Word count for a book

For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Nov 08, 2020 if youre writing your first novel, the general rule of thumb for novel writing is a word count in the 80,000 to 100,000 range. As a nonfiction writer myself, i know this is tough. All we have to do is use the wp tool that shows word count. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. Novelty books include popups, puzzles, pulltabs and other interactive features. If your novels word count goes beyond 120,000 words, you have a challenge ahead of you. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word. For instance, amazon places the word count inside the inside this book option while renaissance learning places the word count near the top of the book s description. Jan 17, 2020 everyone knows your book title is tentative, so you dont have to explicitly state the title is tentative. Whats the difference between a novel, a novella, and a short story.

How to write a query letter that gets manuscript requests. Here are the average novel word counts in the top five genres in the book publishing industry in no particular order. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of 273 pages. If youre writing your first novel, the general rule of thumb for novel writing is a word count in the 80,000 to 100,000 range. Do you want to publish a wide format book with inspiring quotes down the side margins. Flash fiction is anything from 100 to 500 words a short story is usually.

For most publishers, a book is novel length when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Books under 50 pages, particularly if they are saddle stapled or bound in some similar style, are generally referred to as chapbooks. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. A novel is usually defined as anything over 40,000 words. Based on what ive seen of publishers requirements for submissions, these are generally in the 16 to 44 page range my estimate, not official. How to calculate your books length before writing helping. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. We, as readers, feel most comfortable reading books within the range were used tothe length of time it takes to read 80,000100,000 words. I created this website to help you better gauge your book s word count, because the. Sometimes theyre shorter the lion, the witch and the wardrobe by c. Word count for picture books the standard is text for 32 pages.

When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. Have you ever checked your book s word count, written a few paragraphs, then checked again. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility. Many poets, especially new and emerging, publish chapbooks first. Sometimes theyre shorter the lion, the witch and the. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the book. You can set your target word count and the software tracks your progress to alert you when you have reached your word count goal. 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. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. For example, if an author has to write a minimum or maximum amount of words for an article, essay, report, story, book, paper, you name it.

Jun 26, 2018 the word count range for each age level is only a guideline. Search for word count totals in books word counters. 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. In 2015, the drop resumed as the average fell to 345. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me. Theres a basic mg word count, but there are also a few different ranges. A suitable boy by vikram seth 591,554 words source atlas shrugged by ayn rand 561,996 words source war and peace by leo tolstoy 561,304 words source. As an interesting side note, amazons text stats show that the average length of all books on amazon is about 64,000 words. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page count leading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. In some cases, these books will have no words at all, such as for the very small child who likes to feel the fluffy cotton tail of a bunny or push the squeaker for a duck quack. Jul 23, 2012 go out and find similar books to the one you want to write and figure out how many words are in the book. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. A question many authors have is how many words are on the average page when it comes to books and ebooks on amazon.

For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. Publishers want to know the overall length of your book. Childrens book writers must adhere to strict industry standards for. Find the word count feature, which will vary by directory. Reading length is a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to and affiliated sites. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be. When i am working on a book or a story i write every morning as soon after first light as possible.

That means 75,000 words equals 300 pages, which is just about perfect for a first novel. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. While anything over 40,000 words can fall into the novel category, 50,000 is considered the minimum novel length. Oct 18, 2017 as with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. Go to that books page and scroll down to inside this book. Estimate your page count book designer linda parke. So should i stay with this word count, or try to bring the word count down. Oct 31, 2020 for most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. So itll be off on occasion, but it should get you relatively close for the average book. Childrens chapter books word count age 69 word count. Search for a book, tell us how fast you read, and start reading. Scott fitzgerald, and old yeller by fred gipson all range between 35,000 and 50,000.

Although if its over 110,000 words, some may call it an epic. Eighty thousand words is the industry standard for a debut novel. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in. Feb 05, 2021 chances are your cozy mystery or literary novel is not an epic. Anything over 110,000 words is considered too long for a fiction novel. I would at least think 3 poems filling 24 pages is small, but doable. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. Obviously, the examples under each category are above and below what is generally accepted. If you want to write a memoir, for example, look at four or five similar memoirs and determine their word count.

Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. Longer word counts allowed for fantasy, scifi, historical. Jun 26, 2017 a single novel can be longer, but once the length is above 110,000 words publishers may look at cutting it back, unless it is a particular kind of book books over the 110k word count are usually considered epics. A guide to book length by word count for standard book genres broken down by genre. The best thing that you can do is look over comparable books and try to judge word count by their size, average words page, and illustration content. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. Books that can be read by many ages are called crossover books.

At a writers conference i recently attended, publishing veteran jane friedman said 80,000 words is good for most fiction, below 60,000 isnt novel length territory, and above 120,000 is likely too much. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. Indeed, most traditional publishers limit nonfiction authors to 80,000 words for standard 6 x 9 books, between 240 and 280 pages. Young adult novel 60,000 words on average, young adult novels usually fall around 55,000 and 70,000 words. This isnt to say that long books are no longer succeeding. An approximate word count round numbers based on what your wp tells you enables them to estimate costs and other factors involved in printing a book. Less than 70,000 unless fantasy scifi supernatural, which can be longer, max 90,000. Find out how long it will take you to read any book by using our book word count search. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and the pad. Apr 23, 2018 here are some word counts of famous novels, sorted from long to short. This information helps you calculate how long your novel or nonfiction work has to be to hit a certain page count on amazon, which is important if youre applying for promotions that require you to be above a certain number of pages to qualify. Word counts of the most popular books in the world foster grant uk. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words.

Book length varies according to genre, but a print nonfiction book length averages 50,000 words and commercial fiction averages 80,000 110,000 words. The word count to aim for with this type of book is usually between 500 and 600 words. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. Average book length in the publishing industry, 250 words is considered a printed page of text. May 14, 2018 what follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. Word count matters because every book bears an inherent contract with the reader. Average novel word counts are generally around 85,000 but they can range from 50,000 to 120,000. Rachelle also mentions that passing 100k in word count means its a more expensive book to producehence agents and editors aversion to such lengths. Word count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a manner unaffected by variations of format and page size.

Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. Its okay, its a disease and well get through it together. Word count, with a little help from amazon alexis grant. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. Upper middle grade word count can be a little longer, as can middle grade fantasy word count, since those novels require more worldbuilding and tend to have more plot. If you liked electric literatures game of books infographic that compared the length of a. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Search for the book using the directorys search interface. Im not sure if im pushing the word count over, been trying cut back the word count. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. Everything you need to know about novel word counts.

Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Guidelines for word count bookends literary agency. Nov 22, 2011 for average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. A single novel can be longer, but once the length is above 110,000 words publishers may. The actual word count for the hunger games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 94,743 words. Realize it over the maximum word count for erotic, science fictionfantasy genre.