May 11 2010

How Long Should a Book for Children or YA be?

I already have a post about how long adult novels should be, but what if you’re writing for children or young adults? Mary Kole, a literary agent and young adult/middle grade author, suggests the following guidelines:

  • Board Book — 100 words max
  • Early Picturebook — 500 words max
  • Picturebook — 1,000 words max (Seriously. Max.)
  • Nonfiction Picturebook — 2,000 words max
  • Early Reader — This varies widely, depending on grade level. I’d say 3,500 words is an absolute max.
  • Chapterbook — 10,000 words max
  • Middle Grade — 35,000 words max for contemporary, mystery, humor, 45,000 max for fantasy/sci-fi, adventure and historical
  • YA — 70,000 words max for contemporary, humor, mystery, historical, romance, etc. 90,000 words max for fantasy, sci-fi, paranormal, etc.

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3 responses so far

3 Responses to “How Long Should a Book for Children or YA be?”

  1. MarkeithLon 19 May 2010 at 3:42 pm

    Is this per chapter?

  2. Lighting Manon 19 May 2010 at 4:24 pm

    30,000 words is the average word count I’ve seen for college theses, so I certainly hope not.

  3. B. Macon 19 May 2010 at 6:18 pm

    For the entire work. (In case there was any confusion, a “chapterbook” is not any book with chapters but a type of book aimed at readers usually around age 7-10).

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