Your Novel Readability Level

[DasIstWunderblyat]

According to Wikipedia (I'm currently committing the biggest crime of academic writing), this defines "Readability:"

Readability is the ease with which a reader can understand a written text. In natural language, the readability of text depends on its content (the complexity of its vocabulary and syntax) and its presentation (such as typographic aspects like font size, line height, and line length).

As we cannot interfere much about how our text is displayed because Tapas takes care the most of it, we have full control of the content aspect. You can check your readability level for various sites, for example here. You can also use Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and even HemingwayApp.

There is also another standard of scoring readability called Lexile Framework for Reading. The score is 300 minimum (simple) to 2000 maximum (complex). You can check your 250 words snippet for Lexile score here

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I have seen many writing resources saying that higher readability and lower reading level will ease readers into enjoying your novel; thus allowing it to be enjoyed by a wider range of audience. Even for adult demography, the reading level of your novel ideally should not exceed 8th grade level.

Novels with higher reading levels and lower readability have the potential of alienating certain reader groups or even not appealing to the mass who prefer something easier. Although for some folks who prefer more literary-artistic and intellectually challenging novels, they might prefer to read something like that. Some authors also do not want to "dumb-down" their own novels to stay true to their vision.

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So, What is your expected readability and reading level of your novel? Does it match with your result? Are you satisfied with it? Do you think it is important

I'm honestly feeling conflicted about it. I feel relieved to know that my novel readability is high and it does not exceed 8th grade level. Yet, the reading level is 5th grade level and I don't know if it's okay to be that low for stories that are not meant for children. As I googled "5th grade reading level books" most of them are children book, plus my lower range lexile score is even lower than Twilight which everybody trash on. I start to think if I should make my writing more complex (although, how and should I?).

[ImmortalDreams]

I just tested a sample from my novel and got a 5th - 6th grade result. I'm not sure how I feel about that considering I've written and self-published four novels before. I guess it doesn't have to mean anything negative.

[rajillustration]

I wouldn't really worry too much about it--I sampled several parts of my novel and got everywhere between 5th and 10th grade so like...it's just not that consistent.

If you read lots of books, and you know what the words in books that people like to read should feel like, you will instinctively know if your book does or does not work. I think it depends on the genre you're writing, too. They all read differently and have different amounts of "big" words.

[Freemints30]

Hmm for the side novel I'm working on I got like 7th-8th grade level. Thou its structured more like an adventure game so I thought it would come out lower . I think its mostly because I have alot of made up words for things in that fantasy setting.

Overall I wouldn't worry too much, your target audience has more to do with your actual content and genre. Just because an 8 year old can read your work doesn't mean your actual content is all that attractive to them.

[nostalgicroxas]

I'm not sure how much stock I'd put into that specific site.
It gauges mine at something for a 9 year old to read. Which yes, part of my readability is easy, but I think it's just taking into account words not the actual sentence structure. A 9 year old could read it, but digest and actually process it? LOL No.
Wordcounter.net seems to take into account actual sentence structure, or variance of words, and puts it at a 15~ year old reading level. Which is not bad, and means the novel is still able to read by people who don't want stuffy college-level reading.

What the heck it bases these things on, I'm not certain, nor am I confident when the scales can't seem to agree with each other.

WordCounter on the other hand actually tellllsssss you why your score lands where it does. (And does not limit you to just 3000 words. I put 11k words in that just by grabbing my most recent chunk of NTN.) And of note, pretty much anything I put of NTN (recent 40~ chapters) lands usually very comfortably within that 9-10th grade level.

Noticed that screenshot is from after cutting out just under 3k to drop into the site provided in thread. But it still read the same grade level with the total 11k.

[Blizzriel]

I'm also getting 5th - 6th grade results on ReadabilityFormulas, but WordCounter puts me at 11th-12 grade. Not sure what that means for my novel.

On one hand, a lower reading level would mean that it's easier to get into, but on the other hand, 11th-12th grade is closer to my target audience.

[joannekwan]

I got 810L - 1000L from Lexile and Wordcounter puts it at 11th to 12th grade.

