Average word count per chapter ya novel

Paragraphs have no specific sentence or word count. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words when im done. Learn the average wordcount for every type of novel, novella, genre, etc. You wont get exact, but youre wondering whether 35k is reasonable, so you dont need exact. Although, if its over 110,000 words, some may call it an epic, not a novel.

Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has an average of 4,560 words per chapter. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. In any of these books, some chapters are longer than others. It is really not advisable to go over 100,000 words as a. As you can see, there is no pattern, therefore your 1250 words or thereabouts is about average. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Do not forget that word count varies between languages, so do this.

The title with the shortest chapters, on average, was whirlwind in the thorn tree, averaging just 2,900 words each. Ive made a list of some of the bestselling and most current ya novels on the shelves, hunted down their word counts, and assembled them here for you. 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. Writing for young adults a look at the numbers hannah holt. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to aim for 90,000. About how many words per chapter should a youngadult. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average words per line count the number of lines on each page to get the lines per page check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted then.

The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. Word count suggestions will vary from agent to agent, for example janet reid a literary agent with a fantastic blog suggests 150k minimum for sweeping epic fantasy, saying you cant do it right in less and 65100k for ya, whereas nathan bransford thinks your odds of attracting an agent with a debut novel over 150k are probably lower though hes not speaking about fantasy specifically. The highest word count was 115,000, the lowest was 47,000, and the average was 75,000. I then did a word count after switching to times new roman 60,705. 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. Look for your chapters to have those similar elements. Yeah sure, if pressed, i could come up with some harder numbers, but i dont like to do that because i believe that every book sort of has its own style. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. The average novel of about 300 pages is about 100,000 words long so if each chapter is 4,000 words than that gives you 20 chapters which i think is pretty average. A closer look at word counts for young adult novels. Naturally, a poem or a chapter less childrens book would follow different rules. Middlegrade novels can range from 10,000 to 30,000 words, and young adult novels can range from 25,000 to 50,000. I just did a word count of my ya novel in courier new 60,705.

When you find those commercial breaks, end your chapter and start a new one. Just make sure you vary them slightly so that you can at least reach 75 80k words. If youre a good writer, your book will be as long or as short as the storyline dictates. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. The inheritance cycle has a lot of chapters, but mostly because they run around three to five pages. If you want to know whether your novel is a scaletipper or a lightweight contender, measure it against these blockbuster hits. Middlegrade novels are generally 20,000 to 55,000 words. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. How many words should there be per chapter in the average ya. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter. What is the average chapter length in a young adult novel.

If you feel the chapters is over than thats what matters. For example, if your book has about 20 chapters, you can put about 10,000 words in each chapter. 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. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. All of them agree that the chapter length should be defined by the story and that any chapter length. At a writers conference i recently attended, publishing veteran jane friedman said 80,000 words is good for most fiction, below 60,000 isnt novel length territory, and above 120,000 is likely too much. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Famous novels have been extremely long, like 530,000 words for victor hugos les miserable s or 420,000 words for george r.

In the current one my longest chapters are 4,600 and my shortest merely journal entries 600. Most chapters run around 5,000 words, while some may run up to 9,000 words. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. The average words from 60,000 words to 200,000 or more words in a whole novel.

Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. Go to the library and look at the top you define top ya books similar to what you are writing. What is the average word count for a scene in a chapter. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. A 90,000 word count signals to professionals that you know what you are doing.

Writing middle grade a look at the numbers hannah holt. Forgot to mention, just use this and divide it by how many chapters you expect to have. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. Novella or young adult novel 7,500 words to 17,500 words. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and novels. And it doesnt matter how many chapters there are in any young adult book. That gives us a rough range of 61,00089,000 words, with about 3 out of 4 queried ya books falling into that range. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. And as youve probably guessed it is sitting pretty right in between middle grade and adult.

With a track record to back them up, established writers have greater flexibility. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. In any case, to see how authors use this tactic to set their pacing, we also mapped out the word count of every chapter in four famous books. 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.

To give you an idea, the first chapter of one of my novels is 54 words. For more information on word counts for childrens book, check out this post. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. Most middle grade novels are between 40,000 and 69,000 words long. What is the average amount of words per chapter in a young. The average mean word count was about 53,000 words. The word count varies per chapter for each young adult novel. Chapter books will come in at the lower end of the spectrum, while middlegrade books meant for older readers may even slightly exceed 55,000 words. On average, chapters in childrens books are shorter than chapters in books for. We immediately see that the commonlycited range of 50,00080,000 is about 10,000 words too low.

Sixty thousand words is a fair benchmark for a young adult novel, though forty thousand to eighty thousand words are not uncommon. 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. Its the overall word count publishersagentsanyone cares about. How many words does it take to write a young adult book. The are no setinstone rules when it comes to the length of middlegrade and young adult novels. 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. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. 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. Heres our word count guide for 18 different book genres. In other words, let your content dictate your chapter length, not the other way around.

I have read before that the average length of a chapter in a novel is about 4,000 words. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. Twelve to sixteen pivots makes for a dynamic dramatic structure. More on agents later, for now lets look at how many novels a typical young adult author writes before selling something.

For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Ideally, you want to give your reader something she knows. In the first book i wrote my chapters average about 6k words. Now, i will say that yeah, a chapter thats 10,000 words for any category of childrens book is probably crazy. What is the average words per chapter in a young adult. This 90,000 word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. They can be as short as one sentence, especially when using dialogue. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. What is the ideal wordcount per chapter for a novel. How many words should there be per chapter in the average. I highly doubt all the great writers of yore set out to write their classics with a word count in mind, or freaked out if their book finished at only 45,000 words or was as high as 500,000 words. With books like twilight at 118,975 words and divergent at 105,143 words, this. Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long.

Word count for young adult books the word count range for young adult is 55,000 to 90,000. All of them agree that the chapter length should be defined by the story and that any chapter length targets you decide on are merely guidelines. But again as a surprise to me, dune was a close second, averaging just 3,800 words per chapter. So you need to ask, is this chapter or scene really needed. A books word count does matter and if you get it wrong, this can impact your. This makes me wonder if publishers choose book sizes based on average scene length, to create the. Using the formula of number of pages multiplied by 250 words per page. It varies from publisher to publisher and project to project. 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. Discover the sweet spot for your chapters word count in this post. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales. 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. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity. For example, 60 000 words is a good size, and most novels have about 20 chapters, so 3000 a.