I try for 75K every time, and when I run over 90K, I start to groan. I know it'll be a bear to revise, and it will need some revision, whereas a 70K book seems to follow the outline obediently and can go straight to line editing because my outlines are solid when I start drafting. But it's when some minor character gets very interesting and I start weaving in his/her subplot on the fly that the things get away from me. Perhaps next time that happens, I'll deus ex machina them to death right in that chapter. "And then a piano fell on his head and it was very sad, but they had to soldier on."

Ah, that would've been wonderful 
My latest book was 130K, such a disaster, I had to revise it twice. Cut it down to 107K. The editing nearly killed me. I told myself I would never, ever again write a book over 90K. Compared to a 60K standalone romance novel I once wrote, my fantasy series feels like a huge weight on my shoulders. The only way to stay sane is to keep those books short-ish. It's difficult enough to keep track of all the layers, meta plot, character arcs, etc.

My new book, out earlier this week, has lots of Hollywood insults in it. It's sort of an enemies-to-lovers romance about a Hollywood star who'd rather be a rancher and an Australian writer who'd rather be at home with her books, but she has to interview him. A decade earlier, she served a stint in Hollywood as a scriptwriter and has lots to say about the misogynistic culture of talent vampires who suck the creative juices of others until they are empty husks to be tossed aside.

There are lines like, Once home, she saw everything in perspective and knew she had been drowning in California, and the men around her held her under the water. and, when her final script The Future Of Emptiness was produced and directed by women because the woman who financed it knew the men of Hollywood wouldn't touch it -   The men who controlled the industry shunned the film because they recognized themselves in the predators who hunted talented women, and in the vultures who feasted on their carcasses.

So, my insults might be a tad 'cranky women don't like the men with big egos and small man-bits' for what you want. Ricky Gervais is always disturbingly close to the truth with his insults.

My Results:


Title: The Toilet Bowl

The title The Toilet Bowl has a 10.2% chance of being a bestselling title!

1st choice: Literal
2nd Choice: Grammatical Complete Phrase
3rd Choice: Preposition, Article
4th Choice: Proper Noun

#

The title The Toilet Bowl has a 35.9% chance of being a bestselling title!

With These Changes:

2nd Choice: Noun with Noun
4th Choice: Proper Noun

#

The title The Toilet Bowl has a 63.7% chance of being a bestselling title!

With These Changes:

1st Choice: Figurative
2nd Choice: Noun Modified by Noun
4th Choice: Other

#

So I guess I should go write about being a fish trapped in a toilet bowl filled with water but not connected - such is life.

Thanks, Mammasan. Hope you like it. I'll take a look at the blurb. It's been a while, and the 10th anniversary of its publication will be in February.

Edit: Ah, well, here I am on the computer. I can just go take the look, can't I? And I did. The Kindle locations reference is kind of "old fashioned" these days. It's an indication of the length of the book for Kindle readers. I will take it off.

Ellen, I just bought your Rottweiler Rescue, am looking forward to reading it. Just a note: your blurb says something about Kindle location. Is that supposed to be there?