A 90,000 word count signals to professionals that you know what you are doing. Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. Different books and publishers have different layouts for their pages. The word count for a novel can begin below 30,000 or 40,000 the old man and the sea, tuesdays with morrie and go well past 500,000. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts. What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. I am 42000 words in to my first novel and i have 39 chapters, so on average its just over words per chapter, though some may be nearer 2000. By adjusting a few parameters, he can easily increase or reduce the average number of words on a page by 10%. If you have 6 panels, stick to a maximum of 35 words per panel. I am writing a novel right now, and im up to 4025 words in 10. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. Worse, all three of these answers reveal a lack of understanding of the marketplace in which writers are trying to sell storiesthe same marketplace where we agents are selling stories. 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. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words.
Thats really hard to say, books are usually measured by word count and not page count. At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. If youre new to selfpublishing on amazon and wondering, just how much should i write for my kindle book. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. When the final work is printed for sale and published, the number of words per page will differ. How many pages would my manuscript be in paperback. 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. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a 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. How many words in stokers novel dracula and whats the average word count for each of.
However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres. And the average novel, for the purposes of word count only, is between 80,000 and 120,000 words. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. On average, when writing a memoir should not exceed 90,000 words and that is a stretch when it comes to memoir word count we recommend memoirs be between 45,000 to 80,000 words in order to maintain intrigue and reduce intimidation. Averagerecommended word count per page for fantasy novels. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Of course, word count wont matter if a story doesnt hook the target audience. This means that a 75,000 word novel would be around 300 pages.
Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. A question many authors have is how many words are on the average page when it comes to books and ebooks on amazon. Jun 27, 2019 most of the time, an overly long word count is a symptom of major plot or pacing problems in a novel issues that need to be solved during the revision process. The answer is one page single spaced or two pages double spaced.
How long is a singletitle romance novel supposed to be. If you want to know the total word count for your document, then multiply this number by. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. How many words are on an average page of a novel these questions made us fill the need of a book page count calculator we put at the bottom of this page. 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. Estimate a small reduction for the lines per page and the numberofpages values. Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. 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.
Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. Count characters and words with the anycount tool for a precise estimate and get every single cent youve earned. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. That said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels. And as i mentioned, the books may seem really long, but sometimes that is deceptive. Perkins agency in new york says its much easier to market a firsttime novelists book if the word count falls between 80,000 and 100,000 words, or roughly 300 doublespaced, typed pagesthe average novel length. What is the average word count per page on an essay.
For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Just to keep in mind, the average one spaced page usually contains about 3000 characters or 500 words. Heres how 90,000 words which is 360 pages at 250 words per page breaks down by act.
When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. How many words per page are there in a typical novel. 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 may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. Multiply the average number of words per line by the number of lines on a full page. Aug 05, 2019 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. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if it is doublespaced. The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range. 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. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. If youre writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages.
I personally find the trend these days, particularly in thrillers, is to use shorter chapters. We explain two easy methods to estimate your book s page count. We have compiled a list of the daily word counts of famous authors and what they had to say about writing every day. Therefore word counts were estimated based on a standard manuscript page using the standard format of double spaced typed pages with one inch margins, which was calculated at about 250 words per page. The best way to tell for sure is to decide what size book you want the answer for paper b. I use microsoft word and a print page is different then a book page. You should be writing in size 12 font on standard sized paper, not trying to emulate the look of a published book. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. After how many pages or words does a book become a novel. However, the true word count depends on the category in which youre writing. Recently i got asked this question, what is the ideal length word count wise for my first book. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter.
For debut books in this field the average word count tends to be 35k and it has therefore become the marker many industry professionals look for in queries from new writers. Jan 08, 2018 without extensive sales statistics its hard to say how the size of a book does or doesnt affect its popularity. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. 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.
Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. The average singlespaced document typed in 12point font contains about 500 words per page, but that can vary pretty drastically depending on. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. 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.
