If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words. Depending on the writing genre, word count in book chapters can vary considerably. The study found the average chapter length in fantasy novels ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 words. Get everything you need to know about kirsti johansen in number the stars. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. The character of kirsti johansen in number the stars from. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot.
Discover the sweet spot for your chapters word count in this post. And youll need as many chapters as it takes to tell your story or. How to write early readers, easy chapter books, and chapter. How to number chapters, appendixes, and pages in documents. This study guide consists of approximately 50 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of i am number four. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book.
Most are written inhouse or by packagers, and a few, as carrie noted about the dora books, are downright dreadful. However sometimes, like today, the reverse happens. I know that i need about 12 chapters for each character in the story, and 124 is 48, and for a first time novel writer at age, about how long should the chapters be. This type of book should not go more than 200 pages, so 40,000 words is probably your max. So immediately below is a sortable table, showing the number of chapters, verses and words in each book of the bible. It contains 29 chapters now and will probably contain 30 or 31 depending on how the last two go. Jun 05, 2017 childrens book manuscript chapter length consistency is what sort of keeps the engine of your pacing going. James pattersons novel chapters average around 640 words. Oct 22, 2010 early readers and chapter books are a childs first tentative steps into the grownup world of reading. Annemarie out distanced her friend quickly, even though one of her shoes came untied as she sped along the street called osterbrogade, past the small shops and cafes of her neighborhood here in northeast copenhagen.
Number the stars chapter 6 is the weather good for fishing. How many words should be in a chapter for your book. When you design a document that contains both chapter headings and appendix headings, you can use different heading style levels to apply the different number formatting to each section. If you use words numbering styles to format your chapter headings, you can automatically include the chapter numbers with your page numbers in a header or.
Then they tell you to count the words in this middle verse. Writing chapter books a look at the numbers hannah holt. For example, if youre writing for genres that have a word count range of 80,000 89,999 words i. A good example is the wonderful little personalspiritual guide, the four agreements, by don miguel ruiz, which averages about 10 words per line x 20 lines per page 200 words per page. It also explains how to include chapters numbers alongside the page. Mary higgins clarks ive got you under my skin has chapters of. From these numbers, we can establish some guidelines. The last unicorn has a chapter that is 23,000 words long. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project.
Heres what you need to know about this often overlooked genre. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. Thats the number of completeness and spiritual perfection doubled. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter. He remembered better the rackety, uneasy circumstances of the time. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has an average of 4,560 words per chapter. Oct 27, 2018 chapter length matters more than you think. This book has 144 pages, so it contains about 28,800 words. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven.
For example, to define a chapter and appendix headingnumbering scheme that resembles the following. There is interesting chapter length analysis available on creativity hacker. Once youve incorporated the key points that every chapter should have, youre ready to explore ways to minimize or increase chapter length if necessary. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. May 11, 2009 word count and book length one of my biggest problems as a publisher is having authors deliver more than was agreed to. Then they direct you to the middle two words and they read the lord. How many words in each book of the bible the holy word. Sep 20, 2009 amount of normal text vs notes as the font size for normal text is a bit bigger than for notes, the number of notes can have a significant effect on chapterbook extent.
The dragon reborn was rightskewed, which means there was a heavy distribution of exceedingly long chapters. I definitely notice when a chapter is a lot shorter or a lot longer than sort of what has been established. A number of fanasy novels were analyzed including dune, the wizard of earthsea and the lord of the rings. Im working on a series and have most of one book written thats about 100,000 words now. Typical novels are about 260 pages, 65,000 words, and 18 chapters, about 14 pages a chapter. The hunger games uses 3,700word chapters, dividing each chapter into three parts. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. T he indie author chris fox coined the term potato chip chapters for easilydigestible book chapters of. During world war ii, tenyearold annemarie johansen and her family take part in a courageous effort to protect the jewish citizens of denmark from the nazis. At there is a nifty search tool outlining the interest level, book level, word count and number of pages in many childrens books, as well as various awards, booklists and groupings. Use words numbering styles to include chapter numbers. How long are the chapters in books by famous authors. But for suspense novels youll be going up into 50s and even to 90 chapters with only 34 pages a chapter. You can sort the table by clicking on any of the headings or search for words or word portions in the search box.
Well, youll put the book down when you get to the end of this chapter, you reason. 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. I should add and as you can see on our page most versions of the bible in english seem to run around 750k800k words, so the other counts of nasb conform to this, whereas yours doesnt. Note that these calculations will vary slightly based on the bible translation you use. 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 the norm. 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. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts. I know where i want to go with the book, but i dont know if about 1250 words a chapter is enough.
Yet all too often they arent taken seriously in the world of childrens publishing. If so, the number and size of your images will affect your page count. The title sometimes we want to give our chapters a title, such as birthday or into the wilderness. So immediately below is a sortable table, showing the number of chapters, verses and. 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. One thing to keep in mind with how many pages is words is that it depends on the text, its size, and the spacing youre using. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. Use words numbering styles to include chapter numbers with. The former promises more intrigue in the next chapter.
I am number four by pittacus lore is a novel that takes a look at the consequences of alien contact and. This gives a total of 31,102 verses, which is an average of 26. A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of time. But for suspense novels youll be going up into 50s and even to 90 chapters with only 3. Mainstream, thriller, horror, romance, suspense, mystery, and. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. Tips to write a novel based on comparing the word counts of harry potter.
This video explains how to include a chapter number with each chapter heading in your document. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. If you take the advice on book length, then a 50,000 word book might break. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. Ms word chapter numbering plus page number with chapter. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book.
I also add an extra half page for each chapter, because each chapter opens slightly down from the top margin, and seldom ends at the bottom of the last page. Calculate the number of pages your images will require will you be adding images to your pages. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. In many printed editions, the chapter number is omitted for these books, and references just use the verse numbers. When using the kjv, there are 929 chapters and 23,145 verses in the old testament and 260 chapters and 7,957 verses in the new testament. Readers are a lot less likely to finish reading a chapter or especially a book if they have to fight their way through it. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. If you use words numbering styles to format your chapter headings, you can automatically include the chapter numbers with your page numbers in a header or footer. Wow, what a verse to be right in the middle of your bible.
Try it on some books with chapter lengths you like, and dont be surprised if it. Check out our revolutionary sidebyside summary and analysis. T he indie author chris fox coined the term potato chip chapters for easilydigestible book chapters of a certain size. A vocabulary list featuring number the stars by lois lowry, chapters 14. This page contains a chapter by chapter summary of the way of kings. 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. Each chapter is its own story, but it is also a trailer for the next story. Number the stars by lois lowry, chapters 14 vocabulary.
Psalm 117, the shortest chapter, is also the middle chapter of the bible, being the 595th chapter. Word count varied from 5,000 words to 40,000 words, with an average mean of 17,200 and a median word count of. And when im reading, i definitely notice, you know, with my editorial clients, i have manuscripts in front of me all the time. Chapter definition, a main division of a book, treatise, or the like, usually bearing a number or title. You wont get exact, but youre wondering whether 35k is reasonable, so you dont need exact. Why chapter length matters more than you think medium. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. Number titles come in two formsusing just the number in word or number form.