Average number of pages in a ya novel

How many words in a middlegrade book 20,000 55,000. Well, calculating it out, that would mean the average book was 240480 pages. This is a list of the novels over 500,000 words published through a mainstream publisher. More on agents later, for now lets look at how many novels a typical young adult author writes before selling something. Remember to look at books similar to what you want to write. My thoughts on this are not very popular, but i believe the answer is what my advanced writing teacher told me about paper length and i think that extends to books and novels as well. This is due to the audience youre reaching preferring that length. Many of my chapters are shorter, around 15002000 words, and about every 4 or 5 we get a longer chapter of about 25002800. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words. However, the true word count depends on the category in which youre writing. Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising.

I keep hearing that houses are looking for books around 200 pages long. They can vary in length between just a couple of pages and 50 or 60. However, an appointment diary is quite different from a novel or. Jun 24, 2019 be aware that the word average means that for every book that sells 15,000, there is one that sells 5,000. This means that a 75,000 word novel would be around 300 pages. And as youve probably guessed it is sitting pretty right in between middle grade and adult. Generally a novel for adult reading would have about 20 pages per chapter on average. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. If you already know the average number of words you write per scene, use that figure. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. 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.

May 14, 2018 collecting comp titles will prove useful to you throughout your novels journeyespecially later, when trying to market your book. Also remember because there are a bunch of new novel imprints opening their doors, a novella is 40k or less. That gives us a rough range of 61,00089,000 words, with about 3 out of 4 queried ya books falling into that range. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. May 12, 2012 new writers tend to assume that a chapter must be a certain set length in order to maintain the average novel length of around 80,000 95,000 words, but in truth, chapters can be as long or as short as you need them to be. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Sep 18, 2017 ill be limiting myself to ya since thats been the usual point of contention. In terms of adult mainstream fiction, that length would be considered a novella. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. For a firsttime novelist, it might be a little hard to pitch your ya manuscript to editors if your word count exceeds that number. Im also working on a romantic suspense novel set in an irish castle, but then historical. That would be the length of a novella in mainstream fiction. Oct 01, 2012 a scene that takes place in ten or fewer pages can comfortably be considered short.

How to create chapters in your novel ny book editors. Note the number of pages in the book as well, which varies considerably between genres. 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. Do check your comparable titles recent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range. Short, choppy segments of dialogue can result in lots of white space and fewer words per page. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. New writers tend to assume that a chapter must be a certain set length in order to maintain the average novel length of around 80,000 95,000 words, but in truth, chapters can be as long or as short as you need them to be. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. The answers is as long as a piece of string twice the length from the middle to the end. Be aware that the word average means that for every book that sells 15,000, there is one that sells 5,000. The highest word count was 115,000, the lowest was 47,000, and the average was 75,000.

Jan 08, 2018 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. From this chart, we can see that the romance genre is around 320 pages, the ya genre can vary greatly, science fiction and fantasy are generally on the longer side, and mysteries and thrillers are in about the same spot as romances. May 25, 2012 if you dont know this number, write the first 50 pages of your book, then estimate the average number of words per scene. A youngadult novel will run between 20,000 and 40,000 words.

Within the publishing industry we tend to talk about the length of a book in words rather than in pages. Some novels contain 50 or more and some extremely rarely contain none. 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. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. But remember that too many short scenes in a row can make the flow of the plot feel choppy, and disrupt the continuity that john gardner said creates a dream for the. 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. There are exceptions, like ya books that exceed 250,000 words, but those tend to be outliers, and firsttime. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter. You wont get exact, but youre wondering whether 35k is reasonable, so you dont need exact.

As you know, print on demand vendors like createspace, lightning source, and others base their printing fees on the number of pages in your book. Oct 23, 2017 more on agents later, for now lets look at how many novels a typical young adult author writes before selling something. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone is about 77,500 words total. Rowlings recordbreaking series began with two titles on the high end of that spectrum and finished with five that left the guidelines in the dust. As previously discussed, there are different requirements for both fiction and nonfiction genres. You can also base your figures on 1,500 words per scene, but eventually, youll want to check your own average against this figure and make adjustments as needed. Learn how to estimate your page count and how long your book. In 2015, the drop resumed as the average fell to 345. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Incidentally, you have probably already divided your novel into chapters using your instincts.

A scene that takes place in ten or fewer pages can comfortably be considered short. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Aug 05, 2019 thats approximately 300 pages of doublespaced type. A young adult novel will run between 20,000 and 40,000 words. Thats approximately 300 pages of doublespaced type. And ya novels, which have grown in popularity, can often be the same length as a standard novel 80,000 words. I am writing a 90,000 word ya science fiction adventure with 2 narrators. Each genre also includes average and medium pages and prices for the data. It should be noted that, in a novels finished, published form, the actual number of words per page may be quote a bit higher or lower than 250. In comparison, the database gives an average length of 89,000 words for adult fiction excluding fantasy, smack in the middle of the commonly. Jun 27, 2019 a story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. That said, in general young adult books tend to be.

