Is 150K too long for a romance novel?

Hi,

I’m writing a contemporary romance novel, and I’m wondering, in people’s general opinion, is 150K words too long of a total word count goal?

This might help you. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯

1 Like

In general, yes. It is too long. A typical romance novel is roughly around 60-70K, depending on plot and sub genres.

There are some that do range a bit higher like Colleen Hoover novels that are roughly 80-100K. Or some other romances that might be under 110K, but it’s best not to go over that.

2 Likes

Okay. Thank you. Can I ask you a further question in my personal chat?

1 Like

Of course! Message away! :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Seven and a half pounds. Good weight for a book ~ Groucho Marx

There is no word count…

Your story/tale should be as long as it takes to complete… Yes, I admit there should be edits along the way, but it will be as long as you feel it needs to be…

There is no such thing as a “Word Count Limit” and this goes for any such stories/tales and genres. It will be as long as it needs to be…

SD

1 Like

No, it’s not too long. The story is as long or short as it needs to be.
There aren’t really hard lines between genres these days anyway, with things like general fiction and “fiction” it doesn’t really matter, unless you’re writing (for example) for Mills and Boon which I think have specific word counts.

There is a market for long reads.
There’s also a market for serialized romances. All the Sookie Stackhouse novels are one long-winded romance, but decent individual books. You write the story and decide how to release it, no?

That being said, shirt reads I. Romance are highlighted as a bit of an insult to romance novels because they “aren’t an intellectual read” --as if. Sometimes you have an intellectual writer dealing with romance. The fan base has got to sort it out for themselves.

1 Like

Exactly. Personally, I LOVE long reads in any genre. Well, genres I read anyway. I loved the Sookie Stackhouse ones too, and devoured them all in like a month? Should’ve been one book imo :rofl:
But that’s the thing there aren’t that many only romance books out there. Unless you hit like Mills and Boon or whatever. Most romances have a major subplot or genre-bend.
I genre-bend, so while I mostly write contemporary romance, theyre not all just romance. Most of my books hit 100-150k

Saying that it’s Wattpad so they’re serialised. so idk. :joy:

1 Like

I was closer to YA when the SS series came out and my mom had them all, so I could binge them at one time. Haven’t even finished a physical novel (online stuff, sure) since the advent of kids.

3 years from now, when my boy is in kindergarten, I think my first month will wind up being binging on everything I missed out on until I have a headache. Lol

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.