Average words per book chapter

Typically though, i would shoot for an average of 2200 words per chapter. The average words from 60,000 words to 200,000 or more words in a whole novel. To give you an idea, the first chapter of one of my novels is 54 words. Its no longer necessary to estimate according to the 250wordsperpage formula. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. This number was significantly different from the average we had seen for the estimated print length that had been given in the product. I guess it really depends on the book and author, i try and aim for 3000 words per chapter. And are there books with chapters that consistently score above 5,000 words. Make your books more unputdownable and keep your readers coming back. You can use comparable, successful books as models to determine the length. Horror is much like mystery in the sense that you dont want to drag these novels on too long.

The average adult novel runs approximately 100,000 words while those in other categories run 80120,000 words. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity hacker. All this relates to the standard paperback size book. I like chapters to be no longer than 10 pages each, with one scene per chapter. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. I personally find the trend these days, particularly in thrillers, is to use shorter chapters. Turns out the next chapter was only two words long and my dad wouldnt read the next one. For example, if your book has about 20 chapters, you can put about 10,000 words in each chapter. This is another common question, and for most writers it should be easy to answer by using a word count feature in your writing tool. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. An approximate word count round numbers based on what your wp tells you enables them to estimate costs and other factors involved in printing a book. So, if you have an hour to write and aim to get down 300 words, you might wonder, how many pages is 300 words and the answer is less than one. Chapters are usually under 25 and chapter length varies greatly between authors because authors use them differently to segment the story.

Jan 08, 2018 now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. 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. As pointed out in the axis labels, the horizontal x axis represents chapter length in words, and the y axis represents how many times throughout the books a chapter of that length occurred. Im writing a fanfic and so far, the chapter im writing seems like its going to end up being 10,00015,000 words long, more if i dont make the rest of what i wanted in it a whole different chapter. Many times ive onemorechaptered myself all the way to the end at 2 a. 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. Your article was a welcome relief to me since i cannot justify writing for the sake of adding to my word count if the story is already complete. How does your book measure compare to whats succeeding in todays marketplace. Divide the word count of the book by your rate of speech per hour to get the estimated number of finished hours. Childrens book manuscript chapter length consistency is what sort of keeps the engine of your pacing going. Average book meaning 300400 pages long is usually between 60,00080,000.

Jun 05, 2017 childrens book manuscript chapter length consistency is what sort of keeps the engine of your pacing going. Pauls article shows you a formula to calculate finished time. My article shows you how to calculate the real time required for editing to produce the book. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project. This gives you 200 large print, 500 for an academic book with 350 words per paperback page as a working average.

Calculate book page count using word count for book design. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. An approximate word count round numbers based on what your wp tells you enables them to estimate costs and other factors involved in printing a. How many words are in an average chapter in a novel. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. A change of scene, a change of chapter seems to make sense to me. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has an average of 4,560 words per chapter. As you can see, there is no pattern, therefore your 1250 words or thereabouts. For example, agatha christie, one of the bestselling mystery writers of all time, write between 40,000 and 60,000 words per book. The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range. The da vinci code by dan brown was a global bestseller. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. A single word page is 500 words, going up to as much as 800 or as low as 400. Mar 03, 2015 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.

Ive done a little googling on this and here are the general guidelines ive found. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts. This is an art rather than a science but here are a few tips. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. I am writing the last chapter of my childrens chapter book manuscript and am currently just shy of 23k. How many words per chapter are in a harry potter novel.

Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. Heres what authors need to know about writing chapters because writing a book is more than putting words to the page. Using this exercise, you should end up with a good idea of book length expectations for a novel like yours. Every category will have an average length, including childrens books, young adult, business books, etc. James patterson the mostselling author in the world is famous for his tiny chapter of a page and a half around 250500 words. But for suspense novels youll be going up into 50s and even to 90 chapters with only 34 pages a chapter. On average, how many words are in a chapter in a book. This makes me wonder if publishers choose book sizes based on average scene length, to create the illusion of a certain pace. May 12, 2012 you could say that you are on doing 2800 words on average per chapter, which is pretty good, but just remember to vary the length of your proceeding chapters if you make each one quite long, you will end up something thats touching 100k words. Depending on the writing genre, word count in book chapters can vary considerably. Do you want the pace to be brisk to the reader and skip in a staccato.

Most middle grade novels are between 40,000 and 69,000 words long. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. The average mean word count was about 53,000 words. You wont get exact, but youre wondering whether 35k is reasonable, so you dont need exact. Jul 18, 20 but again as a surprise to me, dune was a close second, averaging just 3,800 words per chapter. I remember my dad reading this book to me as a child, he had just finished this brilliant chapter and i begged him to read another.

