Average word count of book

Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. Apr 23, 2018 this post covers why word count matters for novels, the standard word count ranges for various genres, and the word counts of some famous novels.

In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. Here is everything writers need to know about novel word counts. But the word count of a chapter matters if you want your story to flow right. Apr 11, 2015 nicholas sparks word count the notebook 38,520 message in a bottle 92,760 a walk to remember 49,311 the rescue 100,916 a bend in the road 93,766. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text.

Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. Books in this genre are also often gag gifts or are meant to be facetious. The hunger games has a word count of 99,750 and my utility calculates it at 98,916. On the technical side of things, authors need to consider the number of words that will be in their completed manuscript.

Word count for novels and books is something i dont think about too often until i travel to a writers conference, and then someone asks a simple, innocent question. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Stephen king word count 112263 274,672 bag of bones 203,3 black house 252,270 blockade billy 15,917 carrie 60,718 cell 121,931 christine 193,602 cujo 121,150 cycle of the werewolf 15,955 desperation. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Authors often ask me about average word lengths for their manuscripts. This article suggests that essentially, it should be as long as it needs to be, meaning dont look at the word count, just get the story out then edit. If youve ever read a joke book or a book revolving around a humorous endeavor of some sort, it falls under this book category. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. A novelist of my acquaintance insists that the only way to estimate the number of words in a book is to multiply the number of pages by 250. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript.

If you self pub, places such as amazon will print a book as low as 24 pages, so if your poetry is an epic poem it can be almost 1 book itself, say like beowolf. This is a lot harder because its not a specific field im receiving back i have to scrape the results and do some crazy parsing of the data. Know your content, know your mainline pitch and some possible permutations, create a highlevel outline, write a compelling chapter and sell that. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to.

Word count limits sometimes seem as though they are stifling artistic flow, but they are usually there for a reason, says freelance editor lisa howard. The first book in each series below was the authors first. In contrast, word count is finite and usually i can calculate book length with about 99% accuracy in part because also included in any calculation is a count of figures, tables, etc. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens books and even memoir. I dont mind a publisher, agent or even a writer giving us his opinion of what word count makes a book, but to try to pass it off as definitive is more than arrogant. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. In north america, the standard used by editorial staff in figuring word count is 250 words per page, 10 words per line using a 12 pt. Recently i got asked this question, what is the ideal length word count wise for my first book. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. All of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as the definitive word count you must reach in your book.

Would you consider a post on memoir guidelines, since memoir falls somewhere between fiction and nonfiction in many ways. So, the average wordcount for a typical novel is anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words. But, he also mentions that the wizard of oz was 40,000 words. We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count. Nicholas sparks word count popular novel word count. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be. How many words in a novel vary depending on genre, audience, and the story itself but in general, the average words in a novel is between 60,000 and 90,000 words for most genres. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter.

Having said all that, there are a number of conventions regarding word count. Jul, 2017 i dont think there is a way and this is odd. If you want to write a memoir, for example, look at four or five similar memoirs and determine their wordcount. Aug 05, 2019 all of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as the definitive word count you must reach in your book. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. Therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. Its a question often asked by aspiring authors wondering if their manuscript is several thousand words too long or short, but its also an intriguing one for readers to consider. Check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted. The post lists a dizzying number of genres and a recommended word count range for each. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals.

This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. If youre hoping to land a book deal with a traditional publisher, you dont want to give an editor a reason to turn your book away. Yes, the more successful your books, the longer they will get to be without anyone batting an eyelash see. The figure was found through looking at a number of books text stats, until brave new worlds 64,531 word count landed in the exact center of all books50% of books have fewer words and 50% of books have more words. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count.

Oftentimes, professional editing will cut down the unnecessary information so your memoir is the appropriate word count. Like everything in writing, you may write a work of genius that smashes all the rules. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words.

But, most nonfiction publishers want to be sold the concept, and therefore be able to discuss the direction of the project, before you write the book. Every book is different and for any suggested word or page count you see, you are likely to encounter several popular fantasy books that are outside. In the opposite direction, it can give a more accurate estimate of how many pages you have created if you only know the word count. While theres no reliable statistic, heres an interesting post on word count from the blog of former agent colleen lindsay. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book. That will give you a good guide if you want to emulate it. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Short novels in general hit around 40,000 to 60,000 words, but most publishers wont touch a novel. There is a sweet spot when it comes to word count, and its based on a books genre and target audience. Oct 18, 2017 therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. Also, millions of people, young and old alike, who have read these books have. I was scared that agents would reject my book simply because i had got the length wrong.

