How To Reduce Your Word Count: 10 Tips For Indie Authors

January 15, 2024

How to reduce your word count

If you’re an author who knows your first draft is too long, then this blog is for you. Sticking to genre word counts is more important in 2024 than it has ever been before. If you’re wondering how to reduce your word count (without sacrificing your voice or important plot elements), then keep reading!

I’m Kaitlin, a fiction editor for indie and self-published authors, and this blog has ten tips to help you get your manuscript down to a more reasonable length.

Why are genre word counts so important?

I recently wrote a blog about my 2024 Publishing Predictions, and one of my predictions was that word counts for querying authors was going to be more important than ever this year. Why?

The price of paper has been rising steadily for the last few years. It looks like the price is only going up.

Why does this matter for querying authors?

Well, to put it bluntly, agents are less likely to champion a book they know will cost a lot to produce.

If an author’s first book is vastly outside the typical word count for their genre, the agent or publisher is going to be wary of signing with them. They are more likely to take a gamble on a new author if they know the print books are going to cost around the same amount to produce as all the other books they are currently publishing.

Not all authors query—many are happy to self-publish instead of going the traditional publishing route. For self-publishing or indie authors word counts are less important for cost reasons, but just as important for creating a tight story that engages readers. No one wants to read a bloated, repetitive story, and there are many things indie authors can do to reduce the bloat and publish a story that engages readers the whole way through.

Reader expectation also plays a big role in whether a debut novel gets sales or downloads. Readers know how long a typical book in their chosen genre usually is, and they may be turned off by one that is excessively long. Sticking to a typical word count for your genre helps to show readers that you understand the genre and that they can trust you.

What are genre word counts?

It can be tough to figure out how to reduce your word count if you aren’t exactly sure what the average word count is for your genre. A simple search will pull up averages for most genres, but I found that the following websites all had similar numbers:

Feel free to check any of those websites for a genre I don’t have listed below.

Here are average word count ranges for popular genres:

Contemporary Fiction: 80,000 – 100,000
Historical Fiction: 75,000 – 100,000
Romance: 70,000 – 90,000 words
Science fiction: 70,000 – 120,000
Fantasy: 90,000 – 150,000
Mystery/thriller/suspense: 70,000 – 90,000
Young Adult: 50,000 – 90,000

Ready for ten tips to reduce the word count in your novel? Keep reading!

Tip 1: Map your book

This will help you see your book at a macro level. I suggest mapping your book into a typical three-act structure to make sure that all acts of your story comprise the right percentage of your book.

Savannah Gilbo says, “The Three Act Structure is a plot template that splits a story into three parts.” Typically, act one is 25% of the story, act two is 50% of the story, and act three is 25% of the story.

Act one is the beginning of the story, the introduction of the characters and plot, and an inciting incident or plot point.

Act two revolves around the rising action, tension, and midpoint of the novel.

Act three has the climax and resolution.

(This is very simplified. If you would like to learn more about story structure, check out this blog on Reedsy or read Save the Cat.)

Why is mapping out your finished manuscript helpful? Because it may tell you where you need to tighten your story. If your first act is forty percent of your word count, then there is likely some redundant information there or scenes you could shorten.

Once you see the percentages all together you will have a better idea of where to begin when you start to revise and edit.

Tip 2: How much do you need to cut?

Compare the word count average for your genre with your manuscript. How much would you like to cut? How many words do you need to lose to make your book more marketable?

If you are writing a romance novel and your draft’s word count is 110,000 words, your word count goal might be 85,000 words. That means you need to cut 25,000 words.

I know it can seem daunting to see that large number, but trust me when I say that most authors have had to do this, and they all survived. Revising will only make your writing stronger!

I am a very goal-oriented person, so having a “to cut” goal would motivate me. It may be helpful to keep track of the amount of words you cut each time you revise. It may be helpful to try and decide where to begin reducing your word count by looking at the book map or act percentages you just created. (If one act has a much larger percentage … start there!)

Tip 3: Mindset matters

Don’t start this process feeling sorry for yourself or feeling defeated! Your mindset matters!

Choose your attitude, and build yourself up. It will make all the difference.