Fine with me! I'd rather have something easily digested than something too difficult to understand. And it's not just about targeting younger audiences, but also take into consideration people who may have English as a second or third language.

[ivanskilling]

I get 3rd-5th grade with Hemingway Editor.

I don't think it's an indicator of how old someone is to be able to read my works. My novels deal with mature, dark topics, so it's not like I expect a 3rd grader to read it. I find those editors look more at sentence structure and choice of outlandish words that could easily be replaced with a simpler one. If that's the case, then I'd rather my work score at a lower grade. That way, people can read it easily instead of bombarding them with sentences that require you to read over it three times.

[nostalgicroxas]

@ivanskilling @joannekwan What, you don't wanna pull something language and philosphical on them to just screw with them?

James, while John had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher.

[Drewbie]

Put in a few different chunks from different parts of my story and got 810L-1000L and 1010L-1200L for Lexile. and wordcount put it at college level. doesn't really hit the range im trying to write for but it isn't too bad.
As said by other I don't plan to put much stalk in either since it probably just got pushed up by a bit of sentence structure.

[ivanskilling]

Lolol if it's to screw with them for comedy sake, then bring it on! Let's confuse the heck out of them!

[QingDom]

i tired 3 times with exurbs from 3 different chapters 1st was 3rd grade, the other two was 10th grade. not sure what that means. but the "10th" greade lelvel reading was very simple. no big words no nothing.

The moonlight cascaded down from the heavens and danced among the sea of clouds, but even with this breathtaking sight lying before her Eloise was staring mindlessly into space as if her mind and glossy ash-grey eyes were showing two different images, her hands were gripping the rails tighter as the time passed leaving behind dents in the metal.

She was jolted from her reverie when she felt a warm hand touch the small of her back. "A libra for your thoughts?"

Sigh, Eloise took a deep breath but stayed silent for a few more minutes, Verra just hugged her waist and joined her in looking at the night sky in silence, she was used to Eloise being like this at this time every year.

Eloise said, "today is the anniversary of my parent's death, I have already told you this much but what I did not tell you was how they died."

[Snickerdoodles]

How do these services rate classic and popular novels? I have no frame of reference.

[ivanskilling]

Hmm my guess is the sentences are too long, and they seem to be run-on? If you converted some of the commas to a full-stop, then it would probably lower the grade level.

[FenneFox]

Seems that for me, on average with something I'm writing much of my text falls around a 7th grade level, however occasionally I have a few paragraphs in there that leap to a higher level (like one paragraph got 15 according to the Hemingway app). I guess the main thing is just how consistent you are with your writing or how much you choose to analyze (is actually pretty fun to do though personally).

[BlunderingAlbatross]

I got this lot for the first episode of my novel, whatever it means in reality compared to established authors

[Snickerdoodles]

I don't know about you guys, but it's been a long time since I was in grade school.

I feel like a scale made up of different popular books would be more useful. Like "Goosebumps" could be at one end and "Finnegan's Wake" at the other.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I start to think if I should make my writing more complex (although, how and should I?).

Don't. I think attempting to include "more complex" language that you're not actually familiar with would do more harm than good for your readability in the end. =/
If you really want to expand your vocabulary, do so, but slowly and organically. Not solely for the sake of leaving an impression on the reader.

Anyway, I decided to test a book I just started rewriting last night: Lexile scores in the 800-1000 range, going as low as 400 in dialogue-heavy areas. Meh. '_' I guess it makes sense.

To be honest, I don't think vocabulary-based 'readability' should really be a concern for most authors, not unless you're writing a children's book (i.e. trying to gauge readability for people whose vocab is much smaller than yours...it can be difficult to see what others won't understand without outside help).

If you're writing a book for teens or adults, I'd say just write naturally. '_' Unless you have a problem with sounding esoteric or overly-sophisticated (and if you do, I'd bet anything that you wouldn't need a website to tell you; the people around you have probably already noticed...).

[violin]

I don't think it's a bad thing to have easily readable books.

I put one of my favorite books, Ender's Game, into the readability link and it came up 3rd-6th grade level. Still one of my fav books of all time