That gives us a rough range of 61,00089,000 words, with about 3 out of 4 queried ya books falling into that range. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Here is everything writers need to know about novel word counts. I wrote the first draft of this ya epic fantasy novel without really thinking of its length i just wrote the. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. I just did a word count of my ya novel in courier new 60,705. Sep 20, 2019 the average fantasy novel should have between 50,000 and 150,000 words. Famous novels have been extremely long, like 530,000 words for vic. Also remember because there are a bunch of new novel imprints opening their doors, a novella is 40k or less.
One of the famous street and smith titles was ranch romance. Generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. The wheel of time was his third fantasy novel series. Does the main plot arc initiate close enough to the beginning that you wont lose the reader. Science fiction and fantasy novels typically have a word count between 90,000 to 125,000 words.
Therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. 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. The word count range for romance is 70,000 to 100,000.
Heres a quick word count guide for adult fiction, adult sff, young adult contemporary, young adult sff, and middle grade. Famous books and their word counts freelance writing jobs. As i started drafting my new wip a ya scifi thriller i began wondering what word count i should aim for. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. Word count for novels and books is something i dont think about too often until i travel to a writers conference, and then someone asks a simple, innocent question. A novel is usually defined as anything over 40,000 words. But blake is trying to give everyone here some guidelines. I once entered a competition that set a maximum word limit of 80,000 for young adult novels and 100,000 for adult novels. This post covers why word count matters for novels, the standard word count. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon.
That said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels generally lies between 100,000 and 115,000. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. This is a 100% safe range for literary, mainstream, womens, romance, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. Oct 18, 2017 therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. Adams book, which pretty much created and then killed the scifi comedy genre by perfecting the form in a single go, offers up perhaps the most potent laughstoword count ratio in all of literature. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline.
Sep 18, 2017 the highest word count was 115,000, the lowest was 47,000, and the average was 75,000. You have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. Of course, when youre writing the first draft of your story, you. Feb 12, 2018 heres a quick word count guide for adult fiction, adult sff, young adult contemporary, young adult sff, and middle grade. Plus, its always nice to know if your novel will be fatter or skinnier than the latest shelf buster at barnes and noble. We have compiled a list of the daily word counts of famous authors and what they had to say about writing every day what is a word count. If the word count of twilight is disregarded, the average becomes around 88,625. The word count range for young adult is 55,000 to 90,000. The golden compass by philip pullman 112,815 words, prisoner of azkaban by jk rowling 106,821 words, and enders game by orson scott card 100,609 words. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. You know this, i know this, and ive done my damndest to cut it i shaved 12k off in the past two weeks. Although, if its over 110,000 words, some may call it an epic, not a novel. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. Its a common misconception among amateurs that a famous bestseller.
Famous novels have been extremely long, like 530000 words for vic. Is 109,000 words to long for a ya adult fantasy novel. Counting chickens a few words about word counts at hope vestergaards site. I started this blog as a resource for myself, using wordpress so i could access my wordcount data from anywhere in the world, and easily share this data with friends. Apr 05, 2015 generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. Maybe to work out what your own novel s word count should be. Novel revision checklist nathan bransford writing, book. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. I am on the record as saying i dont really care about word counts unless they are so offthe wall out of bounds that it is absurd. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing.
This article on writers digest also suggests a length of around 100115,000, and takes a good look at desirable word count ranges for different genres. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. The problem im having is that im thinking its to long. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. 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. I found some disagreement about the ideal length of mystery novels. If youre writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages. Now, the page count was dramatically higher using the courier font, but word count didnt change. Ignoring the greats for a moment, the obvious answer to the first question is.
Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. However, very few novels these days are as short as that. That often dreaded, while at the same time appreciated, element of freelance writing. Shamelessly cribbed from classic short stories and reorganized by word count from shortest to longest for comparison purposes. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. A suitable boy by vikram seth 591,554 words source atlas shrugged by ayn rand 561,996 words source war and peace by leo tolstoy 561,304 words source infinite jest by david foster wallace 543,709 words source a storm of swords by george r. A single novel can be longer, but once the length is above 110,000 words publishers may look at cutting it back. Jan 18, 2012 list of popular ya novels word counts if youre like me, you obsess over the word count of your novel. Word count picture book, middle grade, ya lisa lewis tyre. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Where can i find a database of all published books word. Everything you need to know about novel word counts. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript.
I then did a word count after switching to times new roman 60,705. Word counts of famous short stories organized by hawthorn mineart, under writing. Novella, novelette, pagecount and wordcount most people these days are used to two definitions for length in a story. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. As you may know, i am currently revising my wip the last queen, and i have been struggling with a high word count. She also has written a trilogy of young adult novels officially called the modern faerie tales trilogy. Try not to completely tether yourself to word counts.
