Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Hi Nathan,

I just read Jacob Wonderbar and really liked it. I'm a girl in her 30's, but have been enjoying the MG reads and yours was clever, witty and amazingly written. Loved the characters and chuckled out loud at many scenes (like Officer Bosendorfer's shuddering episodes). It reminded me of other MG books I've read recently (Percy Jackson series...and The School of Fear series, if you haven't read the latter, you should, really enjoyable).

I've been trying some MG pieces (currently one for NaNo) and sorting my way through it. I'm curious about word count and how many words "Jacob" was (and how this differed from your 1st draft to your xx draft). Also, how long did it take you to write the first draft and then subsequent revisions? I loaned the book from the library at the time (I've since ordered it because I'd like my own copy) and cannot remember the word count but I think it was at the higher end for an MG, no?

Okay, thanks!

Golden wrote:Hi Nathan,

I just read Jacob Wonderbar and really liked it. I'm a girl in her 30's, but have been enjoying the MG reads and yours was clever, witty and amazingly written. Loved the characters and chuckled out loud at many scenes (like Officer Bosendorfer's shuddering episodes). It reminded me of other MG books I've read recently (Percy Jackson series...and The School of Fear series, if you haven't read the latter, you should, really enjoyable).

I've been trying some MG pieces (currently one for NaNo) and sorting my way through it. I'm curious about word count and how many words "Jacob" was (and how this differed from your 1st draft to your xx draft). Also, how long did it take you to write the first draft and then subsequent revisions? I loaned the book from the library at the time (I've since ordered it because I'd like my own copy) and cannot remember the word count but I think it was at the higher end for an MG, no?

Okay, thanks!

Thanks so much, I'm glad you liked it!

My word count was about 50,000 words, which was pretty close to what it was from first to last draft. And yes, that is at the higher end for middle grade. I went through two pretty extension revisions once it sold to Penguin, and I'm very thankful for that because even though it was a lot of work I think it emerged a much better book.

Good luck with your MG project!

Thanks for the response, I appreciate it!

Sounds good...I thought it was probably 50-60,000.

Again, I really loved the book. Great, fun read.