Average word length of a book chapter

I went to another conference and told an agent about my chapter books series with the word count ranges and she was like thats kind of short for a chapter book. Let me tell you about how i had to remove my membership from a childrens writer forum because i responded to a newbie about this topic. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Try it on some books with chapter lengths you like, and dont be surprised if it. Each chapter in your book tells a ministory that forwards your overall plot. Thats approximately 300 pages of doublespaced type. 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. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says. James patterson word count popular novel word count. If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words when im done. A novelist of my acquaintance insists that the only way to estimate the number of words in a book is to multiply the number of pages by 250. However, many authors, frustrated with the low price of ebooks, have taken to writing ebooks that are between 40,000 and 50,000. Another interesting way to find a good chapter length i think, would be to sit down and read a book from the first chapter, for about 510 minutes, or however long you wish your chapters to be, and see how many words you have read in that amount of time. Readers and chapters an author should think of the reader when creating chapters.

Naturally, a poem or a chapter less childrens book would follow different rules. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. You can do anything you want with subsequent books, if you sell a gazillion copies of the first book or two. 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. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Its also worth noting that the average word count figure can vary by genre. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. Ya novels are rarely over 75k, historical novels go up to 120k, ditto speculative fiction. I guess it really depends on the book and author, i try and aim for 3000 words per chapter.

You shouldnt set manuscript guidelines for yourself on chapter length. Before you decide your average chapter length, its a good idea to think about the purpose behind dividing a book into chapters. But remember, this is more of a guideline than a rule. If the content is stepbystep and high quality, 15 pages is enough for a 99 cent kindle book or a freebie used for lead generation. Varies according to the book order of the phoenix is by far the longest, but the average chapter in philosophers stone, for example, is between 3,500 and 5,000 words. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. 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. The title with the shortest chapters, on average, was whirlwind in the thorn tree, averaging just 2,900 words each. Add screenshots or other graphics and youve got a nicesized ebook. For full length novels on wattpad, the average or recommended length is generally 20003000 words per chapter. For more information on word counts for childrens book, check out this post. Others might keep going a few pages longer if they are compelled forward by a shocking. From these numbers, we can establish some guidelines. The book has 192 pages so the chapters average less than two pages in length.

When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is advisable. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Do you want to publish a wide format bookwith inspiring quotes down the side margins. While many agents say they wont reject a book solely based on length, many also say they take word count into consideration. James patterson along came a spider 106,465 black friday 92,395 cradle and all 69,025 kiss the girls 103,073 popular novel word. That said, of course the books couldnt be more different. 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. Why chapter length matters more than you think medium. The average length of the novels we publish varies, but is almost never fewer than 80,000 words. To find out how long should a chapter be, we examined books from a wide variety of genres and eras. And, in case youre wondering, here are the average word counts for other popular genres. Or to put it another way every chapter needs a three line plot. But again as a surprise to me, dune was a close second, averaging just 3,800 words per chapter.

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. James patterson the mostselling author in the world is famous for his tiny chapter of a page and a half around 250500 words. 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. The authors had sold between 10 copies and 2 million copies of their chapter books. Thats generally considered enough information to make a reader feel like an update was worth it, its long enough for most people to read in under ten minutes, its mobiledevice friendly, and its plenty of time for things to happen. Many times ive onemorechaptered myself all the way to the end at 2 a.

Writing middle grade a look at the numbers hannah holt. 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. Before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length. One thing in favor of short chapters is that readers are more likely to read just one more chapter when its midnight and they have to work in the morning, but theyre really into the book. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo.

I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. 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. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. This means in a novel, a chapter can usually run from 628 novel pages or 314 word pages. Ive heard and read several reasons for this, including. 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. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. 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.

In comparison, the database gives an average length of 89,000 words for adult fiction excluding fantasy, smack in the middle of the commonlycited range of 80,000100,000. This is not to say that all modern novels worth reading are shortchaptered, or readers wont be interested in your book if average chapter length. The average mean word count was about 53,000 words. To give you a general idea of the average chapter length, the range is usually between 3,000 to 5,000 words.

So childrens book manuscript chapter length is a big question that ive received many times about all sorts of childrens books that have chapters. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Writers digest recommends 80,000 to 89,999 words as a 100% safe range for literary, mainstream, womens, romance, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts.

However, you need to sustain your readers anticipation and interest in order for them to keep reading your book. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. Your target audience for these is kids ages 4 to 8. 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. If you take the advice on book length, then a 50,000 word book might break nicely into ten chapters about 5,000 words per chapter. Chapters in books for younger readers often err on the shorter side, while fantasy. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. Paragraphs have no specific sentence or word count.

Some readers like to stop reading at the end of a chapter. In contrast, word count is finite and usually i can calculate book length with about 99% accuracy in part because also included in any calculation is a count of figures, tables, etc. The longest average chapter lengths were lord of the rings 7,500, prince of nothing 8,700, and the beefiest chapters were found. 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. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively. 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 bookbooks over the 110k word count are usually considered epics. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter. How many words are in an average chapter in a novel. I just wrote a prologue that ended up right at 500 words, and i wanted to know the same. 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. At 250 words per page using times roman 12 and oneinch margins, that means theyre usually six to eight pages long.

In fact, the majority of printed books are turned into ebooks. There are no hardandfast rules on how long or short a chapter needs to be. If two books are the same length, would you want many, shorter chapters or fewer, longer. You can use comparable, successful books as models to determine the length you book should be. Readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. The first book is around 7,600 words and the second book is around 6,800 words. That was the formula in the good old days when courier. So that usually includes everything from chapter books, to middle grade, to young adult novels.

What is the average chapter length in a young adult novel. The targets average chapter contains 1,600 words while the goldfinchs average chapter contains 25,000 words. While 50,000 words is a fairly firm minimum, plenty of ya books reach up to 100,000 words, with a sweet spot at 75,00080,000. By no means a ya series, but i was curious to find out just how dense a song of ice and fire actually is a game of thrones. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. 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. Early readers are the earliest chapter stories that a kid can get. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate. Most middle grade novels are between 40,000 and 69,000 words long. Never write a chapter longer than 4,000 words bookfox. Every category will have an average length, including childrens books, young adult, business books, etc. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long. Writing chapter books a look at the numbers hannah holt.