Wayward Skyril asked Sara B. Larson:

I'm writing a book, and I was wondering how long most YA books are. I googled it, and some people recommend keeping it between 55,000 and 69,999 words. I guess I actually have two questions: How long do YOU think YA books should be? And how many words are in Defy and Ignite? I really wanted a book to compare to, to see approximately how thick certain books are, and yours are a great size.

Sara B. Larson I'd say the average is 60,000 - 80,000 depending on the genre. Of course Fantasy and Sci-Fi often fall outside this range. And you can't always rely on the size of a book to ascertain word count. For example, DEFY was about 76,000 words, IGNITE was over 80,000 words, and ENDURE was actually around 94,000 words. But they are all similar sizes because of how my publisher formatted them! (They like books to be similar sizes on the shelf.) Good luck with your writing!

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