![]() ![]() ![]() Seuss, The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein, Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans, Miss Nelson is Missing by James Marshall Flash Fiction: 500 to 1000 wordsĮxamples: The Pedestrian by Ray Bradbury, A Haunted House by Virginia Woolf, A Telephonic Conversation by Mark Twain Short Story: 1,500 to 5,000 wordsĮxamples: Luck by Mark Twain, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, The Door by E.B. Book Word Count Ranges by Genre Fiction Micro Fiction: 5 to 350 wordsĮxamples: The 6-word story attributed to Ernest Hemingway (Google it), Fleeing Complexity by Jon McGregor, Golden Years by Edith Pearlman, Widow’s First Year by Joyce Carol Oates Children’s Picture Books: 400 to 800 wordsĮxamples: Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Of course, a printed book will be single spaced and contain roughly one and a half to two times the words per page of your manuscript. (visit here for how to format your manuscript.) narrative and paragraph length, the average double-spaced manuscript page in Microsoft Word (the standard for submitting to publishers) fits about 225 words. How Many Words Per Page in a Book?ĭepending on the amount of dialogue vs. If you need more words, they should come from more well-written scenes. Make every word count and never let your total result from needless words. Most important, especially if you’re worried about your manuscript being too short, is to still keep your scenes tight, direct, well edited, and well honed. Publishing house guidelines vary, so check their website or contact them directly to find out what they expect lengthwise. On the high end are novels like Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen (119,394), Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally (134,710), and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (587,287). Scott Fitzgerald, and Old Yeller by Fred Gipson all range between 35,000 and 50,000. Sometimes they’re shorter - The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Want to download this infographic to share and reference whenever you like? Click here.Īverage novel word counts are generally around 85,000 but they can range from 50,000 to 120,000. ![]() Nevertheless, you would be wise to come close to these suggested manuscript lengths. I’m just saying that some things are more important than word counts. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near 200,000 words. The first alone has sold more than 120 million copies, and the rest have sold at least 65 million each. Those titles also obliterated sales records. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - 198,000 words Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - 168,000 words Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - 257,000 words ![]() Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - 190,000 words Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - 107,000 words Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - 85,000 words Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - 76,000 words Rowling’s record-breaking series began with two titles on the high end of that spectrum and finished with five that left the guidelines in the dust. The Harry Potter books are Young Adult titles, and YA publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000-word range. But rules are made to be broken, and the most successful publishing phenomenon in history did just that. That doesn’t mean you can submit a manuscript twice the length a publisher recommends. Just be careful not to get too far afield, and remember that a great idea and good writing trumps all. But it’s important to know that these are not hard and fast rules. There ARE general guidelines, which I’ll list below. Well, different publishers look for different lengths for different genres. One of the most common questions writers ask me: “How long should my manuscript be?” And I’ve never found a bad book short enough. As a reader, I’ve never felt a good book was too long, even more than a thousand pages. ![]()
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