The following information comes from the Avon Books Submission Guidelines.
INSPIRE
(60,000—90,000 words)
Inspire is a new line of inspirational romances from Avon Books. These stories and their characters are primarily Christian, and promote traditional values and beliefs. They also are first and foremost stories of the heart, romantic novels about learning to trust; to open ourselves to love, not only to the men in our lives, but ultimately to God. Set in America, both contemporary and historical settings will be considered, as will romantic suspense and romantic comedy. There should be no alcohol, drug use, or premarital sex for the main characters. For non-Christian characters, these subjects can be explored but primarily to show their destructive nature and how a virtuous life is the better path. Foul language should be avoided at all costs.
Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired Historical is pretty much the same, except for the word count (70,000-75,000).
I’ve learned that when I begin a new manuscript it helps me greatly if I have some sort of guidelines to go by. Since I’m currently working on a few inspirationals, I thought it would be good to know what I’m looking at. The best way for me to go about this is to hit a target word count that would broaden my options-70,000-75,000.
Having this starting point gives me an idea at about how many chapters I’m shooting for, which helps me in the plotting process. And while I’m writing, I know that I am shooting for a certain word count for each chapter.
For my work-in-progress Hope, I am aiming for 3,000-4000 words per a chapter, which means 18-25 chapters.
As for Priest, it’s a bit different. Right now in the first draft it’s sitting at 63,190 word and thirty chapters. Most likely the chapters will stay the same but I want to increase my word count.
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For me, it would be easy to add more words. I'd simply fill in all the places I glossed over in the rough draft.
That's exactly what I've been finding too.
I admire your ability to plot. I think I do that in my head, but I can't plan the whole page/word thing or I'll write crap just to fill it. lol. It's ironic, really, because I'm pretty darn organized in other areas of my life–step by step approach to get done everything I need to get done.
I've experimented with a couple of ways to plan my word count. In my first, I had a separate document for each chapter, and it helped to divide the story into 23 "short stories" in a way, and go for that 3,000-4,000 words. The document/chapter title helped too to focus the story for that chapter. This also made sense for finishing a somewhat polished chapter to send off to a critique group and/or partner. It did cause some frustrations though when I pieced it all together and moved things around. I started the second book this way too, but then went to lumping it all together in one document, which seemed to make sense for more non-linear writing throughout. Also, I haven't gone through as much critiques so haven't felt the need to polish sections (chapters) as much. But it's harder to see that big, total word count rise. I'm tempted now to split it up again (at basically a halfway point if calculated just by word count). Who knows, maybe I'll find my "process" eventually! Interesting blog!
Brynn, this is probably the only place in my life that I am organized. I know there are times that I might write to fill in, but typically I'm able to go back and revise easy enough, well as easy as revising can be.
Melissa, for the last two manuscripts, I've had to write linear and I do put everything in one document. When I revise I take a chapter out at a time until I have three chapters in the next set of files and then again revise to where I only have a single chapters. So my files my look something like this. Cherish Me-FullCherish Me-1-3Cherish Me 1Cherish Me 2Cherish Me 3Cherish Me 4-6Etc., etc
You know how I like my index cards. One for each scene, I have a brief description of that scene, pov, and an approximate wordcount. That way when I sit down to write, I have the scene already to write. Later I can add to the wordcount with description that I didn't put in initially. That's the plan anyway.The hard part is brainstorming and plotting out all the scenes.
I love the cards too. That was going to be my next blog.
Hmmm, maybe you can write it. 
I'm way too casual about my chapters for that, and tend to revise in rather radical ways. I would end up with empty files from sections I discarded and other "chapters" that ballooned into huge files. Plus I've had chapters move, jumping over or back through significant amounts of material. I've given up on the separate files thing. Instead, I label by which draft. For example:MovingIn.docMovingInV2.docMovingInV3.docWhere each represents a significant change – usually the deletion of at least one scene.When I was bouncing it back and forth with my editor, it got called MovingIn Sub 09-10-01.doc and stuff like that.
BTW I have an award for you today.
Alice, I've tried a similar method and just ended up losing my sanity over it. OMW!
Just goes to show we all have to do it our own ways because what works for one doesn't always work for another.