A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of time. Depends on how much of an experienced writer you are. Thats roughly four to twenty printed pages, with each page containing a standard 250 words. Sep 20, 2009 chapter breaks these can fall awkwardly e. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity. 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. They can vary in length between just a couple of pages and 50 or 60. Is the length of 700 words okay for a wattpad book chapter. The reader gets exhausted, shoves the bookmark in the middle of the scene and may have to reread. Regardless of genre, there is no hard and fast rule about how many pages or words each chapter should contain or how many chapters should be in a book.
In terms of words, memoirs tend to be comparable to novels. May 14, 2018 readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. To find out how long should a chapter be, we examined books from a wide variety of genres and eras. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. For writing i would conclude, that some readers like my mother use chapters to plan the time for reading. Ive seen very strong opinions on this, most on the side of keeping chapter lengths within a particular work within a narrow range.
However, there are some general guidelines in this article that may help you determine the page count and chapter length needed for your book. How long does a book have to be at writing for children and teens. Again, like novel length, chapter length is dictated by what is happening in the story, not by the law of averages and applied mathematics. For more information on word counts for childrens book, check out this post.
How to write chapters that captivate readers wellstoried. Oct 18, 2017 of course, sometimes the best way to chapter your book wont crystallize until you start editing. How to create chapters in your novel ny book editors. Ive always had trouble determining whether my chapters are within the same size realm as chapters in standard books. Planning the layout for your visual story i first wrote this article in 2015, and just yesterday april 22, 2017 got an email with a slew of questions in it. Whereas chapters in literary fiction sometimes are longer. So the kind of book youre writing will have an impact on chapter length. If you know how long the book is, you can divide it into eighths to find the perfect timing for all your major turning points. The lines can often seem blurry but the truth is that each is a unique format in childrens publishing. A summary is a concise explanation of the main ideas and supporting details of a work of writing. Some chapter book authors have chosen to lengthen each chapter book they write in a given series, with the idea that the readers comprehension ability and attention span will increase with every reading. You should just write what you feel needs to be written in that particular chapter. There are no hardandfast rules on how long or short a chapter needs to be.
Conversely, when we write epiclength chapters 10,000 words long, theres nowhere to pause. As writers, it might sound odd, but were not in the book. Many people read in spurts, at lunch time, or on the subway to work, readers enjoy chapters that can be finished in ten to fifteen minutes. While some need the length and those tend to stand out most simply need more revision and tightening. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively.
Chapters are known to have an average length of 4580 words, with a standard deviation of 120 words. How to calculate your books length before writing helping. So if you want your chapter breaks to pack a punch whether its your first, second, or even fifth draft, these are a few of the ways you can frame the end of each section. This signals that the book is going to move too slowly. Early readers are the earliest chapter stories that a kid can get. For full length novels on wattpad, the average or recommended length is generally 20003000 words per chapter. What is the average length of a chapter of a book for.
When im dividing my manuscript into chapters, how long should each chapter be. By 2017, however, that number has dropped to 273 pages. Suppose the length of a chapter of a harry potter book, in words, is approximately normally distributed. Id also like to add that chapters can be as short as a half of a page, there isnt really a set amount for chapter length. Go to a bookstore and support your fellow authors by purchasing these books, or check them out of the library. 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. Whats the difference between a middle grade novel and a chapter book. Rules of the road chapter length and chapter length. Eye of the world was one of the more normally distributed book in terms of chapter wordcount, which essentially means it had a mostcommon chapter length and a comparable number of chapters that were longer or shorter. I tend to be more critical of ya manuscripts exceeding 8090k and have to be blown away to want to read a full that length or longer. There are tens of thousands of great books within armsreach of your reader at all times. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words or characters are counted. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. You can find suggested lengths for specific genres in her article.
Writing chapter books a look at the numbers hannah holt. In each case, chapters can be numbered or titled or both. Dec 15, 2009 now, on to chapter length consistency. Apr 11, 2015 but plenty of writers still fret about the length of their chapters, let alone the length of the novel. If in writing your manuscript it feels like it should be two long chapters and then a onepager, thats fine as long as you keep up that pattern throughout the manuscript.
Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. In other words, let your content dictate your chapter length, not the. 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. In fact, the majority of printed books are turned into ebooks.
They dont have to coform to any preconceived ideas. Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long. Nonfiction likewise, popular selfhelp fiction seems to favor shorter chapters whereas memoirs, not unlike literary fiction, take a bit more time and page length to say what they have to say. First time authors could desire to seem to the low end. The name refers to the fact that the stories are usually. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. If you dont know how to find your documents word count, this article shows you how. There is a worry that they might be too long or not long enough, and that perfect goldilocks length just seems hard to pin down, but in truth, its not hard at all. 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. Are there mega popular books with shorter chapters. Thrillers, though, tend to have shorter chapters of around 600 or 800 words.
If you want to make it comfortable for them, count the length of a chapter in novels you like. To decide which details to include in the summary of a book chapter, consider the who, what, when, where, why and how while reading the chapter. 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. Tips and tricks by writerkellie kellie bowe with 4,459 reads. Oct 27, 2018 chapter length matters more than you think. 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. What will happen in each chapter, and how much has to happen before you move on to the next chapter. What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. This being said, there are plenty of books with 30 or 40 chapters.
Looking at the titles on my librarys shelves at at my local book store, it seems many are written inhouse or as a workforhire project with no author listed. Why your nonfiction book chapters are so important write. Publishers want to know the overall length of your book. May 12, 2012 again, like novel length, chapter length is dictated by what is happening in the story, not by the law of averages and applied mathematics. You shouldnt set manuscript guidelines for yourself on chapter length. 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. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity hacker.
