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The Zombie Project: A Boxcar Children Mystery
(ghostwritten by Anastasia Suen)

Q. How long is a children’s book manuscript?
A. The length of the book depends on the age of the child who will be reading it. The older the child is, the longer the book will be.

There are six different children’s book formats and each one is for a different age. What a toddler wants to read is not the same as what a teen wants to read. Children change as they grow. The psychological needs of each age group are very different. These varying psychological needs are one reason children’s books are divided into different ages.

Here is a general age and word count guideline:
1. Board books (birth to 2) 8-50 words
2. Picture books (2-7) less than 500 words
3. Beginning readers (4-8) 500-1,500 words
4. Chapter books (5-10) 5,000-20,000 words
5. Middle grade (8-12) 20,000-55,000 words
6. Young adult (12-17) 55,000-70,000 words

The most accurate way to figure out the word count that editors prefer is to read recently published children’s books like yours.

Count the number of words on a few pages, figure out the average, and multiply that number by the number of pages in the printed book.

Q. Why should I read new children’s books?
A. Reading new children’s books will help you see what editors are buying.

Editors look at other books on your topic or theme to help them decide if they will buy your book (or not). They don’t want to buy a book exactly like one that is already on the shelves.

(If your book is not unique in some way, why will anyone buy it?)

Finding comps (other books like yours) for your manuscript before you send it out will help you make sure your book is unique.

What does a New York Times bestselling author say?

If you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.
— Stephen King