Average novel page word count

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 books 50% of books have fewer words and 50% of books. During the introductory month of the new system, the conversion of kenpc into the actual number of words in the book actual word count showed significant differences from one book to the other. 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. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words.

Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has 17 chapters with titles, and about 4560 words per chapter. 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. Theres some variance in the end word count for novellas and the start word count for novels. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be.

However, i understand that the length of twilight is unusually long for a debut novel. The average fantasy novel should have between 50,000 and 150,000 words. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. 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. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this is very rough run perhaps 150450 pages, and at about 350 wd page that works out to something like 50150k words. Within the publishing industry we tend to talk about the length of a book in words rather than in pages. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. From picture books to ya information to get you started at. Word count for novels and childrens books at the guide to literary agents blog. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k.

Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. Word processing programs have a function that calculates the number automatically, but the results are not reliable in the publishing world. Here are the average novel word counts in the top five genres in the book publishing industry in no particular order. Some say that the change point is 30000 words and not 40000. Its hard to fudge word count, and easy to fudge page count. I remember reading some westerns in high school and, if i. If you have 6 panels, stick to a maximum of 35 words per panel. A 90,000 word count signals to professionals that you know what you are doing. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book.

Literary agent danielle zigner takes a look at typical novel lengths per genre and what appeals to publishers within the current marketplace. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. 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 youre writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages. On average, young adult novels usually fall around 55,000 and 70,000 words. Now that weve covered how many words are in a novel, its time to break it down even further by finding out the ideal number of chapters in a novel and how many words are used in a typical chapter. Depending on the text formatting, a page word count may include from 200 large print up to 600 words academic book. Counting chickens a few words about word counts at hope vestergaards site. The younger the child, the shorter the word count do you need to edit your novel. Worse, all three of these answers reveal a lack of understanding of the marketplace in which writers are trying to sell storiesthe same marketplace where we agents are selling stories. You can write as short or as extended a chapter as you want, with as many scenes in each that you want. Count characters and words with the anycount tool for a precise estimate and get every single cent youve earned. If you think a 270,000word memoir will make it past the agent, do it. I have rounded the averages down slightly, both to account for twilights outlier status and my own preference for brevity.

As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. If you really want to know whats the general word length of a romance novel, look at whats published. Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. 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. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Well, as to be expected with a book niche like ours, somebody decided to write an article for a howto site on how to go about writing and publishing a light novel in america. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages.

This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. If this thread still going can someone tell me how many words is reasonable for a chapter im writing my first fantasy novel and worried if i have too short or to long of a chapter right now my first chapter word count is at 1,436 and in counting. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count.

As a publisher who has laid out dozens of books for printinga 50,000 word manuscript should end up somewhere between 180 and 220 pages. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. 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. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about. Recently i got asked this question, what is the ideal length word count wise for my first book.

Perkins agency in new york says its much easier to market a firsttime novelists book if the word count falls between 80,000 and 100,000 words, or roughly 300 doublespaced, typed pages the average novel length. 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. Oct 18, 2017 but chapter word count is something that you want to keep in mind for future edits. This is due to the audience youre reaching preferring that length. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is. The typical book s wordsper page count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250.

Do check your comparable titlesrecent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range. 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. The truth is the number of words per page depends on a variety of factors such as the type of font, the font size, spacing elements, margin spacing, and paragraph length to name a few. You must provide an accurate word count per page or by document when you are submitting a literary project.

Aug 05, 2019 i think theres some confusion here on memoir word count vs. The sweet spot, according to donald maas, is 100,000 to 115,000 words. Its often possible to take a good 30,000 words out of a book without really affecting the content, just by being rigorous about what works what words, sentences, paragraphs, scenes and chapters. So, do a word count with a word processor, then divide by 250 to get the number of standard pages. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages.

Take a good look at the average word counts you need for a novel or nonfiction. Just to keep in mind, the average one spaced page usually contains about 3000 characters or 500 words. However, the true word count depends on the category in which youre writing. There are still many factors to consider, like your genre. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word.

That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. And the average novel, for the purposes of word count only, is between 80,000 and 120,000 words. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. 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. 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. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. As previously discussed, there are different requirements for both fiction and nonfiction genres.

Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. As a result, a 100k manuscript can size up very differently on a shelf. Science fiction and fantasy novels typically have a word count between 90,000 to 125,000 words. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively. If youre new to selfpublishing on amazon and wondering, just how much should i write for my kindle book. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the book, and for ya novels the average is 50,00070,000 words. A short story has a word count of under 20,000 words though anything over 10,000 puts it into that no mans land along with novellas where its a long slog for a short story but too short for anything resembling a novel. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. How to calculate a word count per page pen and the pad. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling.

If the word count of twilight is disregarded, the average becomes around 88,625. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. Assuming that word count has anything to do with it, is a sure road to a writing disaster. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if it is doublespaced. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Depending on the writing genre, word count in book chapters can vary considerably. Now that weve covered how many words are in a novel, its time to break it down even further by finding out the ideal number of chapters in a novel and how many words are used in a typical chapter depending on the writing genre, word count in book chapters can vary considerably. So, with all of this in mind, is there actually an average word count you should aim for. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook.

If your book is too long and you need to cut it, dont fret. Multiply up by the number of pages and get to a rough word count. As you can see, a smaller trim size will produce more pages for the same word count, and a larger trim size will produce less. Young adult novel 60,000 words on average, young adult novels usually fall around 55,000 and 70,000 words. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novel s word count is generally said to be around 8090k. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books.

That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. But blake is trying to give everyone here some guidelines. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. How many words per page are there in a typical novel. 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. A manuscript for a novel is typically 500 words per page if singlespaced.

Apr 05, 2015 generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. 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. When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors.

Sep 11, 2008 i suspect you are trying to work out how many pages you have written as a judge of how far into your novel you are, but publishers wont ask you how many pages your story is, they will ask you how many words youve written. Word count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a manner unaffected by variations of format and page size. While a general guideline is one page is 500 words single spaced or 250 words double spaced, this is a ballpark figure. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job.

This is because these programs only count actual words, but publishers. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. 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. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. When the final work is printed for sale and published, the number of words per page will differ. That doesnt mean that your book will be an instant success if your novel word count is in its optimum number. If youre thinking bigger and wondering, for example, how many pages is 50,000 words, simply divide your target word count 50,000 by 500 since thats the average words per page. And as youve probably guessed it is sitting pretty right in between middle grade and adult. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. I suspect you are trying to work out how many pages you have written as a judge of how far into your novel you are, but publishers wont ask you how many pages your story is, they will ask you how many words youve written. How long is a singletitle romance novel supposed to be. What is the average number of actual words in comic books or.