That question just arrived in my email, and it's a good one. The answer is: It depends.
Some publishers, especially in genres like romance, have requirements as uniform as a muffin tin: Each manuscript will be long enough to fill a book of exactly so many pages. Others are far more flexible.
In the days of the typewriter, a double-spaced page with 1-inch margins would hold an average of 250 words. So you could assume that since 4 pages = 1000 words, 240 pages = 60,000 words, which was the typical length for most mainstream and mystery novels.
Then came the personal computer and the writer's own choice of typeface and point size.
This threw the old estimate right out the window, but word processors of course give us a precise word count—and word count is what most publishers are interested in.
The number of words in a novel will vary depending on the genre. A young-adult novel will run between 20,000 and 40,000 words. That would be the length of a novella in mainstream fiction.
Many genres seem to have succumbed to supersizing. A mass-market western, mystery or SF novel used to run to 60,000-70,000 words. Now they're more likely to hit 90,000 words. Fantasy novels seem to be about 125,000 words—per volume, with some series going on and on. Mainstream fiction can be anywhere from 55,000 words (about the length of many mass-market romances) to ten times that.
And how many pages will your published book have? Again, book design and typesetting can influence the total. I've noticed a lot of hardback mainstream fiction lately with text that's really double-spaced, with generous margins: clearly the author handed in a short manuscript, and the publisher is trying to puff it up into something that looks worth the price.
Mass-market paperbacks don't seem to have changed their design much, however, and I've noticed that a typical page of a paperback novel will run around 440 words...not quite the equivalent of two double-spaced manuscript pages. My novel Eyas was just about exactly 500 pages long in manuscript, and came out in print at 354 pages.
If you're working in a genre like SF or romance, it's always a good idea to visit the websites of genre publishers to see what length they want. If you go to Harlequin and browse through their FAQs, you'll see that different romance series require much different lengths, from 50,000 words to twice that.
For you this is a craft, maybe even an art. For them, it's an assembly-line business. If you're J. K. Rowling or Stephen King, you can tell your publishers how long your next novel will be, and they will tug their corporate forelock, thank you very much, and plan accordingly. But lowly scribes like you and me are unlikely to enjoy such freedom.
eh....
is it possebel if my novel is not more the 3000 words?
Posted by: akasak | July 06, 2009 at 03:13 AM
@Carey I just read Silva's "The English Assassin", a national best-seller which featured chapters as short as 1 page (or less). (I believe his approach was to break out each new scene into a chapter.)
SO my answer is, whatever suits your novel.
Posted by: 5tein | July 06, 2009 at 05:08 PM
i currently have a fiction story that is 29,507 words, is that a good start, i am not sure, i want to get it published, but i am not sure the will let me,( i counted a random page from lemony snickets book and then divided would that be okay? or is that way off?
Posted by: chelcie | July 07, 2009 at 01:16 PM
how many pages on average do you have in a chapter because im writing a book i only started today in 33,502 words but i dont know how amny i need in a chapter
right guess what my mum said that i'm too young to write a book not fair im 11 so i am old enough!
Posted by: meaghan | July 22, 2009 at 07:33 AM
Well, Meaghen, I started writing when I was about your age, so I guess you're old enough.
A chapter can be almost any length--a few hundred words or several thousand. You know you've reached the end of a chapter when the characters (or at least the readers) know something important that they didn't know at the beginning of the chapter.
Good luck with your writing!
Cheers,
Crawford
Posted by: Crawford | July 22, 2009 at 08:02 AM
From what I've tabulated, the mean length of a chapter is about 2,500 words. But, like Crawford said, the range is huge.
Posted by: Lee | July 31, 2009 at 02:26 AM
Hello!
I'm 17. I have been writing stories and poems ever since I learned to write at the age of 6. Recently I started working on a novel that I might consider trying to publish. Despite English is not my native language, I prefer to use it when I write. I've lived the most of my life in Finland, but since I'm attending an international school I believe that I know English fairly well.
What troubles me, is that British/American agents/publishers are not likely to be interested in a foreign author like me. Could that be actually true, or am I wrong? (I hope I am...)
Please help.
Posted by: Lynnie S. | August 06, 2009 at 03:25 AM
I am almost done with my novel. It is 100,567 words and 510 pages long. It is a young adult novel write in third person. I have heard that is it hard for a novel this length is hard to get published in the young adult market. Is that true.
Posted by: Kristi F | August 11, 2009 at 12:44 PM
I've started writing in Word. Should I format it a certain way for a novel, or just type away?
Posted by: Kelly | August 13, 2009 at 09:18 AM
Kelly asked if she should just bash away in Word on her novel, or format it a particular way. Short answer: Do it whatever way is comfortable, but plan to re-format the manuscript before you print and submit it.
For the long answer, see my post: http://crofsblogs.typepad.com/fiction/2004/11/novel_manuscrip.html?cid=6a00d83451bd6d69e201156f992bf0970c
Posted by: Crawford Kilian | August 13, 2009 at 09:34 AM