Age Categories

The following tables provide a simple breakdown of age categories within children’s and young adult literature. These are general guidelines (not strict rules), presented to help you envision where your story fits within the literary market. Word counts fall into wide ranges, and you will always find outliers (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire comes in at a whopping 190,637 words) and overlaps between categories. If you plan to submit your story to an agent or publisher, always defer to the parameters set by them.

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