Novellas are becoming more and more popular. Minutes Before Sunset by Shannon ThompsonĪnd another interesting note on the Smashwords bestsellers is that one, Just a Little Honesty, would actually be categorized as a Novella. The Posterchildren: Origins by Kitty Burroughs Smashwords Young Adult/Teen Bestsellers 5/30/13

As you will see, these are significantly lower word counts than their B&N counterparts. To get an idea of word count average for indie authors, below are the current bestselling books from Smashwords, a leading distributor of indie novels. Therefore, publishers may shy away from unproven authors with large projects. The thought behind this is? The bigger the book the bigger the cost to produce it. According to him, first-time authors should stick to the lower end of the range. Sambuchino suggests that the range may be higher for commercially-successful authors. *Word counts are estimated based on the standard of 250 words per page Barnes & Noble Bestselling Teen Fiction 5/30/13 However, their opinions differ from what I am currently seeing from established authors in the industry, which seem to be consistently over 80 thousand words for YA novels. According to him, under 55 is okay, though not optimal, but never drop below 47 thousand.īoth Lindsay and Sambuchino agree that there are always exceptions to the rule. His advice for YA authors is to keep it between 55 and 70 thousand words. She notes that many publishers try to stay below 100 thousand to keep production costs low.Ĭhuck Sambuchino, Writer’s Digest, tightens up that range even more. She goes on to say that YA paranormal and fantasy average word counts tend to run a little higher with the top of the range at 120 thousand. Yet, it is something that perplexes many indie authors.Īccording to Colleen Lindsay, associate director for marketing, social media and reader experience for NAL/Berkley and former book agent, the rule of thumb on word count for mainstream YA fiction novels is between 45 and 80 thousand words. There are surprisingly few articles on the subject of word and page counts in novel writing. How is the virus changing preferred book formats?

Author of the 5th wave