Average word length of a ya novel

While 50,000 words is a fairly firm minimum, plenty of ya books reach up to 100,000 words, with a. Most middle grade novels are between 40,000 and 69,000 words long. With books like twilight at 118,975 words and divergent at 105,143 words, this. Within one book, chapter length is more uniform in childrens books than in books for adults. Only word counts are below, not page counts, as some novels vary between editions. But again as a surprise to me, dune was a close second, averaging just 3,800 words per chapter. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. There are exceptions, like ya books that exceed 250,000 words, but those tend to be outliers, and firsttime authors rarely, if ever. 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.

Again, higher word counts usually mean that the writer does not know. Towards the bottom, i also checked the ongoing epic fantasy series, a song of ice and fire and the original lord of the rings trilogy. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. For more ya examples, including more dystopias, check out this list on brett orrs site. When you take a closer look at recent data you can see that young adult novels vary in length anywhere from 25,000 100,000 words in length for many published authors. The title with the shortest chapters, on average, was whirlwind in the thorn tree, averaging just 2,900 words each. Below are several different ya series, their word counts per book and total word counts for the entire series. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts.

The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. Ive read a lot of ya in the last few years and chapters generally feel longer than that. When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. Famous novels have been extremely long, like 530,000 words for vic. The point of this blog is to show that not necessarily all ya books you see have larger than life word counts. A young adult novel will run between 20,000 and 40,000 words. Of course, there are always exceptions, and if you think your longer novel is worth it with each word being important, than, well go for it. A closer look at word counts for young adult novels. The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range.

Picture books 200500 words early readers 5002000 words chapter books 5,00010,000 words middle grade 25,00045,000 words, most averaging 35k. Writing for young adults a look at the numbers hannah holt. Typically, a book that is published in paperback format at a length of 300400 pages will come in between 80,000 and 100,000 words. The fact is that an average of 5565,000 words is probably a good choice. Although the median word count of those novels was 73,000 right around where conventional wisdom would suggest the existence of. While average word length is 50,000 to 80,000 words, this genre has so much variety that word count depends. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing.

On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively. I am 42000 words in to my first novel and i have 39 chapters, so on average its just over words per chapter, though some may be nearer 2000. Count the pages in each chapter and divide by 250 to get an answer for what is the average number of words per chapter. In my own most recent book, the shortest chapter not counting the prologue and epilogue is just over 2000 words and the longest about 5500. Right now, when it comes to novel length word count, its all about 90,000 words. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. Within the publishing industry we tend to talk about the length of a book in words rather than in pages.

Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. The saga plenty of characters and a complex, epic story told over many generations think roots or war and peace usually run at over 100,000 words. For example, if your book has about 20 chapters, you can put about 10,000 words in each chapter. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. An average novel length is between 80k and 100k, again, depending upon the genre. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. In terms of adult mainstream fiction, that length would be considered a novella. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. In a book for adults a chapter of 3000 words can be followed by a chapter of one sentence. Because these are younger readers, the word count for ya novels is between 50,000 and 70,000 words, although the harry potter series shows that you break that norm with exceptional storytelling. The hunger games is more of a ya dystopia than a ya fantasy but i included it for interests sake. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel.

All of these are average book word count ranges and should not be. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. Although, if its over 110,000 words, some may call it an epic, not a novel. Younger still, middle grade fiction ages 912 should. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity. More on agents later, for now lets look at how many novels a typical young adult author writes before selling something. For young adult fiction, the word count is once again lower, with the ideal being 55,000 80,000 words. However, book length varies widely between genres, among authors, and based on the content of the book.

Some young adult novels are longer than most books published strictly for adults, but usually the word count is between 30,00050,000 words. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. As for chapter length, i cant help but feel that 1500 words is a bit short for ya. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. There are exceptions, like ya books that exceed 250,000 words, but. How many chapters would be average for a novel of that length. In comparison, the database gives an average length of 89,000 words for adult fiction excluding fantasy, smack in the middle of the commonlycited range of 80,000100,000. Your chapter length has to work well with the overall word count of the book short chapters create an even distribution of both content and action. If the average length is 300 pages, youre looking at a 75,000 word manuscript approximately one reason its harder for a new author to sell a 140,000 word manuscript is the size of the book.

Upper ya 1418 reader is typically longer and more complex. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. A story is technically a novel at 50000 words, but this would be a very slim novel. In a childrens book all chapters are usually of the same approximate length. A change of scene, a change of chapter seems to make sense to me. Writing middle grade a look at the numbers hannah holt. This just goes to show how there are no rules set in stone when it comes to length. Dont compose your novel with skinny margins, singlespacing and some offthewall font and then make formatting changes when youre ready to market the completed manuscript. I personally find the trend these days, particularly in thrillers, is to use shorter chapters. Go to the library and look at the top you define top ya books similar to what you are writing. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. The longest average chapter lengths were lord of the rings 7,500, prince of nothing 8,700, and the beefiest chapters were found in the black company, with.

Young adult 55,00090,000 words ya contemporary tends to be on the shorter side, 6070k ya fantasy, scifi, and paranormal tends to fall on the longer side due to world building, 7090k. The highest word count was 115,000, the lowest was 47,000, and the average was 75,000. I have no idea where the writer of the article got his or her information, but thats simply untrue. The average mean word count was about 53,000 words. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. And ya novels, which have grown in popularity, can often be the same length as a standard novel 80,000 words. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. What is the average chapter length in a young adult novel. How many words does it take to write a young adult book. A novel is usually defined as anything over 40,000 words.

Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. What is the average length of a young adult novel answers. For most publishers, a book is novel length when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project.

For adult fiction especially crime, thrillers, womens fiction, saga and romance, 100,000 words is a good. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. A books word count does matter and if you get it wrong, this can impact your. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. The average words from 60,000 words to 200,000 or more words in a whole novel. Such extremely short or extremely long chapters are uncommon in childrens books. One article i read last week that was posted online at a major writing magazine actually insists that the average novel nongenre is 150,000 words. You can see there is a lot of variation in word length, especially in epic high fantasy, where books can stretch beyond 200,000 words or sink as low as 50,000. This makes me wonder if publishers choose book sizes based on average scene length, to create the.

Lets assume you have a ya contemporary at 60,000 words averagish length. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the book, and for ya novels the average is 50,00070,000 words. 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. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. Longer, more complex stories, which contain a handful of main characters and peripheral characters, tend to run at about 60,000 to 95,000 words. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages. How many words should there be per chapter in the average. For debut books in this field the average word count tends to be 35k and it has therefore become the. I remember reading some westerns in high school and, if i. Word count for young adult books the word count range for young adult is 55,000 to 90,000. A first book, is preferred by publishing houses to be anywhere from 60000 90000, any more than that and apparently, they tell you to do some slashing, because they dont want to risk spending lots of money on print costs then have you novel be just like the other thousands of novels out there that dont make.