Average word count of a children's book

I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime. Some publishers issue guidelines as to word length usually. If you are planning to traditionally publish, it is significantly more likely you will be successful if you stick to this word count. Editors have very specific guidelines for the types of stories they publish and those types all have specific word count ranges. There are no set rules for how long a childrens novel should be, and the lack of clear guidance can be frustrating. For the first three children s book categories listed above, you are better off editing your word count down as low as possible. Less is more, just look at maurice sendak s where the wild things are.

Nov 11, 2018 for fiction or creative nonfiction picture books not informational, the current word count goal is 500 words. You might find your story strengthening as the excess words drop off. Miranda is an awardwinning author of more than a dozen fiction and nonfiction books for children. What is the recomended wordcount for a fantasyfiction book. 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 best research tool is to read lots of books and see which publishers print books at which lengths. For the classic picture book group, i realize that 48 is a pretty big age range. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. Many of these books are written in rhyme or in a simple singsong meter that is catchy and fun. So that usually includes everything from chapter books, to middle grade, to young adult novels. The average word count for a novel is between 70,000 words and 120,000 words. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book. Picture books for children up to age eight average words though many are. Much longer stories do register, but they only mean you end up reading fewer total books.

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. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. 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. 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. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. This is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books.

If i tell you that my book is 70,000 words, and send you an 800 page correctly formated ms the 1. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Apr 08, 2019 consider joining us for this 9week online course. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and. Writing chapter books a look at the numbers hannah holt. I would limit the book at 100,000 words to be safe. Thats why the traditional submission formats exist. The stories should be easy to follow and have an average word count of 1,000 to 10,000 words, a range similar to an adult short story. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. Current word count trends society of childrens book writers and. How often do you find a longer picture book like the journey of oliver k.

Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Oct 03, 2017 their agents send stories to an average of 59 editors at a time. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. The word counts of some famous novels for comparison. This reduction will be very small, like maybe 12 lines less per page, and 510 pages less for the book. Industry standard childrens categories published childrens books are divided into three main categories. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. The 57 year old reading range straddles a few different categories of books. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is advisable.

Between the ages of four and eight, children have picture books read to them and also begin to read themselves. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. There are no set rules for how long a childrens novel should be, and the lack. Meanwhile write more stories in the current word count and hope they sell. The page count is 32 or 40 pages with a word count of under 1,500. On a scale of one bad to ten excellent, chapter books rate their agents overall as an 8.

Understand how the childrens book publishing industry works, including writing, revising, submitting, publishing, and marketing a book for children, teens, or young adults. As an editor, i cant tell you how many times ive turned down a manuscript because of excessive word counts. Oct 18, 2017 the average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. Now, before you lose your mind, let me explain what i mean.

Word count for book series the first book in each series below was the author s first. 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. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. Childrens books cover a huge range, from books for babies up to young adult fiction. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. A guide to word counts filles vertes publishing, llc. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. I know that picture books are getting shorter and shorter. Apr 23, 2018 standard word count ranges for various genres. Yes, you can go to barnes and noble and likely find a longer picture book on the.

May 24, 2010 dont let the word count dictate what you want to write, but definitely keep it in mind. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. Genre in childrens writing meg rosoff the guardian. Nov, 2009 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. On average, how long is a childrens book for children. We wish there was a simple, onesizefitsall answer to this. Search for word count totals in books word counters. 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. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. 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.

On average, how long is a childrens book for children between the. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. Childrens book writers must adhere to strict industry standards for word counts. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Im okay with a manuscript that goes up to 30,000 words over the suggested word count. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. 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. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. 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. Early readers are books with slightly more text than found in your average picture book. So if you want to write and publish a book successfully, this is vital information to know even if it seems trivial.