Average word count of a book chapter

Most middle grade novels are between 40,000 and 69,000 words long. Try it on some books with chapter lengths you like, and dont be surprised if it. A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of time. 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. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words. Compressing a very exciting scene so you can meet your chapter word count target is also not going to do you any favors. 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. Jun 05, 2017 childrens book manuscript chapter length consistency is what sort of keeps the engine of your pacing going. And when im reading, i definitely notice, you know, with my editorial clients, i have manuscripts in front of me all the time. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. Jan 08, 2018 wondering how many word pages equal a book page. Writing chapter books a look at the numbers hannah holt.

That number actually lines up pretty well with the data we have on this, but again, that number should neither be. How many words are in an average chapter in a novel. 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. 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. Sep 20, 2019 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. Know your content, know your mainline pitch and some. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. 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. The authors had sold between 10 copies and 2 million copies of their chapter books. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. If youd like some guidelines, you can assume that the average nonfiction book is 50k words, and that they have 12 chapters, so around 4k words would be an average chapter length. Childrens book manuscript chapter length consistency is what sort of keeps the engine of your pacing going. Calculate book page count using word count for book design.

Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. The average mean word count was about 53,000 words. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. You shouldnt set manuscript guidelines for yourself on chapter length. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. The title with the shortest chapters, on average, was whirlwind in the thorn tree, averaging just 2,900 words each. The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range. Im a little confused about the word count for chapter books. A long block of text that is not broken up into paragraphs, with no dialogue is hard to read even if its words or less. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or short, perkins says. To find pretty much any kids ya word count, you can use the ar bookfinder. Nicholas sparks word count the notebook 38,520 message in a bottle 92,760 a walk to remember 49,311 the rescue 100,916 a bend in the road 93,766. From a conference, paula sadler had given out a handout that said the word count could be between 5,000 to,000 words.

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. Before you decide your average chapter length, its a good idea to think about the purpose behind dividing a book into chapters. Aug 25, 2014 the overall average for all five books is 5145 words chapter 1. The one im targeting would be the younger audience around ages 6 to 9. 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. As far as length, popular memoirs range quite a bit from about 60,000 words to 120,000 or more. Apr 11, 2015 nicholas sparks word count the notebook 38,520 message in a bottle 92,760 a walk to remember 49,311 the rescue 100,916 a bend in the road 93,766.

A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words. Well, youll put the book down when you get to the end of this chapter. Stephen king word count 112263 274,672 bag of bones 203,3 black house 252,270 blockade billy 15,917 carrie 60,718 cell 121,931 christine 193,602 cujo 121,150 cycle of the werewolf 15,955 desperation. What do most writers see as a good average chapter length. Apr 11, 2015 stephen king word count 112263 274,672 bag of bones 203,3 black house 252,270 blockade billy 15,917 carrie 60,718 cell 121,931 christine 193,602 cujo 121,150 cycle of the werewolf 15,955 desperation 195,011 doctor sleep.

Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity. The eight harry potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words. Your article was a welcome relief to me since i cannot justify writing for the sake of adding to my word count if the story is already complete. Word count varied from 5,000 words to 40,000 words, with an average mean of 17,200 and a median word count of 8,500.

If the word count of twilight is disregarded, the average becomes around 88,625. If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words when im done. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. If you have a 1,000 word chapter, a 4,000 word chapter, then a 2,000 word chapter, then you need to make it clear to the reader that each has a unique value. You wont get exact, but youre wondering whether 35k is reasonable, so you dont need exact. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. 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. On average i prefer a chapter of between and 3000 words, about 2000 the ideal but what matters more is how it is written. Can be publisher specific, ranging from 3,000 to absolute max 5,000.

Or to put it another way every chapter needs a three line plot. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has 17 chapters with titles, and about 4560 words per chapter. Do you want to publish a wide format bookwith inspiring quotes down the side margins. If youre writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages. I once entered a competition that set a maximum word limit of 80,000 for young adult novels and 100,000 for adult novels.