You are not sad about revising and cutting. You are not overwhelmed by all the scenes you will have to delete. You are attached to nothing. You are happy to let things go if they are not serving your narrative.

You are a Word Warrior, and you decide what stays and goes. You’ve got this! It’s game time, baby!

Tip 4: CTRL + F is your new best friend

Use the Find function to search for all unnecessary filler words. Then … delete them!

You will be SHOCKED by how much this reduces word count!

The best list of filler words I have found is in Dreyer’s English. Here they are for your convenience:

very
rather
really
quite
in fact
just
so
pretty
of course
surely
that
actually

You don’t need to delete all of them. Some may serve a purpose or make sense in your manuscript. Dedicating time to finding them all and looking at each one critically will help you to see if they’re necessary.

Tip 5: Say buh-bye to filter words

Filter words are verbs that remove the reader from the character. They literally FILTER the experience and create distance between the story and the reader. Some examples are:

noticed, seemed, spotted, saw, realized, felt, thought, wondered, believed, knew, decided, heard, looked, look, see, hear, listen, taste, smell, feel.

Want to know more about filter words? Read this article from Louise Harnby.

Tip 6: He said, she said

How many dialogue tags do you really need per conversation? I bet you have some that are a redundancy. One of my suggestions for how to reduce your word count is to look at each dialogue tag and see if it can be shortened or eliminated.

Readers are smart! They can generally figure out who is speaking in a conversation if there are a few dialogue tags throughout. You don’t need to use one for every line!

Tip 7: Those adverbs have gotta go

I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase “show, don’t tell.”

Adverbs tend to tell the reader what is happening, rather than show them. Too many of them is a sign of weak or lazy writing.

Many adverbs and adjectives weaken already strong language. Try and remove some to see how much stronger it makes your story.

No, you don’t need to eliminate all your adverbs. Sometimes an adverb is what works for a sentence! Don’t feel like you need to replace every single one.

I do recommend that you use the search function on your computer to find adverbs (search for ly+space to highlight them all) and decide for yourself what to do about each one.

Tip 8: Condense, but don't lose your voice!

If you’re trying to make cuts but are worried about losing your voice, this tip is for you.

Here are three ways you can condense your narrative, without compromising your voice as an author.

Turn passive voice into active voice. Passive voice removes the reader from the narrative, and can sometimes be clunky or confusing. It also uses more words! Some passive voice is okay (use your best judgment), but if you have too much it can make it tough to engage with your book. Learn more here.
Condense or eliminate info-dumps. Can your reader still follow the story without all of that background information? If so, lose it. Keep your exposition short and introduce it naturally. It’s very common in first drafts to have lots of info-dumping or long paragraphs full of exposition because that’s how you as the author create your world and investigate your characters and their motivations.
Turn paragraphs into a sentence. Sometimes long descriptions set the scene, provide character growth, or are just beautiful writing! But sometimes they just say the same thing over and over. Sometimes they reiterate what was said in the sentence before. If that’s the case, it’s time to make them more concise.

Tip 9: Be strategic

Cut scenes and sentences and see if they still make sense. Trust your readers to follow your narrative without having every little detail.

What scene doesn’t move the plot forward? You can get rid of it! Trust your gut to know whether something is enhancing your work or taking away from it as you edit.

Tip 10: Trust your readers

I’ve said it a couple of times already, but trust your readers.

They’ll figure it out.

Trust them to only need you to describe your FMC’s hair once. Trust them to understand your magic system without having every single detail. Trust them to know that good writing means eliminating all the pleasantries your characters exchange on the phone (these are so boring to read—please get rid of every instance!).

Readers are trusting you to tell them a great story. You have to trust them to follow along.

Have you learned how to reduce your word count?

If you’re looking for some additional self-editing help, check out my blog Best Self-Editing Tips for Romance Authors.

If you’re a romance author, you may find something helpful in my blog Avoid These 8 Mistakes Romance Authors Make.

Curious about the editing process? Read Editing Unlocked: A Step-By-Step Guide to the Editing Process.

Remember, one of the best ways to ensure you publish a strong story is by editing and revising multiple times. Revisions can be tough, but I know you can do it!

Need an editor in your corner, cheering you on? I’d love to talk about your current project!