We explain two easy methods to estimate your books page count. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. If youre new to selfpublishing on amazon and wondering, just how much should i write for my kindle book. Why barbara spear webster given a in memory of on murder she wrote. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales.

On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Even the individual books in the series have more words than average. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. Count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Id guess that the actual average number of words in a novel was somewhere close to 90,000 words.

If you have 6 panels, stick to a maximum of 35 words per panel. For debut books in this field the average word count tends to be 35k and it has therefore become the marker many industry professionals look for in queries from new writers. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count. Most memoirs need to be in the 70,000 to 100,000word range. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. For that group, a novel is more than 40k words, a novella is 17. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. I would at least think 3 poems filling 24 pages is small, but doable. If the book offers more complicated instructions such as for creating an origami bird or a fashionable paper doll, the word count can extend as high as 1,500 words.

Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. That makes them more expensive to print and a bigger investment. Picture story books for older children between the ages of 6 and 10 include more text with each picture. Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words. Who or what part did barbara spear webster play on murder she wrote. Nicholas sparks word count the notebook 38,520 message in a bottle 92,760 a walk to remember 49,311 the rescue 100,916 a bend in the road 93,766. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Calculate book page count using word count for book design.

The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. What is the average number of actual words in comic books. The old man and the sea was about 25 to 30,000 words. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. Now, they dont offer word count or running time for books, but they do have a search api. An adult fiction book is most marketable in the suggested word count. As you write more and more your word count will probably go up for each chapter because you become a stronger writer and are able to go more in depth in each chapter. If youve read our related article on how many words are in a novel youll recall that the typical word count for a novel according to is 80,000 to 109,000 words. Do you want to publish a wide format bookwith inspiring quotes down the side margins. Yes, if you are hugely successful with your first book, your publisher will want lots more books from you. There are a lot of elements that go into writing a story, like fleshing out characters, piecing together the plot, and crafting the perfect ending. Regarding the value of adhering to standard word counts, jackie bates, a former managing editor at aa publishing, adds. By using these three options to more accurately define your writing, the words per page calculator should provide a better estimate on how many words you need to write to fill a page.

If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. Stephen king word count 112263 274,672 bag of bones 203,3 black house 252,270 blockade billy 15,917 carrie 60,718 cell 121,931 christine 193,602 cujo 121,150 cycle of the werewolf 15,955 desperation 195,011 doctor sleep. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Search for word count totals in books word counters. I publish my books first on smashwords and then, after they pass vetting for the smashwords premium catalog, i publish them on amazon as well. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this is very rough run perhaps 150450 pages, and at about 350 wdpage that works out to something like 50150k words. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. But for print publishing, the physical cost of producing the book is an issue, and the market does generally know what it likes. For my travel memoir, should i query when i have a proposal and several sample chapters, like nonfiction, or wait until the manuscript is complete, like fiction.

When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Aug 15, 2019 average word count for this book genre. It was 333 words which tends to be lower then the average picture book. Your chapter length has to work well with the overall word count of the book short chapters create an even distribution of both content and action. Of course, when youre writing the first draft of your story, you want to just get your words out on paper. The actual word count for harry potter and the sorcerers stone is 78,792 and my utility calculates 77,876. Only if youre a major celebrity can you blow right through that word count and just keep going. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing.

Still unsure of how long to make your nonfiction book. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. In the first book i tried to write my chapters were about 500 words long. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. For novels specifically in the young adult genre, the typical range is between 55,000 79,999 words. Go out and find similar books to the one you want to write and figure out how many words are in the book.

If theres a business book you admire, why not count the pages, tot up the words on an average page, and see how long it is in total. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Audiences are used to a certain story length and page count. For the book hatchet, the actual word count is 41,672 and i give you 41,212. The figure was found through looking at a number of books text stats, until brave new worlds 64,531 word count landed in the exact center of all books50% of books have fewer words and. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Longer books increase the number of pages that need to be printed. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document.