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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Is this per chapter?
30,000 words is the average word count I’ve seen for college theses, so I certainly hope not.
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).