Average length of historical fiction novel

Definition two basic elements comprise every romance novel. That said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels generally lies between 100,000 and 115,000. For adult fiction especially crime, thrillers, womens fiction, saga and romance, 100,000 words is a good. The sweet spot, according to donald maas, is 100,000 to 115,000 words. This is due in large part to the variety of subgenres within it and the trend for a book series with an ever greater word count. Fantasy and science fiction novels are known to be lengthier than other books. An average novel length is between 80k and 100k, again, depending upon the genre. More on chapter and novel lengths all write fiction advice. Fantasysaga novels, on the other hand, tend to be a big read think lord of the rings or game of thrones. In a previous our free newsletter submit write now.

However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel. Since the appearance of the first historical novel, sir walter scotts waverley 1814, this type of fiction has remained popular. How you submit your novel package will depend on each agent or publishers specified submission guidelines. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the displaced. Historical novel definition of historical novel by. Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting located in the past. Im a details person and i like the intricacies of a good storyline. Trim sizes in this post were updated on january 30, 2015 as soon as you get serious about selfpublishing a book, you are confronted with the choice of what size your book ought to be for instance, if you want to get a price on how much a book will. A historical novel may describe true events, a fictional screenplay is fiction, but not a novel. For adult fiction especially crime, thrillers, womens fiction, saga and romance, 100,000 words is a good benchmark to aim for. How long a book should be depends on the genre and the intentions of the writer. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the book, and for ya novels the average is 50,00070,000 words. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for the historical novel, it can also be applied to other types of narrative, including theatre, opera, cinema and television, as well as video games and graphic novels an essential element of historical fiction is that it is set in the past. So 50,000 words is the minimum for a nonfiction book.

Lewis the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, roald dahls charlie and the chocolate factory. I heard 10,000 words can be accepted as an ebook at a short length at least for nonfiction. Anything above 70k but less than 115k science fiction and fantasy tend to run up around 100k115k words. If you want to selfpublish, it doesnt matter how long your book is or isnt because you have total control. Best historical fiction books 2019 kindle edition by watt, frieda. An adult fiction book is most marketable in the suggested word count. The average sale of a hardback book by a firsttime writer is 400 copies many publishers use this rule of thumb to work out advances. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. 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. Your guide to an effective novel synopsis writers digest. So for normal historical fiction typically, a somewhat literary category id.

Wordy was 295 pages in length with a standard deviation of 60. The second or third in a particularly bestselling series. Science fiction and fantasy novels typically have a word count between 90,000 to 125,000 words. Within the publishing industry we tend to talk about the length of a book in words rather than in pages. Whether you enjoy contemporary dialogue, historical settings, mystery, thrillers or any number of other themes, theres a romance novel waiting for you. Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words. If youre writing literary or mainstream fiction also called general fiction, the wordcount requirements and style guidelines are often not as strict as they are for genre novels. This could be the simplest answer of course, that crime and thrillers paranormal or otherwise represent a much smaller percentage of published books. How does your book measure compare to whats succeeding in todays marketplace. Most of the data ill be using throughout this article was sourced from writers digest and the manuscript appraisal agency, with any differences split to find the average childrens picture book. Be aware that the word average means that for every book that sells 15,000, there is one that sells 5,000. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words. Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. In most cases, industry standard preferred length is 250 words per page.

I guess 50,000 is a short novel and some early novels before goes as low as 40,000 which can be considered to be a novella. Longer, more complex stories, which contain a handful of main characters and peripheral characters, tend to run at about 60,000 to 95,000 words. Though some historical novels, such as leo tolstoys war and peace 186569, are of the highest artistic quality, many of them are written to mediocre standards. Smiley lists novels as typically being between 100,000 and 175,000 words, 3 while national novel writing month requires its novels to be at least 50,000 words. If you want to see what size book is selling in your genre, take a look on the shelves. First, lets discuss the way we measure the length of a novel. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. But i dont like to do things halfheartedly, so here is the bigger picture of length in fiction. Historical fiction also requires a degree of worldbuilding to bring the reader into the.

Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. In comparison, the database gives an average length of 89,000 words for adult fiction excluding fantasy, smack in the middle of the commonlycited range of 80,000100,000. A historical fiction novel kindle edition by roberts, amanda. A first book, is preferred by publishing houses to be anywhere from 60000 90000, any more than that and apparently, they tell you to do some slashing, because they dont want to risk spending lots of money on print costs then have you novel be just like the other thousands of novels out there that dont make. I dont know what i can say to add to what has already been said. Literary agent danielle zigner takes a look at typical novel lengths and what. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company.

Victoria read a 160page historical fiction novel followed. I remember reading some westerns in high school and, if i. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading the man in the dragon mask. The skys the limit for the maximum length, though anything over 250,000 is getting into war and peace territory. At a writers conference i recently attended, publishing veteran jane friedman said 80,000 words is good for most fiction, below 60,000 isnt novel length territory, and above 120,000 is likely too much. I know of an author with a very large publisher whose novel has sold only 1,087 copies in its lifetime. Similar to scifi and fantasyfiction, you are creating a. Recommended historical fiction this is the list for your recommendations of good fiction set in a time before the author was born not any old book set in a time thats now past, nor books about modern people who happen to be researching past history. Go to a bookshop and look at the novels on sale there.

While 50,000 words is a fairly firm minimum, plenty of ya books reach up to 100,000 words, with a. Her average reading speed of the science fiction novel was 2 pages per hour more than her average reading speed of the historical fiction novel. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. Word counts for different kinds of novels vary, but there is are general rules of thumb for fiction that a writer can use when trying to figure out just how long is too long. Know the recommended book length for the genre youre writing in. A mystery has to be short enough that the reader can finish it before the tension either sags or becomes too exhausting to maintain. Things to know about chapter length in your novel joel. If you contrast average words counts with something like children and young adults fiction, the word counts can vary between 20,000 words to 45,000. About the romance genre romance writers of america. A manuscript over 40,000 words is considered to be a novel. But genre books fantasy, scifi, or historical fiction are often longer. The average short story should run anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 words. Thats approximately 300 pages of doublespaced type.

A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. If the average length is 300 pages, youre looking at a 75,000 word manuscript approximately. I found some disagreement about the ideal length of mystery novels. Using this exercise, you should end up with a good idea of book length expectations for a novel like yours. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Mentioning length in terms of pages or chapters is amateur and makes you sound like a hack authors refer to length in words. 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. In fiction novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. An average novel is approximately 90 140 thousand words. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. This is a story that is between 10,000 and 40,000 words. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors.

But for mainstream ya it is always best to stick to under 80k. But, he also mentions that the wizard of oz was 40,000 words. The average length of 10 randomly chosen novels written by i. Historical novel definition is a novel having as its setting a period of history and usually introducing some historical personages and events. Science fiction novels average 250 pages in length. Average novel word count historical fiction online. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens books and. When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. A lot of people keep asking me this exact question for 30 years, and i always tell them this. And for every book that sells 20,000, there is one that is a disaster.

If you are interested in writing a novel, you might as well learn to start speaking like a novelist. Victoria read a 160page historical fiction novel followed by a science fiction novel of the exact same length. My own first novel was 190,000 words long and was sold to harpercollins for a lot. Women read historical fiction at higher rates than men on average, 49% read hf more than 50% of the time. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. But i also know of others who have sold over 500,000 copies. Typically, a book that is published in paperback format at a length of 300400 pages will come in between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. One bad habit that inflates word count in historical fiction especially is. Before our book page count calculator, you had to dig around through multiple sources to figure out how many words per page for your exact font size and then do the math.