Saying Good Bye To Assignment 3 and Part 1

[Cat]

I say, sounds good! Though, 300 pages seems a bit much for middle grade.

[jfields]

Sounds like good goals. Be careful not to let  your fantasy novel for middle grade run too long. Though middle grade fantasy CAN be long, middle grade FIRST novels generally aren't. A long novel is always a risk because so many kids will avoid it if they don't have a reason to commit to it (which usually means either following  a series that started with shorter novels like HARRY POTTER or following an author that they came to love through shorter novels) and the longer the book, the more expensive it is to produce too. And the harder to get bookstores to stock it (fat novels take up more shelf real estate). So in all way, be careful of a super long first novel.

As an aside, though most teen novels have a romance element, many aren't the least bit steamy.

[Krystin]

Thanks Everyone,

I said 200-300 pages because most of the sunshine state books for third, fourth and fifth graders have between 200-300 pages. Although some have less, none I’ve seen have more.  The fonts used in these books are usually large and sometimes the pages have doodles on them to make them a bit more fun but on average that seems to where most of them fall. The books they use for other school programs like AR and reading counts also seem to be roughly the same number of pages.  I will try to make it a point to land somewhere between 200-250 pages, based on what you’ve all said, it seems safe.

When I watch the children in our school library choosing books the trend has been pretty clear. What’s most popular are a mix of horses, average kid books like Dork Diaries or Whimpy Kid, or fantasy books on witches, wizards, vampires, fae and other mythical creatures / monsters.

Not too much in the way of boy-girl relationships on the guys part at this age.  Though some of the more "sophisticated” preteens will try to select a romance book from the middle school section. Less and less of the parents seem too wary of the trend that pushes our young ladies into learning about intimacy before they are emotionally ready.  They just sign the wavers and let them read.
 
Personally, I am happy to learn that most teen novels aren’t explicit. 

[jfields]

... most of the sunshine state books for third, fourth and fifth graders have between 200-300 pages. Although some have less, none I’ve seen have more.  The fonts used in these books are usually large and sometimes the pages have doodles on them to make them a bit more fun but on average that seems to where most of them fall.

Because publishers can monkey with font size and illustrations, you really need not give ANY thought to how many pages the book will take up when BOUND since one page of manuscript does not equal one page of book in the situations you mentioned.

As Kate said, think in terms of word count and you'll be better off...and with a reasonable word count of no more than 40,000 words (which is a safe bet for a first novel), that comes to around 160 manuscript pages -- so no where near 200-300 manuscript pages.

A PUBLISHER on that other hand could turn those 40,000 words into anything from 100 pages with a large trim size and small print to 300 pages with a smaller trim size, large print, and other page design choices.