Word count of famous children's books

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. My first book, three times a lady was roughly 100,000 words. Moreover, board books are not necessarily the place i recommend launching a kidlit writing career. How to draft proposals to childrens book publishers dummies. Here is everything writers need to know about novel word counts. Ive been researching the word counts pages of ya novels to make sure im not under or over. Heres how i worked out the word count i literally counted the words in a cathy kelly book, a sheila oflanagan book and a marian. Where can i find a database of all published books word. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Children s books cover a huge range, from books for babies up to young adult fiction. 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 book books over the 110k word count are usually considered epics. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range.

There are a number of factors deciding the word count, topmost being what sort of. Try not to completely tether yourself to word counts. Whether youre just curious about how many words are in these books or youre writing a book and want to compare the length of your novel to these famous tomes, then read on to find the word counts of famous books and series. 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. For those who like to keep track of their reading word count or those who want to encourage their kids to read more the harry potter books series is an.

In 2012 matilda was ranked number 30 among alltime children s novels in a survey published by school library journal, a monthly with primarily us audience. Yes, board books do have some variation in page count. 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. 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. For more information on word counts for children s book, check out this post. Publishers know this and often wont even look at a book submission that is too long. Well, while the accelerated reader program is lame in a lot of ways, this is a very handy tool. Apr 05, 2015 generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. Lou treleaven, childrens author childrens author and. When writing for children, it s imperative that certain guidelines are followed. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and novels and memoirs and childrens novels and picture books. Celebrate backtoschool season with these avianinspired tales, from the joy of the christmas bird count to the story of a windblown whimbrel.

I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. Children s book writers must adhere to strict industry standards for word counts. Word count is very important to writing books for young children. The harry potter books are popular, and once someone reads the first book in the series, they often end up reading the entire series. Guidelines for writing childrens books pen and the pad. Shamelessly cribbed from classic short stories and reorganized by word count from shortest to longest for comparison purposes. Fantasy readers usually expect all their books to be epic.

Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. You can easily get a sense of the various ranges by looking at publisher websites or catalogues, and by. Word count for novels and childrens books writers digest. 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. In the manner of the very best childrens authors and rundells books do feel like novels that will be read for years to come she also has that pitchperfect recall of childhood. So you could work out how long you should take to write yours.

Line count governs length irrespective of whether the line contains one word or ten or twelve. This months best titles include creative picture books, thoughtprovoking middle grade reads, rewarding young adult stories, and more. Join the mailing list to find out about news, exhibitions and things. This is a lot harder because its not a specific field im receiving back i have to scrape the results and do some crazy parsing of the data.

It was the first of four books by dahl among the top 100, more than any other writer. Now, they dont offer word count or running time for books, but they do have a search api. These can be found on a publisher s website or can be requested in writing. As with many publishing standards, word count guidelines exist for a number of reasons including marketing and sales but also to help create stories that are free from plot or pacing issues that can exhaust readers. 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. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. There are no set rules for how long a childrens novel should be, and the lack of clear guidance can be frustrating. 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.

The first book, five on a treasure island, was published in 1942. For example, if an author has to write a minimum or maximum amount of words for an article, essay, report, story, book, paper, you name it. Many of our classic favorites as adults today are found in this format. While its important that every story find its natural length, it takes time to develop an instinct as to what that length is. Counting chickens a few words about word counts at hope vestergaard s site. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Word counts ill get straight into it, starting with books for grown ups.

Thats why we often get asked questions like this what word count should i aim for. Obviously, the examples under each category are above and below what is generally accepted. Word counts of the most popular books in the world. The word count doesnt rise above 3500 words on the high end. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. For novels in general, the accepted word count is 7080,000 words. What isnt often considered is the sheer number of words a person who reads the entire series consumes. The famous five is a series of childrens adventure novels written by english author enid blyton. If you want to learn how to write a book, sign up for our online course. Nowadays, adult novels generally tend to range from 80k to 120k depending on genre, however, young adult is often closer to the range of a nanowrimo winner, with 6070k being desirable.

Even if you dont have a word count yet, prompts are an excellent way to exercise the writing muscle. Jul 18, 2014 if you liked electric literatures game of books infographic that compared the length of a song of ice and fire to classic novels, you might enjoy this infographic created for cartridge discount. If youre looking for word counts of your favorite books or series, then youve come to the right place. I would limit the book at 100,000 words to be safe.

If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. To find pretty much any kids ya word count, you can use the ar bookfinder. Word count matters because every book, regardless of genre, has an inherent contract with the reader. Shop for children s books by age, series, author, subject and format. For debut books in this field the average word count tends to be 35k and it has therefore become the marker many industry professionals look for in queries from new writers.

Read some picture books, count the words and get a feel for it. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. Oct 17, 2018 her first two books in the harry potter series are on the long side for childrens fiction, but the word count is relatively normal from a publishers perspective. 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. Many of them are bilingual books in englishspanish, or english with some spanish words. 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. Jun 27, 2019 well, if your goal is to publish and sell your novel, those rules are pretty darn important. Childrens book writers must adhere to strict industry standards for word counts. Search for word count totals in books word counters.

