you need to do some trimming, get to it - and don't enter another contest or query again until you do. No joke - your ms WILL be a joke if you don't wrangle the word count.

Next week - Lessons Learned from #PitchMadness