[Hard_Space]

> Presumably that's to approximately fill a "page", and provide a "familiar feel" to all articles on a site written by different authors?

No, a word count is dictated either by the fact that the article is intended for print as well as (or instead of) the web, or else the latest SEO voodoo rumor suggests that this month 2k word articles are doing better than 3k word articles.

[DrBazza]

> or else the latest SEO voodoo rumor suggests that this month 2k word articles are doing better than 3k word articles.

Is that really a thing? Sounds awful.

[Veen]

I also write for a living. The maximum word count often has more to do with how much the client is willing to pay than space or SEO concerns.

[Hard_Space]

I think Stephen King was quoting someone else when he said "I wrote a novel because I didn't have time to write a short story".

In my experience, getting the same core information into a smaller word count is extra work, not less.

[Veen]

He was paraphrasing Pascal: "I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time".

I agree with the general point, but when a writer has a commercial relationship based on word counts, it changes the equation. I dislike word-count based contracts for that reason, but when the CEO of Widget Company Ltd hires me to ghost-write his blog articles, he isn't usually receptive to "you can have a 1000-word article for $400 or an 800-word article for $500".