Does Literacy Level Matter to Authors?

When we write novels, we often imagine an ideal reader, someone smart, curious, and eager to dive into our worlds. But there’s an important fact many authors overlook: the average American adult reads at about a seventh to eighth grade level. And more than half of U.S. adults read below a sixth grade level. That doesn’t mean they can’t enjoy complex stories, but it does mean that overly dense prose or elaborate sentence structures can make a book harder to access.

If you use Microsoft Word, the built-in Editor can give you a readability score based on the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. This tells you the U.S. school grade needed to understand your text on first read. A score of “8” means the average eighth grader could easily follow it. You can turn this feature on in File → Options → Proofing → Show Readability Statistics after running a spelling and grammar check.

Another measure you may hear about is the Lexile Framework for Reading. The Lexile score uses both word frequency and sentence length to place your text on a scale, for example, “850L” might be typical for middle-grade novels, while adult literary fiction often falls between 900L and 1200L. You can get a Lexile score through services like MetaMetrics, but it’s less built into everyday writing tools than Flesch-Kincaid.

If you writing scores as more challenging on MS Word's program, are there ways you can help your writing can be more accessible?

• Use familiar vocabulary. You can still be vivid and precise without always reaching for the most obscure synonym.
• Keep sentences manageable. Vary length for rhythm, but avoid piling clause upon clause.
• Break up large blocks of text. White space invites reading.
• Favor active voice. “She closed the door” is easier to process than “The door was closed by her.”
• Read aloud. If you trip over your own sentences, your readers might too.
• Mind your dialogue tags. “Said” and “asked” are easier on the eye than a constant parade of “exclaimed,” “interjected,” and “remarked.”

What about genres?
Some genres are naturally written at lower reading levels because they prioritize clarity, speed, and accessibility:

• Romance: Often between 5th–7th grade level for quick emotional connection.
• Mystery/Thriller: Shorter sentences and familiar vocabulary keep tension high.
• Middle Grade / Young Adult: By design, these hit lower Lexile ranges, but plenty of adults love them.
• Commercial Women’s Fiction & Cozy Mysteries: Clear prose makes for immersive, “curl-up-with-a-book” reading.

On the other end, literary fiction, historical epics, and experimental narratives may push higher reading levels with denser language or unconventional structures. Is that the kind of writing that you do? Great! But be aware that you may be narrowing your audience. That's a consideration if you're out there trying to market your own book.

So, do you have to care about this?

It's a fair question. When you know the average reading level of your potential audience, you gain a powerful tool. You can still write richly, still challenge readers, but you also make sure the door into your story is wide open. Accessibility isn’t about writing less beautifully; it’s about making sure your beauty is seen.

If you’re curious about your own work’s reading level, run that Word Editor check, or try a Lexile analysis. You might be surprised. I think many of us imagine we're writing at a higher level than we are. It's not just vocabulary that makes a sentence complex; it's structure too. And this is where an editor can help you. If your writing is scoring lower of higher than you would like it to, an editor can help you recognize your patterns, and inflate the ones you like, and cut down the ones you don't. 

I bring this up because one thing I find with the majority of authors I work with as an editor is that when they come to editing they're still thinking about their work in terms of what is tasty to them, rather than what will be tasty to their audience. It's one of the reasons I often advise tucking dialogue tags inside the dialogue, rather than slapping them on at the end, she wrote. In that last sentence, what is more arresting, "she wrote," or "slapping them on?" You get the idea.

If you're not in the USA, chances are good that where you are located is where most of your readers will be, and you can also probably find the reading lexiles for your neck of the woods easily with a quick Google search. It certainly doesn't hurt you to have more information about your potential book buyers.

As for myself, I like creating complex writing (and I acknowledge that I am often not good about thinking about what my reader wants vs what I want), and I like reading complex writing, but then I also must be prepared that the mainstream readers may not find my work to be... mainstream.

Poetry is certainly more complex writing, and I wonder if that may have something to do with why poetry has a smaller audience.

Is reading level something you've thought about, in what you choose to write or in what you choose to read? 

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

:)

Dianne