Write as much as it takes to tell the story, and no more. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. Nicholas sparks word count popular novel word count. Twilight has 24 titled chapters, or 26 if you count the preface and epilogue, and about 4580 words per chapter. 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. Writing middle grade a look at the numbers hannah holt. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline. Ideally, you want to give your reader something she knows.

To give you a general idea of the average chapter length, the range is usually between 3,000 to 5,000 words. Look for your chapters to have those similar elements. All of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as the definitive word count you must reach in your book. The author selling the most copies was a scholastic author published only in softcover hello, scholastic school. I definitely notice when a chapter is a lot shorter or a lot longer than sort of what has been established. So itll be off on occasion, but it should get you relatively close for the average book. Chapters need to be relatively equal in length for the structure of the book to make sense. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average wordsperline count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted then. For debut books in this field the average word count tends to be 35k and it has therefore become the marker many industry professionals look for in queries from new writers. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Otherwise, the inconsistency could drive the reader away from the book altogether. Your best bet is to figure out what books yours is comparable to, then sit down and count the words on 23 typical pages. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter.

Why chapter length matters more than you think medium. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Its also worth noting that the average word count figure can vary by genre. Click librarian or teacher and then search for books like yours click on the. Each chapter is a mini story in its own right, so to work properly, just like any story, each chapter must have, as a bare minimum, a beginning, a middle, and an end. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is. Chapters for his first and bestknown novel the notebook average about 3,200 wordsthe perfect length for casual readers. If you have a 1,000word chapter, a 4,000word chapter, then a 2,000word chapter, then you need to make it clear to the reader that each has a unique value. Oct 27, 2018 i use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count.

This is due to the audience youre reaching preferring that length. We explain two easy methods to estimate your book s page count. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. 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. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Fantasy novels with a 300k total word count might run 10,000 or 15,000 words whereas a standard standalone novel might only have 3,000 or 4,000 words a chapter. This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. How to write early readers, easy chapter books, and. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. The important thing is that your length fits your book.

When you find those commercial breaks, end your chapter and start a new one. Early readers are the earliest chapter stories that a kid can get. But remember, this is more of a guideline than a rule. You dont have to pick a number like 80,000 and then divide it by 30 chapters to give you 2500. The overall average for all five books is 5145 wordschapter 1. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. If youre a new author, id recommend staying on the shorter side, perhaps around the 75,000 word mark.

Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively. Eye of the world was one of the more normally distributed book in terms of chapter wordcount, which essentially means it had a mostcommon chapter length and a comparable number of chapters that were longer or shorter the dragon reborn was rightskewed, which means there was a heavy distribution of. In other words, let your content dictate your chapter length, not the other way around. So, whats the sweet spot for an average chapters word count and. Each chapter in your book tells a ministory that forwards your overall plot. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. I am writing the last chapter of my childrens chapter book manuscript and am currently just shy of 23k.

But, most nonfiction publishers want to be sold the concept, and therefore be able to discuss the direction of the project, before you write the book. What is the average number of words per chapter for each of. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter. Your target audience for these is kids ages 4 to 8. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. But again as a surprise to me, dune was a close second, averaging just 3,800 words per chapter. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts.

While the idea of chapters in the 3,000 to 5,000word range is a good guideline when roughing out your books structure, it isnt a rule, and the story itself should be the primary deciding factor. Do check your comparable titlesrecent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range. 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. A recommended wordcount might be 15002000 words but, more. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. Chapters in books for younger readers often err on the shorter side, while fantasy. This is a lot of information at a glance, so ill distill a few salient observations. That number actually lines up pretty well with the data we have on this, but again, that number should neither be a goal, nor a constraint.

Oct 22, 2010 early readers are the earliest chapter stories that a kid can get. In this article, were going to look at how many words are in the harry potter series. Oct 18, 2017 the average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. 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. During the introductory month of the new system, the conversion of kenpc into the actual number of words in the book actual word count showed significant differences from one book to the other. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Never write a chapter longer than 4,000 words bookfox. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales, but also cause fewer 5star. Theyre very short in terms of manuscript length 1,500 words max but are broken up into either chapters or vignettes that will give the reader the feeling of reading a book with real chapters in it.