Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long. Using amazons number of words as a guide, 5,000 words would equal 26. It all depends on the font type, font size, spacing, and formatting of the text. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range.
As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. For the larger, 6 x 9 trim size, would be about 300 words per page. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages. 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. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has 17 chapters with titles, and about 4560 words per chapter.
As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. Usually a full novel is considered between 60,000 to 90,000 words. A 100 page book would be, then, about 25,000 words. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. 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.
Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. The actual word count for the hunger games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 94,743 words. The following are average wordcount ranges by genre. As you can see, a smaller trim size will produce more pages for the same word count, and a larger trim. The 5 x 8 trim size means about 250 words per page. Basic trade picture books as seen in most stores will typically have a standard set of 32 pages.
So should i stay with this word count, or try to bring the word count down. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project. The average mean word count was about 53,000 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.
However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically. While a general guideline is one page is 500 words single spaced or 250 words double spaced, this is a ballpark figure.
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. The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words.
Realize it over the maximum word count for erotic, science fictionfantasy genre. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average wordsperline. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000 word range. Of course, word count wont matter if a story doesnt hook the target audience. Twilight has 24 titled chapters, or 26 if you count the preface and epilogue, and about 4580 words per chapter. Multiply the average number of words per line by the number of lines on a full page. Writing middle grade a look at the numbers hannah holt. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the 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.
If a novel has a total of 80,000 words with 300 words per page, the number of manuscript pages is 267. Take a typical 250 word per page, 15 pages of good content contains around 3,750 words. The di vinci code 2003 by dan brown is 8,380 words christian book word count. How to calculate a word count per page pen and the pad. Im not sure if im pushing the word count over, been trying cut back the word count. According to amazon s great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. 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.
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. For a manuscript, the answer is two pages if the word count per page is 250 and it is double spaced. We need to count words if we are writing for a publication that asks us to stay within a set number of words. This standard was set in earlier times, when most manuscripts were prepared on. As basic info, you need to know the word count, not the page count, of the book you would narrate. I use amazons data feeds to come up with the calculation. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page.
Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage. The grandfather of modern christian fiction, in his steps by charles m. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. When i started to work on novels i wanted to keep an estimate of how many words and book pages. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content.
The left behind series original books, not including the prequel, 19952007 by tim lahaye and jerry b. This 90,000 word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. 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. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. The page doublespaced on the right fills less than half the page. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words.
The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 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. Kenpc kindle edition normalized page count with the introduction of the new royalty system for kindle unlimited and the kindle owners lending library books for amazon prime, borrows are paid by the number of actual pages read by the reader. If using 12 point times or times roman font, its about 10 english words per line, on average. Learn the average wordcount for every type of novel, novella, genre, etc. If you want to know the total word count for your document, then multiply this number by the number of pages. 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. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. I just laid out a 65,000word book and it ended up, with a couple pages of photos and a few pages of appendix, at 268 pages the pages in the main body of the text are numbered up to 237. The typical books wordsperpage count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. To fill a page in word, you would need around 500 words, 1.
When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. Words per page at one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. In 2015, the drop resumed as the average fell to 345. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Pauls article shows you a formula to calculate finished time. You can use word to count how many words you have written in a document. Another recommendation by tom corsonknowles from tck publishing. Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. How many words are there on the average page of a novel.
Divide the result by 10 to find the average number of words per line. Jenkins started strongly but weakened, along with the. For instance, audible uses an average rate of speed of 155 words a minute, or 9300 words per finished hour. Further, that font and size will put 49 singlespaced lines on a page. Word count for picture books the standard is text for 32 pages. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. Estimate your page count book designer linda parke. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write. Estimates vary based on different kindle devices available, but the above settings translate into approximately 250300 words per page on average.
Personally, i recommend at least 10,000 words for nonfiction, unless you can do it justice in less. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. 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. You can figure out the finished runtime based on the word count. How does your book measure compare to whats succeeding in todays marketplace. Go to a bookstore and support your fellow authors by purchasing these books, or check them out of the library. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Before our book page count calculator, you had to dig around through multiple sources to figure out how many words per page for your exact font size and then do the math. I use microsoft word and a print page is different then a book page.
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