Of the 161 stories listed, 3081 is the median word count number in the middle and 4052 is the average word count. Oct 28, 2015 word count picture book, middle grade, ya when i finished my first middlegrade novel, last in a long line of rebels, it sat on my desk at 68,000 words. Thats why the traditional submission formats exist. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. One hundred years of solitude, gabriel garcia marquez 144,523 words. 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. This is a lot harder because it s not a specific field im receiving back i have to scrape the results and do some crazy parsing of the data. Word count picture book, middle grade, ya lisa lewis tyre. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Find bestsellers, new releases, award winners and our recommended books for kids at.

Jun 08, 2014 most writers have word count on the brain. Why word count matters when you submit your book the artful. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Picture books for children up to age eight average words though many are shorter. How many words are there in the harry potter book series. What is the recomended wordcount for a fantasyfiction book. Obviously books at the younger end tend to be shorter. Word counts for children s books i received a request awhile ago to do a post on word counts for different age categories in children s lit. 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.

Ignoring the greats for a moment, the obvious answer to the first question is. Though, please note that most of the sources i found had slightly different numbers and i. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. Childrens books with latinx and hispanic characters.

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. Jul 08, 2014 you have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. If i tell you that my book is 70,000 words, and send you an 800 page correctly formated ms the 1. I have found the website dogobooks to be the most useful place to check the word count of popular books for kids. List of popular ya novels word counts if youre like me, you obsess over the word count of your novel. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. I know that picture books are getting shorter and shorter. So that usually includes everything from chapter books, to middle grade, to young adult novels. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000word range. The novels feature the adventures of a group of young children julian, dick, anne and georgina george and their dog timmy. 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. Meanwhile write more stories in the current word count and hope they sell. Childrens chapter books word count age 69 word count. 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.

Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words. Since opinions vary greatly, i did some research to verify the numbers in my head. This is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. Hello, im lou treleaven and i write picture books, junior fiction and early readers published by maverick arts publishing, including the penpals on pluto series. Too many words are a warning sign that the author does not know how to write for the age group and that the book has not been edited seriously enough. Word count for novels and children s books at the guide to literary agents blog. Some of the greatest books ever published didnt have the proper word count and i believe they were better for it. Current word count trends society of childrens book writers and. Ever needed to know the word count of famous novels. 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. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Conventional wisdom has it that a typical novel is around 80,00090,000 words long, but that s a lot shorter than most of the fantasy novels ive read in recent years, particularly traditional fantasy set in secondary worlds or any fantasy with an epic flavor.

You have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. The graphic looks at the length of some famous novels, poems, and plays from literary history. Celebrate the new year by filling your bookshelves with some great books for kids of all ages. Time included matilda in its list of the 100 best youngadult books. And, in case youre wondering, here are the average word counts for other popular genres. Aug 30, 2019 books ten birdy children s books to read with your fledglings. And in that case, people always ask, you know, how long should my chapters be. In the meantime, overwriting to the point that your draft exceeds typical word count ranges is a common issue and those widelyaccepted ranges arent completely arbitrary. The word count range for each age level is only a guideline.

I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Picture books for children up to age eight average words though many are. So childrens book manuscript chapter length is a big question that ive received many times about all sorts of childrens books that have chapters. Publishers require prospective authors to submit either a proposal a longer document providing additional editorial and marketing information about your book or a query letter a onepage letter of introduction inviting the publisher to ask for more details about your project. Have you ever asked the question, what genre is my childrens book. 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 as you can see, it varies, depending on the story. But after the wild success of the early books, she was able to publish longer, more detailed books with word counts that easily veer into epic novel lengths. We wish there was a simple, onesizefitsall answer to this. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count.

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. At the bottom of the post, ive linked to more book lists with hispanic and latino childrens books. Were discussing short stories with the indy nanowrimo group this afternoon, and i thought it might help to have a word count chart similar to the one i did for famous novels back in november. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books.

From picture books to ya information to get you started at. What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. Books of smaller word counts were more common in the 1800s and early 1900s, but the trend for books became longer with the rise of modern printing techniques. Word counts of famous short stories organized by hawthorn mineart, under writing. Which is totally understandable, since length can be an important factor that agents and publishers look at when they receive your query letter. Some publishers issue guidelines as to word length usually between 2,000 and 5,000 words and other requirements. Maybe to work out what your own novel s word count should be. Ten birdy childrens books to read with your fledglings audubon. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Most publishers have guidelines for how they want your material to arrive, regardless of.

Of course, word count wont matter if a story doesnt hook the target audience. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. The best childrens and young adult books of january 2019. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. When i started to work on novels i wanted to keep an estimate of how many words and book. May 11, 2009 word count seems like a leftover from typewrited days. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write.