Typical novels are about 260 pages, 65,000 words, and 18 chapters, about 14 pages a chapter. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. So, whats the sweet spot for an average chapters word count and. Try it on some books with chapter lengths you like, and dont be surprised if it. Nov 22, 2007 one hundred thousand words per average novel 100,000. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. I typed out one page of the text yes it did take a while and got the approximate number of words per page. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. 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. Your actual rate of speech and finished time may vary significantly from the estimate.

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 an average chapter length of 11,300 words. To get an idea of what your book will look like you need to match the number of words per page on your word processing page to the finished printed page. There are plenty of books that exceed the 5000 words per chapter barrier. This makes me wonder if publishers choose book sizes based on average scene. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. There isnt one secret to learning how to write a chapter of a book there are many. Jun, 2011 you can figure out the finished runtime based on the word count. 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. Once you have a vision for your booksmall, standard, or wide formatyou can move on to the second step in deciding how many words you should write.

The study found the average chapter length in fantasy novels ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 words. For example, if your book has about 20 chapters, you can put about. Writing middle grade a look at the numbers hannah holt. 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. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. But this is all approximate, and if you have a chapter that ends on a cliffhanger at page 6, why not. As previously discussed, there are different requirements for both fiction and.

This is a bakedin feature we should engineer into all our writing. I would say that is the best average anyone can give you. Its also worth noting that the average word count figure can vary by genre. Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. Average novels tend to be around 80,000 95,000 words, which is more easier for your readers. One hundred thousand words per average novel 100,000. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity. All we have to do is use the wp tool that shows word count. For instance, audible uses an average rate of speed of 155 words a minute, or 9300 words per finished hour. There is a list on goodreads of books with short chapters. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. That when multiplied together, get that average of 2200 words per chapter i was talking about. This number was significantly different from the average we had seen for the estimated print length that had been given in the product details of each book s amazon sales page. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling.

Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. Aug 05, 2019 know what readers expect in terms of your genres word count even if the reader isnt aware of their expectations when it comes to how long a book is. 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. A single novel page runs from 200400 words, heavily influenced by the size of font, book, etc. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales, but also cause fewer 5star.

The last unicorn has a chapter that is 23,000 words long. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. I shoot for an average of 2500 words per scene, so if i were writing your book, id probably have two scenes for most chapters. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. Writing a book is about organizing your words into a compelling and interesting series of chapters. 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. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter. Oct 18, 2017 as with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. I am 42000 words in to my first novel and i have 39 chapters, so on average its just over words per chapter, though some may be nearer 2000.

Publishers want to know the overall length of your book. To put these numbers in perspective, if you type with a font size of 10, you could be packing nearly words on each a4 page which would make nearly 3 paperback pages. The red vertical intercept here represents the series average chapter length, which. I wrote a book actually, many books, then found a guide called jeff. The red vertical intercept here represents the series average chapter length, which is around 6,000 words. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter.

However, many authors, frustrated with the low price of ebooks, have taken to writing ebooks that are between 40,000 and 50,000. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of time. On average, a chapter is about 10 pages, give or take. Did the math and created a guideline for myself to use. Sep 20, 2019 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.

According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Or to put it another way every chapter needs a three line plot. Many category editors find it easier to judge the length of a book in the way theyve always done. For full length novels on wattpad, the average or recommended length is generally 20003000 words per chapter. Your chapter can be ten thousand words long, or just five hundred. Now that weve covered how many words are in a novel, its time to break it down even further by finding out the ideal number of chapters in a novel and how many words are used in a typical chapter. A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of. I definitely notice when a chapter is a lot shorter or a lot longer than sort of what has been established.

In any of these books, some chapters are longer than others. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. The longest average chapter lengths were lord of the rings 7,500, prince of nothing 8,700, and the beefiest chapters were found. The average singlespaced document typed in 12point font contains about 500 words per page, but that can vary pretty drastically depending on your formatting. Then i counted the average number of pages per chapter, and the number of chapters. The figure was found through looking at a number of books text stats, until brave new worlds 64,531 word count landed in the exact center of all books50% of books have fewer words and 50% of books have more words. And when im reading, i definitely notice, you know, with my editorial clients, i have manuscripts in front of me all the time.

Why chapter length matters more than you think medium. When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. But again as a surprise to me, dune was a close second, averaging just 3,800 words per chapter. Since a page is about 250 300 words long, and chapters are about 6 10 pages long, leaving the averages of 275 words per page and 8 pages per chapter. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. If you dont know your rate of speech, audible uses 9300 words per hour, or 155 words per minute, in its calculation for books posted on acx. As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. 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.