Book word count average

That means 75,000 words equals 300 pages, which is just about perfect for a first novel. To save the time and effort of counting wordbyword, often a rule of thumb for the average number of words per line was used, such as 10 words per line. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages.

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. The average mean word count was about 73,000 words. Even with the wiggle room allowed by ebooks, authors follow commonlyaccepted book word count. May 07, 2018 please dont tell us my book is 150 pages long. With general middle grade books averaging between 45,00060,000 words, and upper middle grade books averaging between 60,00090,000 words, they were all much higher than the norm.

If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. But, he also mentions that the wizard of oz was 40,000 words. Everything you need to know about novel word counts. Rachelle also mentions that passing 100k in word count means its a more expensive book to producehence agents and editors aversion to such lengths. When you upload a file to amazon to make an ebook, amazon uses your word count to estimate the number of pages. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average words perline count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted then. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average wordsperline.

If you are a firsttime writer, aiming for around 90,000 words is a safe goal. Seven of the ten books on the list were estimated to come in between 99,840348,160 words. So itll be off on occasion, but it should get you relatively close for the average book. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. Average word count in a book book editing services. 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.

The old man and the sea was about 25 to 30,000 words, tops. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. So should i stay with this word count, or try to bring the word count down. Oct 19, 2017 dont count on royalties to support you. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page.

Apr 23, 2018 you should share the standard industry formula for determining word count, because the actual document word count determined by the program, such as microsoft word, is misleading, for lack of a better term, and most experienced literary agents and publishing house editors typically want the formulated number, which is averaged based on proper formatting font type and size, line spacing. However, there are many ya bestseller with more than 100,000 words. So you may not want to tempt fate on the shortshortshort end of the scale. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. Here is what i found in order from least words to most words. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. Feb 05, 2021 chances are your cozy mystery or literary novel is not an epic. The length of a young adult or ya book is measured in word count instead of page count. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. 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. Realize it over the maximum word count for erotic, science fictionfantasy genre. A question many authors have is how many words are on the average page when it comes to books and ebooks on amazon. To save the time and effort of counting wordbyword, often a rule of thumb for the average number of words per line was used, such as 10 words.

Anything over 110,000 words is considered too long for a fiction novel. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Jan 08, 2018 now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. May 25, 2020 most publishers consider novel length as between 50,000 and 110,000 words. In the meantime, overwriting to the point that your draft exceeds typical word count ranges is a common issue and those widelyaccepted ranges arent completely arbitrary. At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. 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. We dont know if it is single spaced, double spaced, in a teensy sized font, or in giant print. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word.

Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. The following are average wordcount ranges by genre. Oct 18, 2017 as with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. Search for word count totals in books word counters. The average word count in a book is between 60,000 and 100,000 words. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Im not sure if im pushing the word count over, been trying cut back the word count. The word count figures for the other six books, in order. Of course, word count wont matter if a story doesnt hook the target audience. If i tell you that my book is 70,000 words, and send you an 800 page correctly formated ms the 1. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Authors dont make more money for writing longer books. All we have to do is use the wp tool that shows word count.

Average book length in the publishing industry, 250 words is considered a printed page of text. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. 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. A single novel can be longer, but once the length is above 110,000 words publishers may. Scott fitzgerald, and old yeller by fred gipson all range between 35,000 and 50,000. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. Apr 17, 2020 in general, books for children follow these word count guidelines. Here are the average novel word counts in the top five genres in the book publishing industry in no particular order.

Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Most publishers consider novel length as between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Once you have a vision for your book small, standard, or wide formatyou can move on to the second step in deciding how many words you should write. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. For you dear authors, the only time you should take note about the word count is probably when you are hiring someone for editing and formatting because the more word count you have, the more the service is going to cost you. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. As an interesting side note, amazons text stats show that the average length of all books on amazon is about 64,000 words. Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. My current wip is young adult, so i compiled a somewhat random list of ya novels by debut authors and looked up the book s word count. The popular book the noticer 2009 by andy andrews barely breaks the novel barrier at 40,454 words without the readers guide that was added to pad the book.

Books by the history press, for example, are often 30,000 to 40,000 words, with many historical photos. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. You might say, but with e books the word count doesnt matter. 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.

When i started to work on novels i wanted to keep an estimate of how many words and book pages. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Aug 23, 20 until i discovered ar book finder, a site that will give you the word count for almost all novels. Young adult novel 60,000 words on average, young adult novels usually fall around 55,000 and 70,000 words. Publishers want to know the overall length of your book.

May 14, 2018 bestselling author caleb carr may write novels of 250,000 words, but when you pitch your novel and offer up that number, be prepared for a glacial reception. That said, the average word count for science fiction and. Word count for picture books the standard is text for 32 pages. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Sometimes theyre shorter the lion, the witch and the wardrobe by c. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures. When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. Over time, the word count diminished and volume 8 the mark contained only 85,341 words, and the last volume, number 16 kingdom come, dwindled to 77,776 words. Novelty books include popups, puzzles, pulltabs and other interactive features. Nov, 2009 so many people today rely on the word count given by their software program, but when you go to print a physical book, the pages matter.

The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. 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. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Thats why the traditional submission formats exist. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Nov 22, 2011 word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. The word count to aim for with this type of book is usually between 500 and 600 words. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Average novel word counts are generally around 85,000 but they can range from 50,000 to 120,000. 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. While anything over 40,000 words can fall into the novel category, 50,000 is considered the minimum novel length.

Writing for young adults a look at the numbers hannah holt. Though there is no standard rule for ya books, the average is between 75,00090,000 words. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. A 90,000 word count signals to professionals that you know what you are doing. Count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. Overwriting drags down a narrative, turns off prospective agentspublishersreaders, and can cause professional services to become prohibitively expensive. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words.