Average word count for a book

If the word count of twilight is disregarded, the average becomes around 88,625. At an average reading rate of 125 words per minute, thats about 145 hours of reading. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. Hence, a manuscript not a published book of 200 pages is figured at 250 wpp x 200 pages 50,000 words. 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 longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this is very rough run perhaps 150450 pages, and at about 350 wdpage that works out to something like 50150k words. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. Oct 18, 2017 therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. The average word count in a book is between 60,000 and 100,000 words. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be.

Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens books and even memoir. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. The eight harry potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. An adult fiction book is most marketable in the suggested word count. Jul, 2017 i dont think there is a way and this is odd. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. Of course, when youre writing the first draft of your story, you want to just get your words out on paper. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel.

Search for word count totals in books word counters. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted. In contrast, word count is finite and usually i can calculate book length with about 99% accuracy in part because also included in any calculation is a count of figures, tables, etc. This tool is helpful for all authors everywhere who want to figure out how many pages their final book will contain based on their current word count. My ebooks and paperbacks range 72k to 101k and all sell. 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. Got a friend who is trying the mainstream route for her book and is still being told by agents and writing tutors that the ms must be 85,000 words. Nicholas sparks word count popular novel word count. Count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage. Therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication.

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. 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. Word counts of famous book series harry potter by jk rowling. 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 manuscript over 40,000 words is considered to be a novel. Yes, if you are hugely successful with your first book, your publisher will want lots more books from you. Now, this doesnt mean that you have to compromise your manuscript and make it homogeneous, however by trying to tick a few boxes it might. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers. If you are an author of a book or know of a books accurate wordcount, contact me.

For the book hatchet, the actual word count is 41,672 and i give you 41,212. I dont mind a publisher, agent or even a writer giving us his opinion of what word count makes a book, but to try to pass it off as definitive is more than arrogant. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. I publish my books first on smashwords and then, after they pass vetting for the smashwords premium catalog, i publish them on amazon as well. When combined, the total harry potter word count is over a million words. 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. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc.

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. But the thing is, that thick book that you see in a bookstore may actually contain fewer words than you think. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Do you want to publish a wide format bookwith inspiring quotes down the side margins.

If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. That makes them more expensive to print and a bigger investment. The average mean word count was about 73,000 words. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. What is the average number of actual words in comic books. Yes, the more successful your books, the longer they will get to be without anyone batting an eyelash see. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count.

Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Apr 11, 2015 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. How to use our book page count calculator select your word print size select the book genre enter your books word count. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to.

The actual word count for harry potter and the sorcerers stone is 78,792 and my utility calculates 77,876. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the. Twilight has 24 titled chapters, or 26 if you count the preface and epilogue, and about 4580 words per chapter. The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. 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. The first book in each series below was the authors first. Before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length.

Know your content, know your mainline pitch and some possible permutations, create a highlevel outline, write a compelling chapter and sell that. Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Picture story books for older children between the ages of 6 and 10 include more text with each picture. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has 17 chapters with titles, and about 4560 words per chapter. On a scale of one bad to ten excellent, chapter books rate their agents overall as an 8. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. Books in this genre are also often gag gifts or are meant to be facetious. Writing for young adults a look at the numbers hannah holt. We explain two easy methods to estimate your books page count.

In north america, the standard used by editorial staff in figuring word count is 250 words per page, 10 words per line using a 12 pt. Writing chapter books a look at the numbers hannah holt. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful.

Recently i got asked this question, what is the ideal length word count wise for my first book. If you have 6 panels, stick to a maximum of 35 words per panel. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. But the word count of a chapter matters if you want your story to flow right. 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. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. Oftentimes, professional editing will cut down the unnecessary information so your memoir is the appropriate word count. There is a sweet spot when it comes to word count, and its based on a books genre and target audience. We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count.

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. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. However, very few novels these days are as short as that. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. If the book offers more complicated instructions such as for creating an origami bird or a fashionable paper doll, the word count can extend as high as 1,500 words. There are many different different paths to getting published. The hunger games has a word count of 99,750 and my utility calculates it at 98,916. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. Audiences are used to a certain story length and page count. If youve ever read a joke book or a book revolving around a humorous endeavor of some sort, it falls under this book category. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection.

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. 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. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. 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. The word counts of some popular ya novels we often go around thinking that fat, thick books with huge word counts are the best. So itll be off on occasion, but it should get you relatively close for the average book. Longer books increase the number of pages that need to be printed. This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words. 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. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. For that group, a novel is more than 40k words, a novella is 17. 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. If youre new to selfpublishing on amazon and wondering, just how much should i write for my kindle book.

For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. As a result, a 100k manuscript can size up very differently on a shelf. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. Their agents send stories to an average of 59 editors at a time. 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.

Word count varied from 5,000 words to 40,000 words, with an average mean of 17,200 and a median word count of 8,500. 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. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. Authors often ask me about average word lengths for their manuscripts. The post lists a dizzying number of genres and a recommended word count range for each. The writing market has changed a lot since i first got published. On the technical side of things, authors need to consider the number of words that will be in their completed manuscript. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. Id love to word count published novels to find out how many really are 85,000. Average word count in a book book editing services.

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. 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. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts.

The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Short novels in general hit around 40,000 to 60,000 words, but most publishers wont touch a novel below 60,000. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to. Aug 05, 2019 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. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Frequently asked questions on getting published how can i get the book ive written published. In this article, were going to look at how many words are in the harry potter series. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. This is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count. Most memoirs need to be in the 70,000 to 100,000word range.

Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. While theres no reliable statistic, heres an interesting post on word count from the blog of former agent colleen lindsay. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. Only if youre a major celebrity can you blow right through that word count and just keep going. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. There are a lot of elements that go into writing a story, like fleshing out characters, piecing together the plot, and crafting the perfect ending.