How many words is the average novel?

That's what I want to know. How many words is the average 300 to 400 page novel for young adults/adults? Does anybody know?

90,000 to 120,000 words long, though there are exception. But that's a good range to hit for.

YA novels tend to range from 40,000 to 80,000.

You can also get a general idea of what kind of length your favorite novel is by doing this:

Count the words per line (which usually is anywhere from ten, to fifteen) and then multiply it by the number of lines per page (usually somewhere around thirty). Then, multiply that figure by the number of pages.

Based on this techinique I can say that Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead has twelve words per line, forty-eight lines per page [giving 672 words per page] so the novel is about 466,368 words in length.


Just a note though, you may want to count the words per line in a few lines and just take the average. Another style says to take the letters per line and divide it by four (or was it six?).

Although, everyone's comments above are true as well.

Or you could just...use word count.
My completed manuscript for Gypsie Eyes is about 86,400, a little short for a novel, but it does the job.

As far as I know, the general word count that designates a novel is from 50,000 (shorter) to 150,000 (longer). I suppose there are exceptions, but those are the generals.

I'm at 103,000 words, and it's about 370 pages long. So, 80,000-120,000 or somewhere abouts there sounds about right. Also, if you want to know how many pages your work is, (and I found this out myself, so it's mainly experimentation, though I'm sure it's publicized somewhere) if you double space your work, one written page on Word is almost exactly equal to one written page in a novel. It's a handy tool.

GryphonFledgling: An adult novel under 90,000 or over 120,000 words is unlikely to be published.

I thought one page of word would be about a page in a book. In that case, I have 84 or something like that. I was aiming for about 350 to 400. Sureal, is that a fact that a book won't be published if it's over 120,000 words?

Well, you'd find it extremely hard. Many publishers would reject it out of hand or claim it's 'unpublishable'. If you're really lucky you may find a publisher willing to give it a go ... but really, when it comes to a business as competitive as novel publishing you don't want to stack the odds against yourself anymore than you have too.

What if it was a few more than 120,000 words? I'm not worried about hitting under the mark.

I'd imagine it'd depend how much more.

It'll probably only be 130,000 at the most.

Well, concidering I've already been rejected once before my piece was submitted, I'd reconcider that word count. For reference though, I was rejected because my short story didn't meet their "criteria," meaning it was a history magazine that didn't accept Historic Fiction. > >

Depends,

Fantasies are suaully around 150k, which is what I'm heading for, but really, don't worry about word count. Publishers don't really bother about it if the plot really shines out. Take LotR for example. The plot is amazing, the best I've ever read. Yet, it is about 500k of words overall!

~D'Aedomir~