How Long Should My Book Chapter Be?
As a developmental editor, authors frequently ask me how long their book chapters should be. As you probably know from reading scholarly books, chapter length can vary dramatically, but there are some rules of thumb that are useful to keep in mind as you draft yours.
Note when I talk about chapter length, I’m going to refer to word count rather than the number of pages. That’s for a couple of reasons. How many pages there are in a 10,000 word chapter can vary dramatically, especially depending on how long and numerous your footnotes are. Publishers also use word count to designate the length of books (that is, this book is 100,000 words), so it’s probably a good idea to start thinking with word count to help you communicate clearly with publishers.
Now let’s get to length!
First of all, the chapter should be long enough to fully support its argument. That means that you have developed the argument, introduced ample evidence to support it, and discussed and analyzed this evidence to help readers not only understand the chapter’s argument, but also how it fits with the broader story you are telling in the book. So pay attention to these things, but I know that answer does not give you a concrete answer about length!
When thinking about what a reasonable word count is for a book chapter, remember that ideally readers should be able to read a book chapter in one sitting. This makes it easier for them to follow the argument’s thread and avoid getting distracted. It also makes it more likely that they will actually finish reading the chapter. So, while chapters vary pretty dramatically in length, a general rule of thumb would be that chapters should generally be less than 15,000 words. It’s not uncommon for chapters to be up to (or over) 15,000 words, but it’s probably getting a bit long for readers to follow (unless these chapters are very readable). Most (but definitely not all) of the book chapters I work with are between 9,000 and 15,000 words.
If you’re thinking about the reading a chapter in one sitting rule, that also means that your content and writing style can affect how easily a reader can work through your chapter. If your book is full of rich, clearly written ethnographic description, readers can likely read it more quickly than if it full of dense theory (meaning it could be on the longer side). So also take that factor into consideration as you work on determining length.
Another way to figure out the word count for your chapters is to do some simple math. Publishers tend to want books, especially first books, to be under 100,000 words (and less than that is generally totally fine). This is because shorter books are less expensive to print and more likely to be adopted for teaching (that is, more likely to sell). So once you know how many chapters you will have in your book, you can figure out roughly how long chapters should be.
For example, let’s imagine your book has an introduction, six substantive chapters, and a conclusion. Introductions and conclusions are often, though not always, shorter, so let’s say the introduction is 10,000 words and the conclusion is 5,000 words. That leaves you 85,000 words for the rest of your chapters or about 14,000 words a chapter.
Note, however, that manuscripts do not need to be 100,000 words in length. Many publishers are happy to get books that are shorter than this, say 70,000 words or so. If you can, it’s probably a good idea to aim for less than 100,000 words in the draft that you will submit for review since reviewers almost always have feedback that requires expanding portions of the manuscript. If your book is shorter, you will have a bit more wiggle room with your revisions. When you talk to acquisitions editors, be sure to ask them about what they suggest as a target total word count for the book. If you have a sense of how long your book will be, you can share that and discuss together.
Ideally, chapters should also be roughly equivalent in length (within a few thousand words of each other) so that they are equally weighted in the book (though conclusions are usually quite short and sometimes introductions are shorter too, which is fine). If one chapter is much shorter than the others it will seem out of place and readers may wonder if that part of the book is less important than the others or if you haven’t fully developed it. So keep that in mind as you draft your chapters as well. If you start noticing that one chapter is much longer than the others, think about whether the argument is too complex or whether it should break into two chapters. And if a chapter is much shorter than your other chapters, think about whether you need to combine it with another chapter or further develop the argument to make it more expansive and richer.
I hope this was helpful and please reach out if you have any questions about chapter length or anything else related to academic writing. Happy writing and thinking!
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