Science fiction book word count

Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. Science fiction books typically have between 50,000 and 150,000 words, like fantasy novels. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Nanowrimo asks that we write at least 50,000 words in one month, but they say that is more of a novelette. I would limit the book at 100,000 words to be safe. The acceptance of a more ambitious word count in these two genres is the need to describe whole new worlds and presumably original. Heres our word count guide for 18 different book genres. Fantasy and science fiction novels are known to be lengthier than other books. That has to be the first 5 books of the black company.

What is the best word count for a science fiction novel. Michaels, melisa 2005, focusing on the wrong things, science fiction writers of america, archived from the original on april 17, 2009 an article on the relative importance of various word count methods in fiction publishing. Aug 03, 2017 word counts of the most popular books in the world. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for non fiction books. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and non. An article on various word count methods in fiction publishing. The science fiction and fantasy writers of america specifies. Oct 18, 2017 therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. The first book is around 95k words, so if every book is about that long, it should be closing in. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. And what are the word counts of some famous novels regardless of the range above. There is no definitive word count guide for nonfiction books due to the many subgenres. Unfortunately they dont have all books, but they do have the most popular ones.

Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Within short stories, there is a further breakdown to define supershort stories as flash and microflash. Historical fiction, internet footprint, lifes ephemeral nature, love and more love, make every word count, science fiction, speculative fiction. Here are some word count guidelines major fantasy and science fiction publishers have given during open submission rounds. Aug 15, 2019 average word count for this book genre. Christian fiction may also be referred to as inspirational fiction. It has to do with all the descriptions and worldbuilding in the writing. The actual word count for harry potter and the sorcerers stone is 78,792 and my utility calculates 77,876. Science fiction and fantasy are the big exceptions because these categories tend to run. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. Daniel murphy has selfpublished three books and appeared in writers edits anthology, kindling 2.

The best thing that you can do is look over comparable books and try to judge word count by their size, average wordspage, and illustration content. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Works in the middle grade or young adult science fiction or fantasy category shall have no word count requirements. Science fiction and fantasy are the big exceptions because these categories tend to run long. All summer in a day by ray bradbury the best science.

The golden compass by philip pullman 112,815 words, prisoner of azkaban by jk rowling 106,821 words, and enders game by orson scott card 100,609 words. That means that should the average word count per book remain the same, it will be 4. This is a lot harder because its not a specific field im receiving back i have to scrape the results and do some crazy parsing of the data. Hello i have completed my first book, it a erotic, science fictionfantasy. Word count matters more than it should in my opinion. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words or characters are counted. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book.

King, and lee child run well over 90k, sometimes going as high as 120k. I found some disagreement about the ideal length of mystery novels. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to aim for 90,000. Aug 05, 2019 all of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as the definitive word count you must reach in your book. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. That said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels generally lies between 100,000 and 115,000. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon.

Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Mar 20, 2018 precise word count definitions will vary, but as a general rule of thumb, a short story is anything up to about 7500 words sometimes 10,000, with higher word counts typically called novelettes, and short novels called novellas. Aug 28, 2006 the publishers word count you mention, cshawns, is a quick way of getting a rough word count, by assuming an average page word count of 250 words. Search for word count totals in books word counters. This specific genre has a lot of flexibility with word and page count due to the variety of plot types and story arcs. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Larson writes science fiction with a word count around 100k. However, we do not suggest writing a novel of 500,000 words unless you as established as stephen king is. What is the recomended wordcount for a fantasyfiction book. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a non fiction book.

You cant really tell if a novel is good by the word count. A 95,000 word bookeven by page countis a different story than a 70,000 word book. List of fiction genres, with word counts and examples. A good 20,000 more words would probably make a decent novel, but it still doesnt say if the novel is any good. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. This is a story that is between 10,000 and 40,000 words. Realize it over the maximum word count for erotic, science fictionfantasy genre.

Word count of popular fantasy and science fiction series. For fantasy novels, you are allowed to go slightly above this limit, but unless you are an established author, i dont recommend going too far above. For direct submissions we only consider complete and unpublished science fiction, fantasy and horror novels, written in english of between 95,000 150,000 words. If youre writing a nonfiction book, be sure to look up that category to find the length of similar books. This is any fiction that includes strong themes of christian faith. But genre books fantasy, scifi, or historical fiction are often longer. Precise word count definitions will vary, but as a general rule of thumb, a short story is anything up to about 7500 words sometimes 10,000, with higher word counts typically called novelettes, and short novels called novellas. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Anything above 70k but less than 115k science fiction and fantasy tend to run up around 100k115k words. How to write a killer synopsis for your novel writers edit. Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this is very rough run perhaps 150450 pages, and at about 350 wdpage that works out to something like 50150k words. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is advisable. None of them fit the industry standard in word count. Most print publishers prefer a minimum word count of around 70,000 words for a first novel, and some even hesitate for any work shorter than 80,000.

