My writing coach clients ask me all the time how long their books should be. I usually reply that the content dictates the length. In fairness, however, there are some publishing norms regarding word count, which vary depending on genre. So, while I still believe that your book will let you know how long it needs to be, knowing the usual parameters can help you make the final call.
Here’s the breakdown by genre:
Nonfiction – According to the Nonfiction Authors Association, “traditional publishers expect completed nonfiction book manuscripts to be between 50,000 to 75,000 words.” They point out that you can throw that rule out the window and do whatever you want if you’re self-publishing. However, readers come with expectations and with biases. Biographies are often longer. Self-help and how-to books usually run shorter.
You can figure that a book page usually has a little more than 250 words on a page. So, a 75,000-word book equates to about 300 pages. Is the average reader going to want to tackle much more than that? I’m guessing the answer these days is probably not unless there’s a compelling reason to keep going.
Memoir – The average length of a memoir is 60,000 to 80,000 words. Much less than that, and you potentially make the reader wonder if you really have anything to say. Much more than that, and you make me wonder whether you need to hone your focus.
Novel – J.K. Rowling aside, commercial and literary novels tend to run a bit longer than memoirs, with 80,000 to 90,000 being the sweet spot. Dip below 70,000 or above 110,000 if you’re not writing a saga, and you’re pushing your luck. But here’s where it gets interesting. If you’re writing science fiction or fantasy, your target word count stretches from 100,000 to 115,000 words or more. If you’re writing chick lit or westerns, your ideal word count shrinks to approximately 70,000 to 75,000 words or less.
Children’s books – The length of these varies depending on age. The standard picture book only runs 32 pages, with one line per page. So, you’re only looking at 500 or 600 words. Middle-grade fiction geared toward kids ages 8 to 12 tends to run in the 20,000- to 55,000-word range. For upper middle grade, which is geared toward pre-teens, you’re looking at the higher end of the middle-grade range: 40,000 to 55,000 words. Young adult books aimed at teens tend to run 55,000 to 80,000 words.
One last note about word count. More words equal a higher page count, making the book more expensive to produce and more expensive to ship. Just another piece to factor into the equation.
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