Youll notice that all of them fall well shy of three million words, including the longest of the bunch, marcel prousts in search of lost time. That has to be the first 5 books of the black company. Jenkins started strongly but weakened, along with the. What is the minimum word count for a thriller novel in india. You wont get exact, but youre wondering whether 35k is reasonable, so you dont need exact. For novels in general, the accepted word count is 7080,000 words. Ar book finder categorizes this book as a middle grade. Anything above 70k but less than 115k science fiction and fantasy tend to run up around 100k115k words. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. Learn the differences between middle grade and young adult fiction.
We will only consider sf, fantasy, horror or ya crossover novels. Aug 15, 2019 the word count for this novel genre can be extensive depending on the storyline. The following are average wordcount ranges by genre. Fantasy and science fiction novels are known to be lengthier than other books. Mar 22, 2016 thriller novels, even though a bit different from other categories of novels, are a type of fiction novels. King, and lee child run well over 90k, sometimes going as high as 120k.
For a compilation of short stories, i would shoot for at least 30,000 words. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelist s competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. To many words can work against you and not just because your audience may lose interest. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. George r r martin might come in closer to 300,000 words, but established authors can get away with a lot more than debuts. As for non fiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction.
Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. Literary agent danielle zigner takes a look at typical novel lengths and what appeals. Some genres like science fiction can be much longer and spend 1,000s of words on worldbuilding. For fiction, i recommend 5,000 words or more for short stories. Word count guidelines do, however, differ between genres and age groups. 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. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the book. For direct submissions we only consider complete and unpublished science fiction, fantasy and horror novels, written in english of between 95,000 150,000 words.
Larson writes science fiction with a word count around 100k. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. What is the recomended wordcount for a fantasyfiction book. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. But for mainstream ya it is always best to stick to under 80k. Personally, i recommend at least 10,000 words for nonfiction, unless you can do it justice in less. Plotting a novel by the numbers live write breathe. Generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. If youve ever read a joke book or a book revolving around a humorous endeavor of some sort, it falls under this book category. The average mean word count was about 73,000 words. Create new technology that works with andor against your protagonists agenda.
First time authors should steer clear of writing anything over 80,000 words. The first book is around 95k words, so if every book is about that long, it should be closing in on a million words all told. 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. Science fiction and fantasy novels typically have a word count between 90,000 to 125,000 words. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is advisable. Books in this genre are also often gag gifts or are meant to be facetious. Urban fiction publishing requirements urban fiction news. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. If youre writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages. I found some disagreement about the ideal length of mystery novels. For fantasy novels, you are allowed to go slightly above this limit, but unless you are an established author, i dont recommend going too far above. Romance novels often run between 50,000 and 90,000 words on average.
However, we do not suggest writing a novel of 500,000 words unless you as established as stephen king is. Jun 27, 2019 that said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels generally lies between 100,000 and 115,000. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. What occurred to me while reading was how the predetermined word counts make it more difficult to query a novel that crosses categories. Know your content, know your mainline pitch and some. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. For a novel, i would recommend at least 50,000 words in length. Middle grade is from 20,000 55,000, depending on the subject matter and age range, and the word count of these books has been trending up in recent years. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively.
The di vinci code 2003 by dan brown is 8,380 words christian book word count. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Perkins agency in new york says its much easier to market a firsttime novelists book if the word count falls between 80,000 and 100,000 words, or roughly 300 doublespaced, typed pagesthe average novel length. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to aim for 90,000. As a starting point, heres an agentmaintained list of word count guidelines. Traditionally published mysteries, like the books of sara paretsky, louise penny, laurie r. Word count of popular fantasy and science fiction series. Perhaps more than any other, ya is the one category where word count is very flexible. 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. 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. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter. Do check your comparable titlesrecent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range.
By 2017, however, that number has dropped to 273 pages. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. 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. Ebook word count by genre the average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and nonfiction. I get a lot of questions about word count for urban fiction novels. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000 word range. 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. Ive rechecked my word count of my childrens fiction book and i have just under 7500. As mentioned, general fiction for adults should come in at 100,000 words. This 90,000 word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline.
