on Writers Helping Writers:

Practical tips to tackle a manuscript that’s too long without killing the scenes you love.

So, you’ve written THE END on your draft, congratulations! The only problem is, your word count is way too high for your genre. I work with a lot of writers working on their first books, which I love. But I don’t love delivering hard news. Like, when a writer comes to me with a book that’s 175,000 words — and it’s middle grade. (If you’re new to word count norms in publishing, this is about 3x too long for a middle grade novel).

Writers come to me, wanting me to developmentally edit their book, even if they know it’s waaay too long. They hope I’ll tell them their book is so good they can publish it that way. But I can’t say that. Because here’s the problem with bloated word count: