There is a sweet spot when it comes to word count, and its based on a books genre and target audience. The first book is around 7,600 words and the second book is around 6,800 words. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Many times books are character based, as seen in the examples below.
Nov, 2015 the truth about word counts for childrens book is nothing is set in stone, so it can be a good idea to do as much research as possible on current expectations. Yes, having a book that is overly short or overly long for its genre will incrementally decrease your odds of finding traditional publication. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. It s okay, it s a disease and well get through it together. Even with the wiggle room allowed by ebooks, authors follow commonlyaccepted book word count. If the publisher has a convincing argument for cutting a passage or two, the book will be shorter. Its okay, its a disease and well get through it together. Aug 15, 2019 a childrens book describes any book written for an audience between the ages of 08 years old. 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. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. I created this website to help you better gauge your books word count, because the. 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. Reading length is a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to and affiliated sites.
Word counts from the nyt best sellers list writers rumpus. There are no set rules for how long a childrens novel should be, and the lack of clear guidance can be frustrating. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be. If the book offers more complicated instructions such as for creating an origami bird or a fashionable paper doll, the word count can extend as high as 1,500 words. Picture books for children up to age eight average words though many are. The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be. The creation of hilow books to help children with low reading levels and readers with additional learning difficulties develop their reading confidence.
Have you ever checked your books word count, written a few paragraphs, then checked again. Childrens book categories are not static and they are not written in stone. To make it easy for authors, we have a variety of unique eyecatching, readytouse childrens book templates. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. Aug 07, 2017 ive been getting a lot of word count questions from pitch wars hopefuls, so i though id write everything out in a post for ease and convenience. The word count to aim for with this type of book is usually between 500 and 600 words. Jul 08, 2014 you have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. If your word count comes in too high or low, you could raise eyebrows with publishers. If you are an author of a book or know of a books accurate wordcount, contact me. The story of the word count i imagine most resembles the story of goldilocks and the three bears. Guidelines for word count for childrens books anita nolan.
She sits down at the kitchen table and sees three laptops sitting there. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. There are general rules for how many pages and words a magazine or book should contain, but a writer should always write to a publisher s guidelines. These ranges are generalizations and there are always outliers.
These books are geared for children between the ages of 3 and 8 years old. Yes, you should go through the novel revision checklist and take out anything extraneous no matter what. These can be found on a publisher s website or can be requested in writing. When i was young, there were picture story books for older children. Picture books for children up to age eight average words though many are shorter. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. On the technical side of things, authors need to consider the number of words that will be in their completed manuscript.
In 2016s list, ron chernows 816page alexander hamilton managed to crack the top spot. Aug 05, 2019 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. Jun 26, 2018 while there are no hard and fast rules about word count for childrens books or any genre, it is helpful to know what is generally expected. Audiences are used to a certain story length and page count. If youve written a picture book text, dont think you have to find an artistic friend before you can submit it your words will.
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. That makes them more expensive to print and a bigger investment. For fiction or creative nonfiction picture books not informational, the current word count goal is 500 words. The same title is on each screen, but which to pick. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. You might find your story strengthening as the excess words drop off. Students, teachers, parents, and librarians can search in english or spanish using criteria such as atos book level or a lexile measure, interest level, title, author, fictionnonfiction, subject, awardwinners, state lists, ccss exemplars, and more. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is advisable. And in that case, people always ask, you know, how long should my chapters be. If you are planning to traditionally publish, it is significantly more likely you will be successful if you stick to this word count. I was a middle school english teacher, so know i know mg pretty well, and i am going to say i think casey is pretty spot on.
We wish there was a simple, onesizefitsall answer to this. Nov 11, 2018 for fiction or creative nonfiction picture books not informational, the current word count goal is 500 words. The 57 year old reading range straddles a few different categories of books. While there are no hard and fast rules about word count for childrens books or any genre, it is helpful to know what is generally expected. Each page often has only one line to keep it simple and easy for a young child to follow.
For the first three children s book categories listed above, you are better off editing your word count down as low as possible. The word count increases significantly as kids grow into each subgenre, so be sure to consider your target audience when writing childrens fiction. I created this website to help you better gauge your book s word count, because the. If i were to ask you how long your book is, and you answer that it is 225 manuscript pages, i am still not clear. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Thats why the traditional submission formats exist. Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. This isnt to say that long books are no longer succeeding. Pbs go from image only board books all the way up to full stories.
That word count is relatively high, but not so high as to make it a huge. When writing for children, it s imperative that certain guidelines are followed. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. Published childrens books are divided into three main categories. From picture books to ya information to get you started at. A childrens book describes any book written for an audience between the ages of 08 years old. Many new writers are unaware there are guidelines and rules for numbers of pages or words per type of literature as well as specific ages each category applies to. Generally, editors are a bit wary of answering questions about word counts. Picture story books for older children between the ages of 6 and 10 include more text with each picture.
With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. But at the end of the day, you have to write the novel you want to write. Childrens fiction is so varied in terms of length, type, illustration. The word count doesnt rise above 3500 words on the high end. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference.
Learn how to write a children s book in 9 easy steps in this guide written by moms choice award winning author eevi jones. Sep 28, 2010 guidelines for word count for childrens books from rebecca ryals russells website. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and novels and memoirs and childrens novels and picture books. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Even consider contacting agents and publishers asking for guidelines before sending them a copy of a manuscript. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages.
Editors have very specific guidelines for the types of stories they publish and those types all have specific word count ranges. Discover what size your book should be and if thats comparable to the standard book sizes in publishing. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Picture books youll hear many people say the shorter the better. I am constantly asked how many words should a childrens book actually be. Yes, you can go to barnes and noble and likely find a longer picture book on the.
Much has changed in childrens fiction in the past twenty years. Why word count matters when you submit your book the. Word count for novels and children s books at the guide to literary agents blog. If you have a book that is a little bit outside these ranges, its an extra hurdle and your. I have a question about your opinion on word count in ya fantasy. Have you ever checked your book s word count, written a few paragraphs, then checked again. Childrens book writers must adhere to strict industry standards for word counts. Most suitable for 47 years, although some might cover 09 years. Searching for books with a corresponding renaissance accelerated reader 360 quiz is easy with accelerated reader bookfinder.
Thats the big question that childrens fiction authors have to answer before they submit their book. In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of 273 pages. Word counts for children, mg, ya, and adult books, by genre. Nov, 2009 i almost hesitate to get into the childrens book length discussion publicly because it can be controversial. So you may not want to tempt fate on the shortshortshort end of the scale.
Where can i find a database of all published books word. As you can see, you need to know your word count, not the number of pages your word processor produces. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Less than 70,000 unless its fantasy or scifi, which can stretch to 90,000 at a push. The word count range for each age level is only a guideline. 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. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. These can be found on a publishers website or can be requested in writing. Genre in childrens writing meg rosoff the guardian.
How to write a childrens book in 9 easy steps complete. Usually a larger format, 32page planned in double paged spreads book with an illustrations and text with a word count of about 600. I have found the website dogobooks to be the most useful place to check the word count of popular books for kids. We all had our favorite childrens book illustrators growing up. Longer books increase the number of pages that need to be printed. Now, of course, children of older ages can enjoy this book but ultimately, youre shooting for those who cant read at all, or are relatively new to reading. Word counts for children, mg, ya, and adult books, by. Less is more, just look at maurice sendak s where the wild things are. So that usually includes everything from chapter books, to middle grade, to young adult novels. There are a lot of elements that go into writing a story, like fleshing out characters, piecing together the plot, and crafting the perfect ending.
Step 4 is measure your manuscript in word count, not pages. 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. Multiply up by the number of pages and get to a rough word count. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline. So childrens book manuscript chapter length is a big question that ive received many times about all sorts of childrens books that have chapters. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. Guidelines for word count for childrens books anita. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Miranda is an awardwinning author of more than a dozen fiction and nonfiction books for children. They are, however, categorical delineations that are fairly.
Some people consider them genres, and some people insist that they are only subcategories of childrens books which may or not be a genre, depending upon who is doing the delineating. If it has areas that need further explanation the word count will go up. 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. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook.
Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. The total word and page count will vary from book to book and is dependent on your writing and overall book formatting average time to write this book. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. I almost hesitate to get into the childrens book length discussion publicly because it can be controversial. As a result, a 100k manuscript can size up very differently on a shelf.
The website renaissance for teachers is a great resource for researching the word count of published books. On average, how long is a childrens book for children. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. You have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. When writing for children, its imperative that certain guidelines are followed. I was quickly flooded with emails from many an angry author for daring to put a word count on a level of book.
Ive been getting a lot of word count questions from pitch wars hopefuls, so i though id write everything out in a post for ease and convenience. Word count for novels and childrens books writers digest. Childrens books need to be engaging and pleasant to the eyes. However, the drop in the overall average length of bestsellers over the last 7 years points to a marked. The aspiring writer steps into a publishing house, alluring and mysterious. Guidelines for writing childrens books pen and the pad. The total word and page count will vary from book to book and is dependent on your writing and overall book formatting. Less than 70,000 unless fantasy scifi supernatural, which can be longer, max 90,000. So many people today rely on the word count given by their software program, but when you go to print a physical book, the pages matter. Thats why we often get asked questions like this what word count should i aim for.
A you should be aware that the majority of readers are actually adults. There are general rules for how many pages and words a magazine or book should contain, but a writer should always write to a publishers guidelines. When cornered and asked this, our usual answer can be a bit. 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. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. This article suggests that essentially, it should be as long as it needs to be, meaning dont look at the word count, just get the story out then edit. Jun 05, 2017 so childrens book manuscript chapter length is a big question that ive received many times about all sorts of childrens books that have chapters.