My upperlevel ya novel is 211 pages, 61,078 words, tnr 12 pt. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words. May 07, 2018 this 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words.

May 19, 2008 and ya novels, which have grown in popularity, can often be the same length as a standard novel 80,000 words. Writing for young adults a look at the numbers hannah holt. If the word count of twilight is disregarded, the average. Somewhere around the 20page mark is about the average. What is the average chapter length in a young adult novel. 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. Many readers use chapter breaks as an opportunity to break away and do something else. Within the publishing industry we tend to talk about the length of a book in words. Mysteries and young adult books run between 40,000 and 80,000 words. Books are steadily increasing in size, according to a survey that has found the average number of pages has grown by 25% over the last 15 years. Collecting comp titles will prove useful to you throughout your novels journeyespecially later, when trying to market your book. Count the pages in each chapter and divide by 250 to get an answer for what is the average number of words per chapter. I think this has led some authors to try to find ways to get more words on each page to save printing costs. If your novel is targeted at a younger audience, then 10 pages per chapter would be better, on average.

Go to the library and look at the top you define top ya books similar to what you are writing. 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. Lets assume you have a ya contemporary at 60,000 words averagish length. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. If youre writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages. For young adult fiction, the word count is once again lower, with the ideal. Typical novels are about 260 pages, 65,000 words, and 18 chapters, about 14 pages a chapter. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. Sep 11, 2010 i was looking online and most of the sources i found said the average number of words per novel page is 250, and the average words per book were 60,000120,000. Aug 14, 20 remember that because our margins arent even, our pages are asymmetrical, although if you look at your book as a series of twopage spreads, the whole layout is neatly and symmetrically arranged around the spine at the center.

Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. Try not to completely tether yourself to word counts. How many words does it take to write a young adult book. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. On average, young adult novels usually fall around 55,000 and 70,000 words. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Feb 03, 2009 generally a novel for adult reading would have about 20 pages per chapter on average. However, paranormal and ya fantasy books appear to remain largely in the 80120,000 range, with books targeted at children or younger teenagers sometimes dipping to 5070,000. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. For example, a ya novel might use a larger font size to increase readability leaving only 200 words on the page.

Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. I didnt do this on purpose, it was just kind of how my natural pacing is. Trim sizes in this post were updated on january 30, 2015. Sep 20, 2019 the average fantasy novel should have between 50,000 and 150,000 words. As soon as you get serious about selfpublishing a book, you are confronted with the choice of what size your book ought to be. But i also know of others who have sold over 500,000 copies. I thought the average for a midsized novel would be around 100200 pages. One of the things writers tend to obsess over is the proper format for submitting their manuscripts to agents and editors.

For adult fiction especially crime, thrillers, womens fiction, saga and romance, 100,000 words is a good. Go to a bookstore and support your fellow authors by purchasing these books, or check them out of the library. You dont have to pick a number like 80,000 and then divide it by 30 chapters to give you 2500. The standard minimum is 50,000 words, and the average number for a fulllength novel peaks somewhere at 90,000, with around 250 words per page in published form. Page number is a terrible way to estimate word count as it depends on the size of the pages, the font size, the font used spacing, leading etc. The maximum number of main and recurring secondary characters you can use in a story is the number the audience can understand as unique entities. Plotting a novel by the numbers live write breathe. Calculate the number of pages using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book.

Word counts may also be used to calculate measures. It should me no shorter or longer than it has to be. The hunger games is more of a ya dystopia than a ya fantasy but i included it for interests sake. 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 harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000word range. If you dont know this number, write the first 50 pages of your book, then estimate the average number of words per scene. How many chapters would be average for a novel of that length. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. I was looking online and most of the sources i found said the average number of words per novel page is 250, and the average words per book were 60,000120,000.

But for suspense novels youll be going up into 50s and even to 90 chapters with only 34 pages a chapter. And for every book that sells 20,000, there is one that is a disaster. 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. Different books and publishers have different layouts for their pages. Your manuscript should be clean and professionallookingafter that, its your story that will make or break your submission. However, i understand that the length of twilight is unusually long for a debut novel. Obviously, this series isnt going to stop growing for quite some time, it seems. Think of someone describing the characters in a television show, where characters are identified by their appearance rather than by their written name. The writers style has a great deal to do with this. I have rounded the averages down slightly, both to account for twilights outlier status and my own preference for brevity. I know of an author with a very large publisher whose novel has sold only 1,087 copies in its lifetime. Lewis the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, roald dahls charlie and the chocolate factory.