how long should the book I am writing be?

It depends on the genre you are going for, and really how long it takes you to tell the story. Don't go making it longer and stretching out things that don't need to be. Normally they say novels are 85,000 to 100,000 words, but certain genres like fantasy are more lenient. Right now I'd say your story is the length of a short story which is normally under 60,000 words.

Good luck! :D

Pages are a very relative unit, as you no doubt know. The pages on your computer are WAY bigger than printed pages. When I was writing my first draft, I was worried to see how few pages I had. It hit me rather suddenly that if it was a printed book, it would be far longer. Since pages are so subjective, lets discuss word count.

A few of the answers below talk about how the length of the book has no affect on how good it is. This is absolutely right, but in the highly competitive world of publishing, lengths do matter. Agents think that debut writers should go for a certain length, and like it or not, that is what we are stuck with.

Janet Reid, the writer of the blog Query Shark looks for word counts between 50K and 100K. Now, this is for your average book. Young adult or children's books will be much shorter, and sci-fi and fantasy will typically be longer. As a general rule, 100,000 words qualifies as a longer manuscript.

Now, what you need to understand is that these guidelines are just that, guidelines. If your query letter is absolutely stunning and if your book is excellent, an agent will represent it. These are just your basic guidelines.

I just finished the first draft of my fantasy novel, and it came out to be around 70K. I felt that was a bit on the shorter side, so I am spending more time word-building the second draft. 40K sounds like you are well along, but not quite done. I am sure you can judge somewhat where you are in the story and see where you are going, but without knowing your exact genre I coudln't give a good estimate.

Good luck!

If you have never had a book published and are really set on getting that accomplished first you have to concentrate on quality and not quantity. Don't just skip everything to the point but you don't want to crank out a 500 page novel and expect some big time publisher to take you one hundred percent serious. The fact that your novel is teen based can be helpful sometimes. Most publishers like to centralize around a main age group for whom they will publish for. So seek out certain publishers once you have completed the novel. Remember not too long so like probably max 200-250 pages.

In Noah Lukeman's e-book, he says, "The average manuscript for a novel comes in anywhere between 250 to 400 manuscript pages. In most cases, it is safe to say a first novel should not be shorter than 200 manuscript pages (approximately 50,000 words), and not longer than 500 manuscript pages (approximately 125,000 words)." He is a literary agent and really knows what he's talking about. I would recommend you read his books, especially The First Five Pages.

Actually, for both Harry Potter and Twilight, it was the author's first book published.

And no, the size of the book doesn't matter at all. It's the quality.

I'm a teen, and I'm open to reading any sized book, as long as I've heard that it's good, or the story appeals to me, etc.

There is no limit on how short or long a book may be. The book I'm reading is: A year yonder. By Richard Peck. It is 129 pages long, and it is a Newberry runner, so it doesn't matter how long a book is as long as it's good.

The length of the book does not matter.

What is important is the QUALITY.

My most favorite book of all time is 'The Old Man and the Sea' by Ernest Hemingway, a book which is a little more than 100pages.

Other small but great books includes "The Little Prince" and "Jonathan Livingstone Seagull".

You should worry more about the conflict and how you structure your story.

Goodluck!

>Vernan