Word counts of the most popular books in the world foster. Eligibility all works first published in english, in the united states, during the calendar year, in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, or a related fiction genre are eligible for the nebula awards in their respective. Updated 3116 a few years back, scifi lists published a list of the top 100 scifi novels of all time, tallied from this online poll. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. My precious published october 6, 2017 by rochellewisoff. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. As a nonfiction writer myself, i know this is tough. The number of characters, the number of subplots, the pacing are all affected by word count. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. For example, memoirs are generally 80,000 to 90,00 words. There are a lot of books that fit nicely into this range, such as enders game with 100,609 words and the martian with 104,588 words.

Under the title the fireman in galaxy science fiction. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. The sweet spot, according to donald maas, is 100,000 to. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be. Wot, but it could have been 23 of the word count without any real drop in quality. We will only consider sf, fantasy, horror or ya crossover novels. Jun 27, 2019 fantasy and science fiction novels are known to be lengthier than other books.

Science fiction novels are those that take place in a futuristic society with advanced technology and occasionally otherworldly beings. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. I have been rereading it, fixing it best i can before i look into finding editor. Jul 24, 2009 a 95,000 word book even by page count is a different story than a 70,000 word book. All summer in a day is a 1954 science fiction short story by ray bradbury. Id guesstimate that non fiction books generally yes, this is very rough run perhaps 150450 pages, and at about 350 wdpage that works out to something like 50150k words. Miranda is an awardwinning author of more than a dozen fiction and nonfiction books for children. For young adult fiction, the word count is once again lower, with the ideal. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. There are no hardandfast rules when it comes to what word count a novel in a particular genre should be.

We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. For novels in general, the accepted word count is 7080,000 words. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. The sa books have a total of 1 261 000 words at the moment. Yet any piece of fiction climbing over the 110,000 word mark also tends to give editors some pause. But can you guys think of any published scifi novels the skirt these limits. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. But the word count of a chapter matters if you want your story to flow right. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Apr 02, 2008 all summer in a day is a 1954 science fiction short story by ray bradbury. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript.

For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and. Word count of popular fantasy and science fiction series vol. Currently living in port augusta, his spare time is dominated by sports rehab and. Apr 05, 2015 hello i have completed my first book, it a erotic, science fictionfantasy. Between and 8000 words is a short story also, most short story competitions will stipulate their required word length for entry between 5000 and 10,000 words is a long short story. Books in this genre are also often gag gifts or are meant to be facetious. The time travellers wife, audrey niffenegger 155,717 words. Of course, when youre writing the first draft of your story, you want to just get your words out on paper. Apr 23, 2018 of course, if you mean i can add together the word counts of all genres in the novel im writing, then thats another story. As you can see, word count for science fiction books vary widely.

This graph shows that the most common word count is 76,00080,000, at the very upper end of the range usually cited. The first book is around 95k words, so if every book is about that long, it should be closing in on a. In many works of christian fiction, the characters overcome a crisis of faith andor become closer to god at the end. Mar 18, 2016 science fiction and fantasy novels break the above word count rules and can be longer how many words are there in a scifi or fantasy novel. If youre working on a nonfiction picture book or an informational or educational picture book that deals. The first book is around 95k words, so if every book is about that long, it should be closing in on a million words all told. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. The publishers word count you mention, cshawns, is a quick way of getting a rough word count, by assuming an average page word count of 250 words. Book length word count science fiction and fantasy world.

For the book hatchet, the actual word count is 41,672 and i give you 41,212. Ill do my best to provide word counts for all of these over time for now, ive hyperlinked the titles where the word counts are available. Therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline. Science fiction and fantasy novels typically have a word count between 90,000 to 125,000 words. As for non fiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. However, there are averages and rough word counts expected by publishers. Middle grade is from 20,000 55,000, depending on the subject matter and age range, and the word count of these books has been trending up in recent years. Science fiction and fantasy books should be 90,000 to 125,000 words. And normally something in the range of 70k 150k depends is considered over the first publishing hurdle. The hunger games has a word count of 99,750 and my utility calculates it at 98,916.

Speculative fiction rochelle wisofffieldsaddicted to. Higher word counts are a bit less common, but values up to 100,000 are still well represented. Word counts of the most popular books in the world. If youve ever read a joke book or a book revolving around a humorous endeavor of some sort, it falls under this book category. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Science fiction and fantasy novels break the above word count rules and can be longer how many words are there in a scifi or fantasy novel. Traditionally published mysteries, like the books of sara paretsky, louise penny, laurie r.

With these genres, i would say 100,000 115,000 is an excellent range. 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. Now, they dont offer word count or running time for books, but they do have a search api. It is about a class of children on venus who are eagerly awaiting the one day every seven years when the rain will briefly stop and the sun will shine. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. As best you can within the word count, find a balance between showing and telling. It is not the method a publishers production department uses to format the ms. All of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as the definitive word count you must reach in your book. As a reader i love the huge word count novels steven king has written and the very short gems tom robbins has penned. On the lower end, anything above 56,000 words is golden. The sweet spot, according to donald maas, is 100,000 to 115,000 words. That means that should the average word count per book remain the same, it will be 4 200 000 words long when finished. But for mainstream ya it is always best to stick to under 80k.