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How many words is a young adult novel?
Most young adult novels are 60,000 to 90,000 words, about 200 to 360 printed pages. Contemporary YA tends toward the short end and fantasy toward the long end.
Work it out
pages, single-spaced, Arial 12 pt, about 500 words a page
- Handwritten pages
- 300
- Reading time
- 5 hr 15 min
- Speaking time
- 8 hr 20 min–9 hr 36 min
- Typing time
- 31 hr 15 min
- Paragraphs
- 375–750
- Sentences
- 3,750–5,000
- Characters with spaces
- about 450,000
Write it in the word counter with a goal of at least 75,000 words.
Open the word counterYoung adult novel in pages and minutes
| Length | Single-spaced | Double-spaced | Reading time | Speaking time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 60,000 words | 120 | 240 | 4 hr 12 min | 6 hr 40 min–7 hr 41 min |
| 90,000 words | 180 | 360 | 6 hr 18 min | 10 hr–11 hr 32 min |
Estimates for US Letter or A4 with 1-inch (2.54 cm) margins and ordinary paragraphs; reading at 238 words a minute, speaking at 130 to 150.
YA lengths
Young adult fiction is written for readers of about 12 to 18, usually with a teenage main character. Agents often give 60,000 to 80,000 as the sweet spot for contemporary YA and up to 100,000 for YA fantasy and science fiction. Successful YA can be longer: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is about 100,000 words.
Tips
- Pace. YA readers expect momentum; long stretches of backstory are the first thing editors cut.
- Debut first. A first YA novel over 100,000 words is a harder sell; save the long epic for after you have readers.
Questions and answers
How many words is a YA novel?
Usually 60,000 to 90,000; YA fantasy up to about 100,000.
How many pages is a YA novel?
About 200 to 360 printed pages.
How long does it take to read a YA novel?
About 4 to 6.5 hours at an average pace.