And when you sell as many copies of your books and i hope you do you may also do exactly as you please. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. Times new roman, doublespaced, leftside justified only, 1.
Im leaving this in the list to show that word count isnt offered for every book. The highest word count was 115,000, the lowest was 47,000, and the average was 75,000. Yes, several books which shall not be named are way, way over even adult fiction word count guidelines. And as youve probably guessed it is sitting pretty right in between middle grade and adult. Which is totally understandable, since length can be an important factor that agents and publishers look at when they receive your query letter. For full titles, authors and descriptions of these books, see whats on my travel memoir bookshelf.
Although we covered this to some degree in our publishing. Counting chickens a few words about word counts at hope vestergaards site. There are exceptions, like ya books that exceed 250,000 words, but those tend to. October 6, 2010 november 22, 2017 loutreleaven following on from my blog post on which publishers are accepting unsolicited manuscripts for children, i thought id put together something else i had difficulty finding on the web a guide to word counts. This national book award winner twines the stories of three teens connected by a birth mother, who meet for. With books like twilight at 118,975 words and divergent at 105,143 words, this genre has been. The figure was found through looking at a number of books text stats, until brave new worlds 64,531 word count landed in the exact center of all books 50% of books have fewer words and 50% of books have more words. At least you dont need to run down to your nearest big store, since this guide will tell you quickly the ideal word counts for every category of novel.
Youll see the number of characters and words increase or decrease as you type, delete, and edit them. It has many similar aspects to stranger things, with it being set in. When writing for the younger ages especially, every word must count. Obviously, the examples under each category are above and below what is generally accepted. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Of course, there are exceptions to every word count rule. To check word count, simply place your cursor into the text box above and start typing. A good first step when editing any length of book is to go page by page and diligently cut every word, phrase, scene or character that doesnt directly. The sweet spot, according to donald maas, is 100,000 to 115,000 words. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. While it is aimed at young adults, especially gay teenagers who still have issues with being gay, it is a great book for readers of all ages.
Childrens books explained article, there is a little more to ya. My first book, three times a lady was roughly 100,000 words. A books have a teenage protagonist, but if you want to write y. Author eve tells me her book came in at 95,000 words. As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. One word kill is the first book in the impossible times series by mark lawrence.
Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Not all young adult books will focus on these ideas, but often at least one of them is present since these are realworld issues that teens come facetoface with on a daily basis. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. At there is a nifty search tool outlining the interest level, book level, word count and number of pages in many childrens books, as well as various awards, booklists and groupings. Types of books for children and teens formats explained i recently had a client who was confused about the different childrens book formats. With books like twilight at 118,975 words and divergent at 105,143 words. Heres what you need to know about this often overlooked. It costs money to proofread a book twice the length of another. She sees marriage to the mysterious count with whom she has been exchanging letters as her only chance for escapebut her wild younger sister, tella, has different ideas. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors.
Writing for young adults a look at the numbers hannah holt. The word count range for young adult is 55,000 to 90,000. The word count range for each age level is only a guideline. It did seem to feel like it was dragging throughout some parts of it but overall, i did end up enjoying it. How many words does it take to write a young adult book. Average tenyearolds are at a far different reading level, and like far different things, than sixteenyearolds. Wagner is a good introduction to the seeker series and gains momentum with every chapter.
Typically, a book that is published in paperback format at a length of 300400 pages. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. Childrens chapter books word count age 69 word count.
Traditional publishers and agents advised using the industry formula for determining word count, which is assuming certain standards 12 pt. For funclassic word counts dont write books this long, folks. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. I have even seen books with chapters that were all the same length that had both problems. I started this blog as a resource for myself, using wordpress so i could access my word count data from anywhere in the world, and easily share this data with friends. Where can i find a database of all published books word. With nonfiction middle grade books on the other hand, word counts vary a lot from as short as 5,000 words to as long as 100,000 words depending on what different publishers. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters.
