I've always had trouble determining whether my chapters are within the same size realm as chapters in standard books. Since it isn't exactly feasible to count the number of words in a chapter of published work, I've always just guessed.
Recently, my chapters have been between 3000-5000 words. How does this compare to chapters in published novels?
Answer
It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter: count the number of words in several lines, count the number of lines per page, count the number of pages in the chapter, and multiply. You won't get exact, but you're wondering whether 3-5K is reasonable, so you don't need exact. Try it on some books with chapter lengths you like, and don't be surprised if it varies considerably.
When I was a kid, books tended to have about seventy thousand words, and a table of contents that filled one page, so figure about 4-5K.
I'd think that the right length for a chapter would be one that could be read at a sitting conveniently, and would provide a useful chunk of story. That can vary wildly.
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