That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. Multiply the average number of words per line by the number of lines on a full page. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words. Page number is a terrible way to estimate word count as it depends on the size of the pages, the font size, the font used spacing, leading etc. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. Here is what 187 words looks like in microsoft word. 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 have more words. Just remember, with so much diversity in nonfiction, you have even less of a reason to get hung up on length. You can use comparable, successful books as models to determine the length. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. In practice you need to subtract 1520% from the page word total once the white.
With longer books, you can get a rough count by adding up the number of words on an average page and multiplying by the total number of pages. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters.
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. James patterson the mostselling author in the world is famous for his tiny chapter of a page and a half around 250500 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. For example, childrens books are going to have fewer words per page than a book meant for adult readers. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. 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. Oct 18, 2017 as with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. Even the complexity of the words you use affects how many words are on a page. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime. It may be an ebook only not printed and designed as a reference tool for busy business people.
For a printed book, 37,000 words is definitely on the short side less than 150 pages so. 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. The amount of words on a single page varies depending on the size and margins of the page, but generally its 250 words per page. If you figure an average of about 250 words per page, then what about 60,000 words or so for an average book. 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. May 11, 2009 32 responses to word count and book length. Using this exercise, you should end up with a good idea of book length expectations for a novel like yours. Do this for several books in your niche to get a targeted range. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. So, if you have an hour to write and aim to get down 300 words, you might wonder, how. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long. You 50,000 word manuscript may be half the page length of another authors 50,000 word manuscript.
Calculate book page count using word count for book design. But depending on the ereading device and the font size setting, it varies significantly between a phone, a tablet, or a kindle. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. For example, a typical 5th grade book has 200 to 250 words per page. 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. Jun 07, 2017 when talking about book length, its common to talk about word count rather than page count. A rough guideline to start with would be 500010,000 words per book. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages. I believe the word count has increased as she wrote more books. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. 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.
According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Estimate a small reduction for the linesperpage and the numberofpages values. Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. I made some test text print outs and matched them to standard paperback versions. Oct 02, 2006 of course it begs the question, how much material does it take to become publishworthy. 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 contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. I remember reading some westerns in high school and, if i. There are no hardandfast rules for the number of pages in a book. How many words are in the average 400 page novel answers. For comparison purposes, lets look at the editing rates and use an average pageperhour and an average hourly rate. 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.
Dec 18, 2010 i believe the word count has increased as she wrote more books. If a page is 500 words on an ipad, and 250 words on a kindle, it might be only 120 words on a phone. Mar 20, 2020 howtos or selfhelp usually have 4050,000 words. Estimate a small reduction for the linesper page and the number of pages values. This involves the manuscript being double spaced, with 12 pt tnr, arial, verdana or other easy to read font all throughout the manuscr.
Mysteries and young adult books run between 40,000 and 80,000 words. I counted the number of words on page 7 of night whispers, then multiplied by the number of pages, then rounded, and so theres aout 4 words per book. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. Aug 05, 2019 the average singlespaced document typed in 12point font contains about 500 words per page, but that can vary pretty drastically depending on your formatting. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Chris, for trying to answer a big question with a small answer. Well, if you use standard modern manuscript formatting, about 2530,000 words total are in 100 manuscript pages. Targeted for 2 to 8yearold kids, this type of book typically has between 400 800 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. How many pages do they read appalachian state university. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. 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. Every category will have an average length, including childrens books, young adult, business books, etc.
Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Books for 7 to 9yearold readers would probably start at the 15,000 word mark, rarely going higher than 30,000 words. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Of course it begs the question, how much material does it take to become publishworthy.
As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. This example illustrates that for most situations, 20 minutes reading time might not be enough. Lewis the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, roald dahls charlie and the chocolate factory. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. Most ebooks i see are double spaced, which makes their pages clearer but also reduces the number of words per page. I use microsoft word and a print page is different then a book page. 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 does your book measure compare to whats succeeding in todays marketplace. How many words per page are there in a typical novel. 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 reduction will be very small, like maybe 12 lines less per page, and 510 pages less for the book. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. If you want to know the total word count for your document, then multiply this number by the number of pages it contains. Amazon estimates a page count in an ebook to be around 187 words.
So, if you have an hour to write and aim to get down 300 words, you might wonder, how many pages is 300 words and the answer is less than one. A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of time. When i use 12 font size it looks too big, i found size 10 gives me a better estimate. Some editors charge a minimum fee for their services to cover the cost of their time and energy spent on a particular project in lieu of other work. Many of our students can actually finish their draft of this length in only 30 days with our process. Jul 01, 2015 it may be an e book only not printed and designed as a reference tool for busy business people.
An example of a book which started small and went way bigger, is write. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if. 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. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Apr 01, 2020 the average person can expect to spend 3 7 months writing a 200 page book if they focus on writing more than 1500 words per week. The authors originally planned it to be 50,000 words, then went to 60,000 and eventually ended up at 80,000 words. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. In 2015, the drop resumed as the average fell to 345. How to calculate a word count per page pen and the pad. In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of 273 pages.
Oct 27, 2018 james patterson the mostselling author in the world is famous for his tiny chapter of a page and a half around 250500 words. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. 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. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. The average singlespaced document typed in 12point font contains about 500 words per page, but that can vary pretty drastically depending on your formatting. These figures represent continuous words with no blank lines or breaks. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts. In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales, but also cause fewer 5star.
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