Im one of those writers who constantly worries about word count. Of course, when youre writing the first draft of your story, you want to just get your words out on paper. Nowadays, adult novels generally tend to range from 80k to 120k depending on genre, however, young adult is often closer to the range of a nanowrimo winner, with 6070k being desirable. Writing for young adults a look at the numbers hannah holt.
There are exceptions, like ya books that exceed 250,000 words, but those tend to. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. The selection with 79,848 words and the choice with 79,950 words are. The highest word count was 115,000, the lowest was 47,000, and the average was 75,000. I cant find the word count for the fallon blood, but its page count is 381 so im guessing its under 100k. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens books and even memoir.
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. Robert jordans debut novel was not the eye of the world. Lower ya 1215 tends to run shorter, upper limit around 90k. It costs money to proofread a book twice the length of another. The hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, by douglas adams 46,333 words. Dec 04, 20 the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, by douglas adams 46,333 words. My ya fantasy clocks in at 71k but looking at popular ya fantasy today red queen, an ember in the ashes, etc. The graphic looks at the length of some famous novels, poems, and plays from literary history. However, the true word count depends on the category in which youre writing. If this thread still going can someone tell me how many words is reasonable for a chapter im writing my first fantasy novel and worried if i have too short or to long of a chapter right now my first chapter word count is at 1,436 and in counting. 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 number. 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.
But for mainstream ya it is always best to stick to under 80k. 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 there are exceptions, such as the the notebook with 48,978 words, most romance novels usually stay within this range. There are longer and shorter versions of each, but nothing in between. A 90,000 word count signals to professionals that you know what you are doing. 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. In other words, you must be scrupulous about editing every sentence for length. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Apr 23, 2018 this post covers why word count matters for novels, the standard word count ranges for various genres, and the word counts of some famous novels. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Oct 11, 2012 she is currently querying her epic fantasy novel heirs of war with a word count at 7k. Jan 08, 2018 this article on writers digest also suggests a length of around 100115,000, and takes a good look at desirable word count ranges for different genres.
Here are the top 100 mystery novels of all time, compiled by the mystery writers of america. Heres our word count guide for 18 different book genres. If you think a 270,000word memoir will make it past the agent, do it. However, i understand that the length of twilight is unusually long for a debut novel. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. Although the median word count of those novels was 73,000 right around where conventional wisdom would suggest the existence of. Word count for novels and childrens books at the guide to literary agents blog. Flash point by brooke blaine, criminal pleasures by darien cox, velocity by kristin mccloy, falling from the. This is due to the audience youre reaching preferring that length. How many words does it take to write a young adult book. Of the 161 stories listed, 3081 is the median word count number in the middle and 4052 is the average word count.
So you could work out how long you should take to write yours. But the word count of a chapter matters if you want your story to flow right. 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. Which is totally understandable, since length can be an important factor that agents and publishers look at when they receive your query letter. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. If you liked electric literatures game of books infographic that compared the length of a song of ice and fire to classic novels, you might enjoy this infographic created for cartridge discount.
Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has 17 chapters with titles, and about 4560 words per chapter. With books like twilight at 118,975 words and divergent at 105,143 words, this genre has been trending higher. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Popular novel word count the worlds largest word count.
While its important that every story find its natural length, it takes time to develop an instinct as to what that length is. If youre writing for a more literary audience, then the rules above apply on upper limits. List of popular ya novels word counts authorial intent. Use this revision checklist to identify areas where your book needs additional editing. He went on to write the conan books before eye of the world. In the meantime, overwriting to the point that your draft exceeds typical word count ranges is a common issue and those widelyaccepted ranges arent completely arbitrary.
Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. From picture books to ya information to get you started at. For some content writers or bloggers, hitting their word count is a pain. Jun 09, 2009 one of the hardest parts of writing a novel and editing it is seeing your work objectively. 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. Books of smaller word counts were more common in the 1800s and early 1900s, but the trend for books became longer with the rise of modern printing techniques. There are a number of factors deciding the word count, topmost being what sort of. There are a number of factors deciding the word count, topmost. With books like twilight at 118,975 words and divergent at 105,143 words, this genre has been. Bestselling author caleb carr may write novels of 250,000 words, but when you pitch your novel and offer up that number, be prepared for a glacial reception.
List of popular ya novels word counts if youre like me, you obsess over the word count of your novel. One of the hardest parts of writing a novel and editing it is seeing your work objectively. The sweet spot, according to donald maas, is 100,000 to 115,000 words. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 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.
Which is totally understandable, since length can be an important factor that agents and publishers look at when they receive your. Ever needed to know the word count of famous novels. The selection with 79,848 words and the choice with 79,950 words are a few examples. 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. May 14, 2018 bestselling author caleb carr may write novels of 250,000 words, but when you pitch your novel and offer up that number, be prepared for a glacial reception. I think theres some confusion here on memoir word count vs. Jul 18, 2014 if you liked electric literatures game of books infographic that compared the length of a song of ice and fire to classic novels, you might enjoy this infographic created for cartridge discount.