Word limit

What if an editor asks you for one thousand words? What is the rule about how near the one thousand your word count needs to be?  Can you send in fifteen hundred words? 

In short no you can’t. You are not going to impress any editor by giving him extra editing work, so it is best to keep the word limit in mind and not diverse too far from it. How far is up for debate.

Like many things with writing there isn’t a one size fits all rule so the best thing I can do is tell you what both I and my friends do, and why. Some of the friends I refer to are journalists, others are editors, and some do occasional shifts subbing for national publications.

There is what is called the ‘10% rule’ where writers ensure that they never go more than ten percent over the requested word count, so a writer will ensure that for a one thousand word article he doesn’t go over eleven hundred words.

Some people stick by this rule, others poo pooh it as being what university students do and not what happens in real life. As I said people have different opinions.

Personally I always ensure that I don’t go more than fifty or one hundred words over the agreed word count. Obviously it depends on the length of the article.

One thing you will notice about both of these rules is that in both cases it is recommended that you go over the word limit. I have friends who sub regularly and they say that when subbing a writer’s work it is much easier for them if there are extra words to play with when tidying the piece up ready for publication. It is easier to lose a few words than to have to find them and the editing process tends to bring up words which aren’t necessary and which can be deleted from the piece.

What you don’t do is go under the word count. This is in effect you short changing the editor and will result in the piece being sent back for reworking and a black mark put against your name.