Word count can go as high as 90,000 but keeping it around 70,000 is a safe bet. Some books have chapters that are too short, they dont expand the idea enough for you to understand. I feel the need to point out that 1016 is a very broad age group to target. And, in case youre wondering, here are the average word counts for other popular genres. Its a question often asked by aspiring authors wondering if their manuscript is several thousand words too long or short, but its also an intriguing one for readers to consider. Generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. Different kinds of books should be a different length. This video explains why word count is important and the word count ranges for various kinds of.
You have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. This is a lot harder because its not a specific field im receiving back i have to scrape the results and do some crazy parsing of the data. Word count for novels and childrens books at the guide to literary agents blog. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is advisable. I found some disagreement about the ideal length of mystery novels. Search for word count totals in books word counters. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Word count for young adult books the word count range for young adult is 55,000 to 90,000. Science fiction and fantasy novels typically have a word count between 90,000 to 125,000 words. Less than 70,000 unless fantasy scifi supernatural, which can be longer, max 90,000. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. From picture books to ya information to get you started at.
For example, if an author has to write a minimum or maximum amount of words for an article, essay, report, story, book, paper, you name it. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. It is, i think, the easiest to use to quickly find the word count of a book. Types of books for children and teens formats explained. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Word count, with a little help from amazon alexis grant.
This video is all about word counts for your novel, in particular word counts. List of popular ya novels word counts if youre like me, you obsess over the word count of your novel. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. The story is about halley, who is a 16 year old girl, currently discovering herself. While page counts are a common but not universal feature of bibliographic metadata, word counts are much less frequently provided and are not at all mandatory. Teen novels can range in all sorts of word counts depending on the type of book it is. Every book is different and for any suggested word or page count you see, you are likely to encounter several popular fantasy books that are outside. A you should be aware that the majority of readers are actually adults.
The gay teen s guide to defeating a siren by cody f. Now, they dont offer word count or running time for books, but they do have a search api. I have found the website dogobooks to be the most useful place to check the word count of popular books for kids. A novelist of my acquaintance insists that the only way to estimate the number of words in a book is to multiply the number of pages by 250. A single novel can be longer, but once the length is above 110,000 words publishers may look at cutting it back, unless it is a particular kind of book books over the 110k word count are usually considered epics. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Middle grade is from 20,000 55,000, depending on the subject matter and age range, and the word count of these books has been trending up in recent years. Although the median word count of those novels was 73,000 right around where conventional wisdom would suggest the existence of. Picture book writers are often tempted to add scenes and secondary characters that make the story unnecessarily complex. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. That was the formula in the good old days when courier. To find the word count at for a particular book, search the book. How long does a book have to be at writing for children and teens.
Find the word count for published ya and childrens books. Personally i average 2,4004,000 words, depending on how deep into the zone i am and how in depth my current scene is. If the publisher has a convincing argument for cutting a passage or two, the book will be shorter. If it has areas that need further explanation the word count will go up. But for mainstream ya it is always best to stick to under 80k.
What is the average word count in a youngteenage novel. At a writers conference i recently attended, publishing veteran jane friedman said 80,000 words is good for most fiction, below 60,000 isnt novel length territory, and above 120,000 is likely too much. My point is that your genre will likely dictate your word count. To get an idea of word count average for indie authors, below are the current bestselling books from smashwords, a leading distributor of indie novels. Popular novel word count the worlds largest word count. For young adult fiction, the word count is once again lower, with the ideal. Heres how i worked out the word count i literally counted the words in a cathy kelly book, a sheila oflanagan book and a marian. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Perhaps more than any other, ya is the one category where word count is very flexible. Students, teachers, parents, and librarians can search in english or spanish using criteria such as atos book level or a lexile measure, interest level, title, author, fictionnonfiction, subject, awardwinners, state lists, ccss. Now that weve covered how many words are in a novel, its time to break it down even further by finding out the ideal number of chapters in a novel and how many words are used in a typical chapter depending on the writing genre, word count in book chapters can vary considerably. Word counts ill get straight into it, starting with books for grown ups. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words.
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