Wordcount for a young adult SF?

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Feathers

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I always thought 75K was a pretty good wordcount for YA, but I did some research, and most people were talking about the 50,000--70,000 word YA novel. They said that it's especially important for first time writers to stay short, which I believe. But I'm surprised to hear YA's are so short.

My problem is that I just finished writing the first draft of a 95,000 word YA novel with SF elements. Before anyone jumps on me, I DO plan on whittling that down some. I was thinking maybe 85-80K would work. But now I'm wondering, is 80K low enough for a first-time author writing YA?

Another factor I've wondered about is the SF element to the story. I know longer wordcounts are acceptable with fantasy and SF, but I was wondering if that applies for YA, as well.

So basically I have a lot of thoughts, and I want someone else's opinion on them :tongue
 

Sage

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80K is perfectly fine for a YA novel, especially SF or fantasy
 

kaitlin008

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I definitely think you'd be fine in the 80-90k range. Don't forget to have some betas look it over for you, but breathe easily. You aren't into any sort of scary territory, like Sage said, especially for SF or fantasy :)
 

shaldna

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YA can be anything from 20k - 150k+

There's no hard and fast rule. I usually advise between 40 and 80k is a good mid range length. But don't get so caught up in the length.

If it's 90k as opposed to 80k I don't think that's going to make a massive difference.

Bear in mind too that sci-fi and fantasy tend to be longer, and with the growing trend for 100k+ YA novels I don't think you are going to have an uissue
 

Lindzy1954

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I have heard the same thing. My YA ms is looking like it will fall around the shorter end of the spectrum, around 50K but I would hate to bulk it up for the sake of word count. What I have heard before is that there are not many hard and fast rules about YA word counts or numbers of chapters either as long as you don't grossly exceed 100K. My question is about chapter length though. I have two different POV's in my book and one of them is solely internal dialogue (thoughts, dreams, etc.) which makes for shorter chapters. Are unequal chapter lengths an issue or does it really not make much difference?
Thanks!
Lindsay
website/blog: www.lindsayncurrie.webs.com
 

shaldna

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Unequal chapter lengths don't really matter. Don't sweat it.
 

nitaworm

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Just write first, then widdle it down. Also remember to pubs it's about dollars and cents. It cost more to produce books with large word counts (especially for new authors where they aren't sure they'll get their return back.) If you want to get as many opportunities as possible to sell your work, keep your novel within reasonable word counts.
 

owlion

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YA can be anything from 20k - 150k+

There's no hard and fast rule. I usually advise between 40 and 80k is a good mid range length. But don't get so caught up in the length.

If it's 90k as opposed to 80k I don't think that's going to make a massive difference.

Bear in mind too that sci-fi and fantasy tend to be longer, and with the growing trend for 100k+ YA novels I don't think you are going to have an uissue
I've been told that 40K is too short, like novella length (although that doesn't really apply to YA fiction), but publishers don't like it because of the printing costs...
 

shaldna

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I've been told that 40K is too short, like novella length (although that doesn't really apply to YA fiction), but publishers don't like it because of the printing costs...


I think that's a big partof why the word count is slowly increasing.

I remember when Sabriel came out and there was one review that commented how 'meaty' it was being 'almost 300 pages'.

Nowadays 300 pages is about average, with many YA pushing 500 pages.
 
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