As a reader, ive never felt a good book was too long, even more than a thousand pages. Word count for book series the first book in each series below was the authors first. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. A books word count does matter and if you get it wrong, this can impact your. Writing towards a word count might not work for everybody, but having a rough goal in mind certainly helps me when im sketching out chapters and undertaking my first draft. What is the average number of actual words in comic books or. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook.
Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. Some people will let you know that 2,500 words is about average per chapter, while. Word count picture book, middle grade, ya lisa lewis tyre. How many words does it take to write a young adult book.
Popular novels word count 100k 105k books goodreads. Again, word count shouldnt come at the cost of the story. In this post, id like to share some thoughts on word count considerations. This article suggests that essentially, it should be as long as it needs to be, meaning dont look at the word count, just get the story out then edit. That gives us a rough range of 61,00089,000 words, with about 3 out of 4 queried ya books falling into that range. There are some easy ways to find the word count for a published bookonline bookstores. It was 333 words which tends to be lower then the average. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. You may be trying to increase the word count of your essay for a class or a paper for a school assignment. If you have 6 panels, stick to a maximum of 35 words per panel. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. 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 books50% of books have fewer words and 50% of books have more words.
In contrast, word count is finite and usually i can calculate book length with about 99% accuracy in part because also included in any calculation is a count of figures, tables, etc. Im curious about your advice compose the novel in the standard format from the start rather than changing it later why does this matter. Jan 14, 20 the book will be part of a trilogy, and although ive only written little over half of the entire thing, the estimated word count is looking to be nearly 300 000 words. Sep 02, 2014 in general, illustrated stories are more about page count than word count. Heres how the wordcount of your book will decide what category your masterpiece falls in. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction.
I just did a word count on maurice sendaks picture book where the wild things are. Feb 09, 2015 word counts of popular ya books as i started drafting my new wip a ya scifi thriller i began wondering what word count i should aim for. Although, youll notice with the harry potter books the length of each book increases with each release in the series. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. The short answer to the question about the length of a story is to say every story should be as long as it needs to be. These pages counts are based on the american standard sized paper using the standard manuscript expectations see above. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job.
Im leaving this in the list to show that word count isnt offered for every book. If you want to get a target for your nonfiction book, the best thing may be to look at a dozen or so bestselling books in the genreniche youre aiming at and see what their word counts are. Dec 08, 2010 ya fiction for mainstream ya, anywhere from about 45k to 80k. With books like twilight at 118,975 words and divergent at 105,143 words, this genre has been trending higher. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the. Try not to completely tether yourself to word counts. Famous books and their word counts freelance writing jobs.
And besides, if its just the first book in a series, like the ones youve listed, then you have further books to expand the scope and build upon an epic vibe in the first book with more words and worldbuilding. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. At least now i have some answers, and i know i can get there. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. The only reason to adhere to a certain word count for your book is your assessment of reader expectations. It costs money to proofread a book twice the length of another. A closer look at word counts for young adult novels. That often dreaded, while at the same time appreciated, element of freelance writing.
Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Once you have decided what type of book you are writing, which genre you are writing in and the approximate word count, you can then consider which of two ways you will approach your writing. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. But it shouldnt be word count for the sake of word count. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. The highest word count was 115,000, the lowest was 47,000, and the average was 75,000. The main takeaway from this is that your word count needs to bear some resemblance to reader expectation. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. May 11, 2012 these were to do with whether the book would be categorised as a novel or a novella or an epic or something else.
Nov 16, 2014 if i dont get the writing done, i wont have any word count to worry about. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Apr 07, 2012 story length has come up a lot recently, both with readers of the editors blog and with clients so, lets look a bit at story length. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference.
The second or third in a particularly bestselling series can go even higher. For young adult fiction, the word count is once again lower, with the ideal being 55,000 80,000 words. In these cases, the overall design of the book determines the publishing costs more than word count. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. This is due to the audience youre reaching preferring that length. Whats a normal word count for a childrens novel or collection. How many words in a young adult book 60,000 90,000. And as youve probably guessed it is sitting pretty right in between middle grade and adult. Ive looked at articles that say literary agents wont consider a book with a word count of over 100 000, so you can see why im a little concerned. Mar 26, 2020 word count is the total number of words in a document. And ya novels, which have grown in popularity, can often be the same length as a standard novel 80,000 words. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon. Hearthkeeper by cordelia kingsbridge, love, sex, and understanding the universe by harrie farrow, rubble an.
Word count for novels and childrens books writers digest. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. So itll be off on occasion, but it should get you relatively close for the average book. But i cant edit any more out otherwise the story line is going to be way to fast paced or important plot threads are going to be missed, which is going to ruin the book and the sequel. Word count, with a little help from amazon alexis grant. If youre writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages. Aug 05, 2019 all of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as the definitive word count you must reach in your book. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. It is, i think, the easiest to use to quickly find the word count of a book.
The problem im having is that im thinking its to long. Surely when writing the important thing is to get words on the page even if theyre in pink comic sans. Also remember because there are a bunch of new novel imprints opening their doors, a novella is 40k or less. Well, different publishers look for different lengths for different genres. Check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted then go to the last page before any bibliography, acknowledgements, appendices, etc. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. Jul, 2017 i dont think there is a way and this is odd. For full titles, authors and descriptions of these books, see whats on my travel memoir bookshelf. Stephen king word count 112263 274,672 bag of bones 203,3 black house 252,270 blockade billy 15,917 carrie 60,718 cell 121,931 christine 193,602 cujo 121,150 cycle of the werewolf 15,955 desperation 195,011 doctor sleep. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book. Although, if its over 10 words, some may call it an. I publish my books first on smashwords and then, after they pass vetting for the smashwords premium catalog, i publish them on amazon as well.
Younger still, middle grade fiction ages 912 should. So if youre writing a series, start small, then increase the word count with each release. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count. The society of childrens book writers and illustrators scbwi does offer length guidelines in terms of the appropriate number of manuscript pages for various genres meaning the number of pages a writer would submit to a publisher. A novel is usually defined as anything over 40000 words. This is due in large part to the variety of subgenres within it and the trend for a book series with an ever greater word count. Count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. Agents and editors are also excellent people that can help you raise that word count if thats needed, and beta readers will also tell you if the book needs to be longer or not. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Or, perhaps you want to increase the word count of your novel or short story.
Word count for young adult books the word count range for young adult is 55,000 to 90,000. Jun 16, 2017 butindie authors are not bound by these rules even when they create print books and they are especially not restricted by word count when it comes to ebooks, where cost is not a limiting factor, and shelf space is irrelevant. For some content writers or bloggers, hitting their word count is a pain. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to aim for 90,000. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book. Oct 28, 2015 word count picture book, middle grade, ya when i finished my first middlegrade novel, last in a long line of rebels, it sat on my desk at 68,000 words.
Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Author eve tells me her book came in at 95,000 words. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. Writing for young adults a look at the numbers hannah holt. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. For others, making sure that they dont go over the word count can be a chore especially if their editor is strict about not going over that numbe. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. If youre writing an adult fantasy novel or an epic fantasy novel like game of thrones, your word count can skew higher at 90,000 200,000 words. Publishers are probably more open to this approach, since when you become more established, theres less risk for them with bigger books. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc.
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