First chapter books word count

Since opinions vary greatly, i did some research to verify the numbers in my head. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Agent jennifer laughran gives the word count for books for beginning. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Oct 18, 2017 there are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Twilight has 24 titled chapters, or 26 if you count the preface and epilogue, and about 4580 words per chapter. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. My first novel ran 120k words, the next one most likely 200k. If youve read our related article on how many words are in a novel youll recall that the typical word count for a novel according to is 80,000 to 109,000 words. Once upon a time amazon offered text stats for a majority of their books, which included word count. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has 17 chapters with titles, and about 4560 words per chapter.

First readerschapter stories many of the larger publishers have a series of short illustrated books for children aged from around four to seven. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. And the first chapter of richard pecks novel a long way from chicago ages 912 sets. I read a lot pretty much daily and have noticed many sci fy novels in the 75k word count range. Between 80,000 and 89,999 words is a good range you should be aiming for.

The hunger games has a word count of 99,750 and my utility calculates it at 98,916. I used the lexham hebrew bible and the nestlealand novum testamentum graece for these word counts. I definitely notice when a chapter is a lot shorter or a lot longer than sort of what has been established. These are the i can read type of booklets that enable an early reader to begin reading a novellike book all on their own. Anything in this word count wont scare off any agent anywhere. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. 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. Before middle grade came along as a category, chapter books were the only. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. 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. To find pretty much any kids ya word count, you can use the ar bookfinder. May 29, 2014 ive put together word counts for every book of the bible.

There is no definitive word count guide for nonfiction books due to the many subgenres. I published my first novel on amazon this year mongruxx wolfpac and am 40k words into the next book mongruxx starship umbra. Jan 25, 2018 the length of a chapter in a novel should be less about words and pages and more about plot points. Although amazon stopped offering this for new books several years ago, the feature still remained for older books. How to write early readers, easy chapter books, and chapter. Word count for book series the first book in each series below was the authors first. Writing chapter books a look at the numbers hannah holt. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Word counts for childrens books i received a request awhile ago to do a post on word counts for different age categories in childrens lit. However, i understand that the length of twilight is unusually long for a debut novel. For the book hatchet, the actual word count is 41,672 and i give you 41,212. Oftentimes, professional editing will cut down the unnecessary information so your memoir is the appropriate word count. I got blood rites and death masks in the wrong order, they should be the other way round.

Unfortunately, amazon recently removed that feature as well. The hobbit has more unique words and a higher unique word density than both the silmarillion and each volume in the lord of the rings. Do check your comparable titlesrecent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Sectioning your story into chapters is best done during the first phase of editing your initial draft. 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. Here is everything writers need to know about novel word counts. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter. The first book is around 7,600 words and the second book is around 6,800 words. Oct 22, 2010 early readers and chapter books are a childs first tentative steps into the grownup world of reading. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Here you go, i made sure to count from chapter one till the last word of the last chapter, also keep in mind that different programs count words differently so your results may vary.

Im a little confused about the word count for chapter books. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. When writing for the younger ages especially, every word must count. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000word range. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. 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. Board books are meant to be read to children who are early emerging readers. My bookseller friend notes that children at this stage love series such as az mysteries, cam jansen, junie b. You wont get exact, but youre wondering whether 35k is reasonable, so you dont need exact. For more information on word counts for childrens book, check out this post.

Can be publisher specific, ranging from 3,000 to absolute max 5,000. Chapter books have a tight word count but are complex enough to be divided into chapters with accompanying illustrations. This 90,000 word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. 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. Youre writing your first novel, and you know you must shoot for around 80 to 95 thousand words. But more than word count, its content and reading difficulty that will better define what you have.

Click librarian or teacher and then search for books like yours click on the titles to get all kinds of info about them, including wordcount. Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count. Mgs are usually around 2545k, even longer if its a fantasy. Fleshing out an imagined historical world lends itself to a higher word count, so historical fiction tends to be closer to 100,000 words. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan.

Heres what you need to know about this often overlooked genre. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. Most are written inhouse or by packagers, and a few, as carrie noted about the dora books, are downright dreadful. These numbers are pulled from the original languages using logos bible softwareyou can see how i did it below. Apr 23, 2018 this post covers why word count matters for novels, the standard word count ranges for various genres, and the word counts of some famous novels. Jul 31, 2019 your entry may include more than your first chapter, up to 6,000 words total, but should contain complete sectionsplease do not leave us hanging midparagraph just to maximize word countand must be the first chapters of your booklength project, as if you were querying agents or publishing houses.

And there are many other examples of great young chapter books and chapter book series out there. 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. Mar 20, 2020 why you need to know your word or page count my next traditionally published book, the author training manual writers digest books, february 2014, was supposed to be around 50,000 wordsthats what i agreed to in my contract and what my publisher planned on when determining page count, design, expenses, profitandloss statement, etc. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. This is a 100% safe range for literary, mainstream, womens, romance, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror. The actual word count for harry potter and the sorcerers stone is 78,792 and my utility calculates 77,876. The first chapter of the luminaries is 360 pages, whereas the final is two. Since just comparing the number of unique words in a book does not take its length into account i decided to calculate the percentage of unique words of the whole text. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. The word count doesnt rise above 3500 words on the high end. If this thread still going can someone tell me how many words is reasonable for a chapter im writing my first fantasy novel and worried if i have too short or to long of a chapter right now my first chapter word count is at 1,436 and in counting. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words.

I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. Jun 05, 2017 childrens book manuscript chapter length consistency is what sort of keeps the engine of your pacing going. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. By the way, if you want to know what i think of logos. Jun 27, 2019 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. The luminaries, which won the man booker prize in 2015, has 12 sections that steadily decrease in word count to mirror the waning of the moon. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Ali, 9000 words is on the upper end of the chapter book spectrum. This also helps you figure out what a target chapter word count might, as a consistent chapter length gives readers an anchor while engrossed in your novel. Rowlings recordbreaking series began with two titles on the high end of that spectrum and finished with five that left the guidelines in the dust. And when im reading, i definitely notice, you know, with my editorial clients, i have manuscripts in front of me all the time. There is a gradual progress, from books for first readers that look very much like picture.

If youre thinking longer than a picture book but shorter than a middle grade novel then youre on the right track. Aug 05, 2019 certain publishers of very specific genres like love inspired, harlequin will require a set word count or range, but my first bit of advice is to plot out a strong, solid story using timetested structure, write the book with careful and expert crafting learn to be a great wordsmith and develop your unique voice, and ignore the constraints. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book. May 15, 2011 well, while the accelerated reader program is lame in a lot of ways, this is a very handy tool. If the word count of twilight is disregarded, the average becomes around 88,625. Writing chapter books for 69 year olds australian writers. For novels specifically in the young adult genre, the typical range is between 55,000 79,999 words. Yet all too often they arent taken seriously in the world of childrens publishing.