Average number of words in book

Having said all that, there are a number of conventions regarding word count. Jul 23, 2012 the average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 words. 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. 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. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. That is saying a page with 12point font and double spaced with 1inch margins all around will average about 250 words, which were averaged at i believe 5 letters per word. What is the average number of words in a typical self help book. Oct 10, 2016 most of the data ill be using throughout this article was sourced from writers digest and the manuscript appraisal agency, with any differences split to find the average. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. 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. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Pages by paperback uses an industry standard formula for english language publishing of taking the average number of words per page and multiplying it by the average number of characters per word five including a space, for six total, the product of which is then used to divide against the total character count of the project. The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 words. Sep 20, 2019 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.

This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each. At an average reading rate of 125 words per minute, thats about 145 hours of reading. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. What is the average number of words in a selfhelp book. Once you have a vision for your booksmall, standard, or wide formatyou can move on to the second step in deciding how many words you should write. Jun 24, 2019 be aware that the word average means that for every book that sells 15,000, there is one that sells 5,000. Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words. A key issue is the fact that picture books are 32 pages. You may also pick the lines from random pages in the document. For example, hyperion chapter book manuscripts must currently be 2,5005,000 words maximum. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. If you already know the average number of words you write per scene, use that figure.

Word counts of famous book series harry potter by jk rowling. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales, but also cause fewer 5star. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages. This is an art rather than a science but here are a few tips. The first alone has sold more than 120 million copies, and the rest have sold at least 65 million each. How to calculate a word count per page pen and the pad. Pick 10 lines on a page that appear to contain the most number of words. Targeted for 2 to 8yearold kids, this type of book typically has between 400 800 words.

Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. I asked agents elizabeth pomada and michael larsen of larsen pomada literary agency to add their thoughts to the subject. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words. Weighing in at over 4 million words, the wheel of time is assuredly among the longest fantasy series out there, although reliable data on the matter is elusive. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. All of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as. For a printed book, 37,000 words is definitely on the short side less than 150 pages so publishers may not be interested as pricing will be low and volumes needing to be correspondingly high. These books are generally heftier in general, so for a 150page book you can target 45,000 words and 60,000 words for a 200page book. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. For the larger, 6 x 9 trim size, would be about 300 words per page. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words.

Using amazons number of words as a guide, 5,000 words would equal 26. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. So, the average wordcount for a typical novel is anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words. Yet starting in 9th grade, when students traditionally enter high school, that number drops significantly by more than 100,000 words a year and. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. In 2016s list, ron chernows 816page alexander hamilton managed to crack the top spot. This number was significantly different from the average we had seen for the estimated print length that had been given in the product details of each books amazon sales page. 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. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. Today, even after the introduction of what amazon calls version 2. As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules.

The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. What is the average number of words in a typical self help. These questions made us fill the need of a book page count calculator we put at the bottom of this page. It shows that the number of words students read peaks in 6th grade and remains relatively stable through 8th grade. Paperback books typically contain how many words per page. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average.

It only takes a quick scan of a handful of ebooks, say in the kindle store, to notice that the number of pages that constitutes an ebook is almost as wide as the pacific. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Id guess that the actual average number of words in a novel was. May 11, 2009 for a printed book, 37,000 words is definitely on the short side less than 150 pages so publishers may not be interested as pricing will be low and volumes needing to be correspondingly high. 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 page count calculator how many pages is my novel. What is the generally accepted number of words per page for a published novel. Discover the average number of words on a page by counting the number of words on three randomly picked full pages distributed throughout the book. According to amazon s great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words.

Jul 01, 2015 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. I thought the average for a midsized novel would be around 100200 pages. Multiply the average number of words per line by the number of lines on a full page. When combined, the total harry potter word count is over a million words. Average the count by taking the total number of words counted and divide by three. Mar 17, 2010 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. Count characters and words with the anycount tool for a precise estimate and get every single cent youve earned. Be aware that the word average means that for every book that sells 15,000, there is one that sells 5,000. A publisher gives the range of 80,000100,000 words for a historical romance. Richard castle, played by actor nate fillion, is decripting a code and mentions that the average number of words per page in his nikki heat books is just bel. 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. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price for the translation job. In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of 273 pages.

Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. And for every book that sells 20,000, there is one that is a disaster. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Plotting a novel by the numbers live write breathe.

However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers. Feb 18, 2008 the 250 words perpage rule is a copysetting estimate. Typically books of poems with 1 page per poem are around 2530 pages long, however i have seen books that are longer than 50 poems. 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. This isnt to say that long books are no longer succeeding. To find an average, youd need to total up all the words of all the novels ever written, then divide it by how many there are. Longer word counts allowed for fantasy, scifi, historical. The 250wordsperpage rule is a copysetting estimate. Now im seeing a lot more mg books with up to 60,000 words, so i think the water has become a bit murky here.

Harry potter and the halfblood prince 168,000 words. 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. There were rumors in 20 that amazon had set a minimum word. 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. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. This should capture the authors writing style and provide a reliable estimate of the number of words used by the. Return to writing for children printmobilefriendly version. The first graph depicts the average number of words and books read by grade level.

Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. Wikipedia suggests it is some 1 million words longer than the malazan book of the fallen, its chief competition for the honor omitting shared universe tales like those of mercedes. To get an idea of what your book will look like you need to match the number of words per page on your word processing page to the finished printed page. I actually remember this perhaps incorrectly from an episode of the tv series castle. Harry potter and the deathly hallows 198,000 words. Well, calculating it out, that would mean the average book was 240480 pages. May 14, 2018 with a track record to back them up, established writers have greater flexibility. These figures represent continuous words with no blank lines or breaks. 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. Oct 18, 2017 as with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. More important is whether or not your book reads like a picture book succinct, musical, pictorial. If you dont know this number, write the first 50 pages of your book, then estimate the average number of words per scene. A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of time.

Depending on the text formatting, a page word count may include from 200 large print up to 600 words academic book. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. If you have questions about specific series of books, do some research read the books, check the catalogue, contact the publisher, etc. Just to keep in mind, the average one spaced page usually contains about 3000 characters or 500 words. With a track record to back them up, established writers have greater flexibility. 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. This number was significantly different from the average we had seen for the estimated print length that had been given in the product details of each book s amazon sales page. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. What is the average number of words in a selfhelp book answers. In two minutes, i found ebooks ranging from 10 to 950 pages. 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.

Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near. And, in case youre wondering, here are the average word counts for other popular genres. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. Sep 11, 2010 i was looking online and most of the sources i found said the average number of words per novel page is 250, and the average words per book were 60,000120,000. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words.

A 90,000 word count signals to professionals that you know what you are doing. Today, however, while the physical size of a book may still matter in a bookstore, ebooks have no dimensions. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words. Books range from several words to several thousand compare goodnight moon to the polar express. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. And no agents or publishers would even look past that number. That will give you a good guide if you want to emulate it. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. There is an average of 150 words on each page, so the number of words in the twilight series is around 400,000 words all. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. Mind you that great classic, the little prince, was such a work. 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 %. An ebook with 15 pages amounts to only around 3000 words. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes.

But i also know of others who have sold over 500,000 copies. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. I was looking online and most of the sources i found said the average number of words per novel page is 250, and the average words per book were 60,000120,000. Calculate the number of pages using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. Divide the result by 10 to find the average number of words per line. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Estimate your page count book designer linda parke. May 07, 2018 right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words.

The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. I know of an author with a very large publisher whose novel has sold only 1,087 copies in its lifetime. The sorcerers stone 77,325 words the chamber of secrets 84,799 words the prisoner of azkaban 106,821 words. There are 4 books in the series and around 650 pages average in every book. No more than 90,000 words seems to be the editors mantra these days.