None of them fit the industry standard in word count. Sep 20, 2019 as you can see, word count for science fiction books vary widely. If there is an average, 60,000 words to 80,000 words are probably the sweet spot. Ideally, you want to give your reader something she knows. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count.
In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long. Is black company being separated into five blocks a matter of omnibus publications, or does this graph really only account for 5 out of 10 books otherwise, this is a good illustration of the effort needed to overtake a specific series. In terms of length, author unlimited recommends writing structurally sound sections and making good use of bullets and numbers. And so they should have the average word count of about 8000090000 words, as is the case with other fiction novels. Also, edgedancer should, for all purposes, be considered stormlight 2. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about.
But genre books fantasy, scifi, or historical fiction are often longer. This popular genre averages between 75,000 and 120,000 words, unless youre writing a saga. This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively. My upperlevel ya novel is 211 pages, 61,078 words, tnr 12 pt. The sweet spot, according to donald maas, is 100,000 to 115,000 words. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english.
I personally find the trend these days, particularly in thrillers, is to use shorter chapters. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon. 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. I use amazons data feeds to come up with the calculation. 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. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Oct 18, 2017 the average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. 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 books 50% of books have fewer words and 50% of books have more words. Apr 05, 2015 generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. A short story has a word count of under 20,000 words though anything over 10,000 puts it into that no mans land along with novellas where its a long slog for a short story but too short for anything resembling a novel. 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. Tips for writing in the science fiction book genre.
Writing for young adults a look at the numbers hannah holt. Word counts from the nyt best sellers list writers rumpus. My own past research on ya word count turned up 5080,000 as an average guideline. Can be publisher specific, ranging from 3,000 to absolute max 5,000. These word counts assume that a novel is more for commercial consumption, and for adults. 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 actual word count for the hunger games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 94,743 words. The grandfather of modern christian fiction, in his steps by charles m.
If you dont know what that might be, read publishers submission guidelines at their sites. If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words when im done. Some will tell you 2,500 words is the average, while others will say that 3,000 to 5,000 word chapters are more likely to be the norm. A change of scene, a change of chapter seems to make sense to me. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. A non fiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words.
As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. However, very few novels these days are as short as that. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 words. Here are some word count guidelines major fantasy and science fiction publishers have given during open submission rounds.
As a general rule of thumb, a novel falls somewhere between word count ranges of 50,000 words and 100,000 words. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. Instead, i looked at various scenes at the beginning, middle and end of each book, and multiplied the page numbers by the number of words on an average page an average manuscript page is about 250 words, but paper and font sizes vary with published books, so i had to do sample page counts for each book for instance, my copy of old man and. The average fantasy novel should have between 50,000 and 150,000 words. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Mostly, it will depend on the story you want to tell. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Its for the ages 710, would i need to stretch it up to 8,000.
I just did a word count on maurice sendaks picture book where the wild things are. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. 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. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. 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. For young adult fiction, the word count is once again lower, with the ideal. Different genres have different preferences for novel length. Estimate your page count book designer linda parke. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Some books, however, go up to 150,000 to 180,000 words. A manuscript over 40,000 words is considered to be a novel. 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. Apr 23, 2018 of course, if you mean i can add together the word counts of all genres in the novel im writing, then thats another story. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000word range. The average word count could be anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. However, the true word count depends on the category in which youre writing. But, most non fiction publishers want to be sold the concept, and therefore be able to discuss the direction of the project, before you write the book. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for non fiction books. Oct 23, 2017 dont count on royalties to support you. Jul 24, 2009 my upperlevel ya novel is 211 pages, 61,078 words, tnr 12 pt.
A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. I asked agents elizabeth pomada and michael larsen of larsen pomada literary agency to add their thoughts to the subject. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. I wrote this book over 2 years ago and have been spending the last few years editing and researching agents etc. The left behind series original books, not including the prequel, 19952007 by tim lahaye and jerry b. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes.