Words in average book

Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. You might find your story strengthening as the excess words drop off. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. As previously discussed, there are different requirements for both fiction and nonfiction genres. Romance novels are generally expected to be around 100,000 words long. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000 word range. One of my biggest problems as a publisher is having authors deliver more than was agreed to. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words.

If a page has 2000 characters on it a reasonable average for a doublespaced page, then it will take up 2k 2 kilobytes. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. 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 popular novel word count the worlds largest word count encyclopedia. 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 is because printers print on large sheets of paper and fold it. 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. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and. If a page has 4000 characters singlespaced, then it will take about 250 pages of text to equal one megabyte. What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. Usually a full novel is considered between 60,000 to 90,000 words. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively. The best way to tell for sure is to decide what size book you want the answer for paper b. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. The bestselling creativity guide which i edited, the artists way, is one of the shining examples of this wide format book.

Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales. Within the publishing industry we tend to talk about the length of a book in words rather than in pages. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Publishers want to know the overall length of your book. Jul 17, 2017 the average length of a nonfiction book is 50,000 words, with some books falling at around 3540,000 words, and others running as long as 70,000. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. Historically, books 40,000 words or less have been considered novellas, not novels. So a typical book page has, say 1,500 to 1,800 characters not counting spaces. 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. But if the current project you are working on is the one you plan on pitching to agents, do not self publish it first an agent cant do much with a selfpublished book. Having a too short or too long kindle book isnt a permanent irreversible mistake on selfpublishing on amazon.

Fantasy and science fiction novels are known to be lengthier than other books. I know of an author with a very large publisher whose novel has sold only 1,087 copies in its lifetime. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. If you figure an average of about 250 words per page, then what about 60,000 words or so for an average book.

Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. That said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels generally lies between 100,000 and 115,000. This type of information is very helpful to your book designer. So, the average wordcount for a typical novel is anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 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 writing genre, word count in book chapters can vary considerably. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. When i write i use times new roman 12 font, about 360 words per page with standard margins, less if theres a lot of dialogue. Similarly, if your book is lengthy and you want to keep printing and shipping costs down, your book designer can minimize your page count by creating a design with this in mind. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. So far, i have about 35,000 words typed for the book i plan to publish.

However, many authors, frustrated with the low price of ebooks, have taken to writing ebooks that are between 40,000 and 50,000. Sep 16, 2019 the rules are continually evolving, so theres no need for you to feel constrained by some unwritten law that says your book needs to be of a certain length. 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. Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Since opinions vary greatly, i did some research to verify the numbers in my head. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. That means it will take about 500 pages of text to equal one megabyte. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction.

Mar 17, 2010 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. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words. This is useful for all writers to make sure they are hitting their appropriate market. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. May 21, 2012 books written specifically for the e book market do tend to run shorter than books for the print market. 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. For the larger, 6 x 9 trim size, would be about 300 words per page. While every book can be an exception, you are far better staying within suggested guidelines for book length if you want your book to be accepted by publishers, parents and young readers. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. So itll be off on occasion, but it should get you relatively close for the average book. Every category will have an average length, including childrens books, young adult, business books, etc. 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. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic.

Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. A you should be aware that the majority of readers are actually adults. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages.

Id guess that the actual average number of words in a novel was somewhere close to 90,000 words. A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of time. Less than 70,000 unless fantasy scifi supernatural, which can be longer, max 90,000. Targeted for 2 to 8yearold kids, this type of book typically has between 400 800 words. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. You can use comparable, successful books as models to determine the length you book should be. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about. Most people who selfpublish their ebooks dont give word counts, since the typical reader has no idea how many words are in a book. 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. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. Word count, with a little help from amazon alexis grant. A small print encyclopedia can have 200,000 words in just under 400 pages of course, so type size and format matter but this is a rule of thumb given amazons removal.

Just make sure you go with whatever publishing path feels right for you, stay the course, and achieve your goal. Some will tell you 2,500 words is the average, while others will say that 3,000 to 5,000 word chapters are more likely to be the norm. If your book needs to be thicker to improve perceived value, your book designer can help in many ways. 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. 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. Whether youre just curious about how many words are in these books or youre writing a book and want to compare the length of your novel to these famous tomes, then read on to find the word counts of famous books and series. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. 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%.

Learn the average wordcount for every type of novel, novella, genre, etc. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. 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. How many words are there on the average page of a novel. Rich olsonchildrens book illustrator this is a good breakdown of the childrens book categories. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count.

Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. And for every book that sells 20,000, there is one that is a disaster. Genre in childrens writing meg rosoff the guardian. Word counts for childrens books i received a request awhile ago to do a post on word counts for different age categories in childrens lit. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. On average, young adult novels usually fall around 55,000 and 70,000 words. With upper middle grade, you can aim for 40,000 55,000 words. Rowlings recordbreaking series began with two titles on the high end of that spectrum and finished with five that left the guidelines in the dust.

How many characters of text letters are in an average book. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales, but also cause fewer 5star. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. Ultimately, if they have five other books in your genre that are as good. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime.

Within the publishing industry we tend to talk about the length of a book in words. A books have a teenage protagonist, but if you want to write y. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. The 1 thing you need to do to write a new york times best. Nicholas sparks word count popular novel word count. 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. 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. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. According to amazon s great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. In rough terms, each page of a standardformat hardcover book has about 300350 words, and each word is five characters plus a space.

Even if your kindle book is live on amazon, you may still take it down from the shelf, improve it to the new and expanded version and relaunch your book into the market again at any time. 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. This is a question that many beginning writers have. A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. How to write a bestselling business book bloomberg. Before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length. Chris, for trying to answer a big question with a small answer. Here are the average novel word counts in the top five genres in the book publishing industry in no particular order. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages.

Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Mind you that great classic, the little prince, was such a work. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. But i also know of others who have sold over 500,000 copies. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. Word counts for chapter books and middle grade can range from 1,50030,000 or more. How many words are in the average philosophy book answers.

Literary agent danielle zigner takes a look at typical novel lengths per genre and what appeals to publishers within the current marketplace. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. These word counts are my personal references they are not official, and do not include back matter, which is bonus material for the reader or information geared for parents, teachers, or. About how many words of that size are in your average 250 300 page book. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. The average word count for a typical novel ranges anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words, with the average hanging. It was 333 words which tends to be lower then the average picture book. Since there is no universal word count for a page in a book, publishers usually ask the author before publication for the overall word count of the book. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page.

Obviously books at the younger end tend to be shorter. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. Mine average 300 words per page using verdana 12 or pt font and single spaced paragraphs. However sometimes, like today, the reverse happens. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. The average adult novel runs approximately 100,000 words while those in other categories run 80120,000 words. The average book on the planet is 65,000 words at 200 pages, which is pretty close to this method. Words per page is a free online words to pages calculator which converts the numbers of words you write into pages and allows you to change margins, font size and fonts.

How to write a highquality ebook in 30 days copyblogger. 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. 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. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. 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.