If you’re looking to traditionally publish your novel, keeping the word count down to about 80 – 85K is important. It’s mostly a matter of publishing costs – bigger books cost more to produce.

I have a large book: A Burnished Rose – Book I  and book II (don’t remember the total work count but it’s over 400 pages) that I split online because it was too costly to print as one book.

that I split up for selling online because of the printing cost. When I sell it in person, I have a brick and mortar printer print Book I and II together because it is cost-effective for me, but not for online print sales.

Leslie Vedder gives us three helpful tips to cutting down your manuscript without losing the good bits. (Thanks to Jane Friedmann and Valarie Biel)