Oct 22, 2010 early readers are the earliest chapter stories that a kid can get. 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. Too many chapters relative to the length of a book provides methe manuscript editorwith a clear sign that an author has not thought through the book s structure well enough. If you are writing a selfhelp book containing 10 steps to life improvement and each step 1 chapter, and you think you manuscript is going to be 10 to 15 pages per chapter, but you want to create an intimate reading experience, your book might be way too long for the 5 x 8 trim size. 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. How to write a summary of a book chapter pen and the pad. May 11, 2009 word count and book length getting published was indeed a good blog post. 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 chapter in your book tells a ministory that forwards your overall plot. When i got back home i checked and found that her latest book published april 1, 2014, ive got you under my skin, has an average chapter length of 768 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. Chapter books that is, books for children who have mastered the basics and are comfortable with reading are between 4,000 and,000 words long. Your target audience for these is kids ages 4 to 8.
The answer is that there is not a fixed length or a precise word count you should follow when creating chapters for your book. Traditional chapter books have a fairly regulated structure, though there are some exceptions and some leeway. From these numbers, we can establish some guidelines. In any case, to see how authors use this tactic to set their pacing, we also mapped out the word count of every chapter in four famous books. 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.
Fortunately, theres no set rule for chapter length. The collection as a whole posted an average chapter length of 6,100 words. Most nonfiction books have between 5 and 20 chapters. 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. Many people read in spurts, at lunch time, or on the subway to work, readers. Any less than 5 chapters, and your chapters may be running long or may contain too many ideas. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. Many novelists these days prefer chapters that are between 1,500 wordsor six book pages and 8,000 words, or 32 book pages. Somewhere around the 20page mark is about the average. But the word count of a chapter matters if you want. I use a book mark to remember where i was, but stop reading also in the middle of a chapter. 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.
How many chapters will you need before you reach your target word count. But while the length of a novel is to a large extent up to its writer, lengths may also vary by subgenre. While many novels have chapters of similar length, many also do not because it is an art form that should not be limited by an exact pageword count. Beginning writers often ask how long the chapters in the novel they are working on should be. Take notes that answer these questions and compile the information into. Your book length 29 pages and the low minimum of your age range 710 suggests to me that you might not be writing a chapter book but a book for advanced beginners.
The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 to 75,000 words, but this can vary depending upon category. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. The collection as a whole posted an average chapter length.
Middlegrade novels are generally 20,000 to 55,000 words. Then consider writing a manuscript of similar length. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. 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. 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. How to write early readers, easy chapter books, and chapter. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. I would like to write another post about this sometime, about the average chapter lengths of the bestselling books in each genre and how that has changed over time. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. Word count for novels and childrens books at the guide to literary agents blog. Mean is the used mostly in the field of statistics or.
Romance books tend to have longer chapters about 3,000 words or so, as do science fiction novels. Nov 16, 2011 chapters in a book do not have to be the exact same length no matter what genre you are writing in. Unlike picture books for younger readers, a chapter book tells the story primarily through prose, rather than pictures. 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. 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. A chapter book is a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 710. And in that case, people always ask, you know, how long should my chapters be. Mar 20, 2020 an ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a full length book.
I just wrote a prologue that ended up right at 500 words, and i wanted to know the same. Your book is written for your reader, so make chapter decisions based on what makes the best book for them. Why chapter length matters more than you think medium. More to the point, if the market for 5yearolds is defined by short books say, 80 pages long with a bit of simple text aimed precisely at that age group and with quite a few illustrations, then offering a publisher a book that is double the length and without a precise target age group just wont fly. A chapter is one of the main divisions of a piece of writing of relative length, such as a book of prose, poetry, or law. It makes quite a difference whether you want to publish a childrens picture book, a 50recipe smoothie book, a science fiction novel or a technical encyclopedia. While many authors keep the chapters around the same length, it doesnt mean that you cant have a 20 page chapter right next to a 10 page chapter.
A chapter is one of the main ways to divide and separate distinct ideas within a book. If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts. Your chapter structure needs to be in proportion to the overall length of the book. Many books have 40, 50 or sometimes 60 chapters, all varying in length. Therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. In my experience, one of my chapters can be as little as 1,000 words or as much as 4,000. In other words, in a 75kword novel with an average chapter length of 3000 words, chapters should range from 27003300 words. Jul 18, 20 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. How to write early readers, easy chapter books, and. That said, each manuscript should be long enough to adequately tell its story or.
And, keeping your chapters short creates a good balance. The dragon reborn was rightskewed, which means there was a heavy distribution of exceedingly long chapters. Unlike books for older readers, chapter books contain plentiful illustrations. A chapter book may have multiple chapters and these can be referred to by the things that may be the main topic of that specific chapter. T he indie author chris fox coined the term potato chip chapters for easilydigestible book chapters of a certain size. Incidentally, you have probably already divided your novel into chapters using your instincts. Its up to you within reason before you decide your average chapter length, its a good idea to think about the purpose behind dividing a book into chapters. Ill walk along published may 12, 2011 has an average chapter length of 1,021. They pace a book, can be used for dramatic effect, and keep a readers attention. About what percent of harry potter chapters have between 4460 and 4700 words. Pages and chapters arent a great measure for length chapters can be any length, and pages vary wildly depending on font size and other formatting choices not to mention software. So that usually includes everything from chapter books, to middle grade, to young adult novels. Again, like novel length, chapter length is dictated by what is happening in the story, not.