Average length of a novel in words

Once you have a vision for your book small, standard, or wide formatyou can move on to the second step in deciding how many words you should write. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. On average, a printed novel contains about 80,000 words. Below is a short list of some famous novels and authors with their respective writing statistics. However, the true word count depends on the category in which you. My knowledge of romances is limited to what my wife has lying around the house, but not many of them seem to be thick enough to hit 100,000 words.

The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. I personally find the trend these days, particularly in thrillers, is to use shorter chapters. Word count guidelines do, however, differ between genres and age groups. This very abbreviated story is often difficult to write, and even harder to write well, but the markets for micro fiction are becoming increasingly popular in r. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. With digital books as well as print books available today, the length of manuscripts has begun to vary considerably. Now, this doesnt mean that you have to compromise your manuscript and make it homogeneous, however by trying to tick a few boxes it might. As mentioned, general fiction for adults should come in at 100,000 words. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages.

I have included several short novels that are often considered novellas. While 100,000 words is on the long side for a novel, its hardly unheard of. No more than 90,000 words seems to be the editors mantra these days. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. Lewis the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, roald dahls charlie and the chocolate factory, and george orwells animal farm all came in under the 40,000 mark 38,421 words, 30,644 words, and 29,966 words, respectively. How long is a singletitle romance novel supposed to be. A change of scene, a change of chapter seems to make sense to me. 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 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. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. 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. Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. 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.

We ve got all the answers, learn the average wordcount for every type of novel. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. 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. However, many authors, frustrated with the low price of ebooks, have taken to writing ebooks that are between 40,000 and 50,000. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project.

I wont link to example novels, as you can find those in just about every other book riot post. Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. That means 75,000 words equals 300 pages, which is just about perfect for a first novel. A novel is anything over about 40,000 words, though some definitions stretch novella up as high as 60,000 words or so. I found some disagreement about the ideal length of mystery novels.

The skys the limit for the maximum length, though anything over 250,000 is getting into war and peace territory. Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this is very rough run perhaps 150450 pages, and at about 350 wdpage that works out to something like 50150k words. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Ya novels are rarely over 75k, historical novels go up to 120k, ditto speculative fiction. The average length of a commercial novel today is between 80,000 and 100,000 words. The list was revised in september 2010 in consultation with a number of us fiction editors, but remains focused on fiction. For adult fiction especially crime, thrillers, womens fiction, saga and romance, 100,000 words is a good benchmark to aim for. Worrying about chapters isnt frivolous at all its a necessary aspect. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook.

Anything in this word count wont scare off any agent anywhere. Average sentence lengths of famous novels and authors. For some genres, like mystery, the minimum may go as low as 40,000 in the guidelines for some contests, but 60,000 is probably a more marketable length. For a compilation of short stories, i would shoot for at least 30,000 words. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. Ive heard and read several reasons for this, including. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. For a novel, i would recommend at least 50,000 words in length. For this reason, its not surprising that aspiring authors have questions about the appropriate length of a manuscript. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively.

The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. A young adult novel will run between 20,000 and 40,000 words. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. In terms of adult mainstream fiction, that length would be considered a novella. Science fiction and fantasy novels typically have a word count between 90,000 to 125,000 words. How many words in a novel vary depending on genre, audience, and the story itself but in general, the average words in a novel is between 60,000 and 90,000 words for most genres. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. The average adult novel runs approximately 100,000 words while those in other categories run 80120,000 words. Keep in mind that a few of these are translations of foreignlanguage novels, so the statistics will not be perfect for those. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. The average length of the novels we publish varies, but is almost never fewer than 80,000 words. Smiley lists novels as typically being between 100,000 and 175,000 words, while national novel writing month requires its novels to be at least 50,000 words. A short memoir would be about 65,000 words, though if youre an established author read.

While many agents say they wont reject a book solely based on length, many also say they take word count into consideration. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. Word count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a manner unaffected by variations of format and page size. This is why writers vary chapter length, so they can keep within the 80k, 90k or 100k words of the average novel. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Between 80,000 and 89,999 words is a good range you should be aiming for. However sometimes, like today, the reverse happens. The sweet spot, according to donald maas, is 100,000 to 115,000 words. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. The old man and the sea was about 25 to 30,000 words. According to amazon s great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively.

Every category will have an average length, including childrens books, young adult, business books, etc. In the publishing industry, 250 words is considered a printed page of text. And ya novels, which have grown in popularity, can often be the same length as a standard novel 80,000 words. For fiction, i recommend 5,000 words or more for short stories. If you search the internet for novel length, youll mostly receive the standard advice that a novel should fall somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000 words.

So, the average wordcount for a typical novel is anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words. This is a 100% safe range for literary, mainstream, womens, romance, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror. Sure, but this ballpark range is where the novel has settled over the last twenty years or so. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Novels intended for the adult market will be longer than those targeted at children and young adults. The graph shows the average length of the top 100 bestsellers in each of the 30 main amazon kindle categories, measured in terms of the number of pages.

Ideally, you want to give your reader something she knows. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. One of my biggest problems as a publisher is having authors deliver more than was agreed to. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers. If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words when im done. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Readers dont pay attention, but writers certainly should. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words. How does your book measure compare to whats succeeding in todays marketplace. As an interesting side note, amazons text stats show that the average length of all books on amazon is about 64,000 words. But i dont like to do things halfheartedly, so here is the bigger picture of length in fiction a novel is anything over 50,000. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length.

And some books are simply shorter, following basic reading trends. You can use comparable, successful books as models to determine the length you book should be. But, he also mentions that the wizard of oz was 40,000 words. 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 average fantasy novel should have between 50,000 and 150,000 words. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. To save the time and effort of counting wordbyword, often a rule of thumb for the average number of words per line was used, such as 10 words per.