Do check your comparable titlesrecent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. It was created to answer all the questions you want to ask and more. Paperback books typically contain how many words per page. Here are the average novel word counts in the top five genres in the book publishing industry in no particular order. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. This post on fantasy authors handbook does point out that many of the bestselling books of all time of which many are fantasy novels are not the 200,000 word epics many associate with the genre. Most middle grade novels are between 40,000 and 69,000 words long.
This gives you 200 large print, 500 for an academic book with 350 words per paperback page as a working average. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. You can use word to count how many words you have written in a document. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Learn the average wordcount for every type of novel, novella, genre, etc. Of course, hiring a professional editor does come with a price tag, and most freelancers calculate their costs based on the number of words. I suspect you are trying to work out how many pages you have written as a judge of how far into your novel you are, but publishers wont ask you how many pages your story is, they will ask you how many words youve written. Divide the result by 10 to find the average number of words per line. Surely when writing the important thing is to get words on the page even if theyre in pink comic sans. For us publishers, a word is six characters and a properly formatted manuscript has 250 words per page. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter.
A change of scene, a change of chapter seems to make sense to me. Ideally, you want to give your reader something she knows. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. Once you have a vision for your book small, standard, or wide formatyou can move on to the second step in deciding how many words you should write. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. What is the generally accepted number of words per page for a published novel. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. May 14, 2018 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. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. I have included a glossery of magical terms and an index of characters in the back of my manuscript. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively.
First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. This information helps you calculate how long your novel or nonfiction work has to be to hit a certain page count on amazon, which is important if youre applying for promotions that require you to be above a certain number of pages to qualify. A manuscript for a novel is typically 500 words per page if singlespaced. 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. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novel s word count is generally said to be around 8090k. When i started to work on novels i wanted to keep an estimate of how many words and book pages. Depending upon the typeface and words per page that a publishers interior designer sets for a book, the same word count can fit anywhere from 500 pages to 700. 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. Writing middle grade a look at the numbers hannah holt. Im presently working on a novel and want to make certain my word count falls in line with what other authors produce. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count.
It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. Now, depending on how youve setup your document your page count may vary slightly, but with arial or times new roman 12 point font and conventional margins you should see similar results. Depending on the text formatting, a page word count may include from 200 large print up to 600 words academic book. 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. Sep 19, 2010 with dialogue and paragraph breaks this seems to average about 20 to 22 lines per page. What is the average number of actual words in comic books. And as you can see, it varies, depending on the story. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot.
The average fantasy novel should have between 50,000 and 150,000 words. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. On average, young adult novels usually fall around 55,000 and 70,000 words. Apr 05, 2015 generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count.
Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. Its hard to fudge word count, and easy to fudge page count. If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words when im done. How many words are there on the average page of a novel. The average word count for a novel is between 70,000 words and 120,000 words.
Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. Well, as to be expected with a book niche like ours, somebody decided to write an article for a howto site on how to go about writing and publishing a light novel in america. If you want to know the total word count for your document, then multiply this number by the number of pages it contains. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word. Do i include the title page, dedication, credits, and table of contents in the word.
You can write as short or as extended a chapter as you want, with as many scenes in each that you want. How to calculate a word count per page pen and the pad. The one main advantage this genre has over every other is that. This will give you a rough estimate of the word count. Apr 25, 2015 the word count per page is meaningless, because it depends on the size of the pages and how the typesetter formats the text. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project. That being said you can usually assume about 250 words per a printed page. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is.
So, with all of this in mind, is there actually an average word count you should aim for. Hello, i was just wondering how many words the average novel has on a page. When i sign a contract for a book, the publisher specifies the word count they expect. Average word count per page creative writing forums. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Most middle grade novels are not pitched as a series. This reduction will be very small, like maybe 12 lines less per page, and 510 pages less for the book. It has nothing to do with the number of pages in a published book.
Oct 18, 2017 but chapter word count is something that you want to keep in mind for future edits. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. Young adult novels have a wide variation in lengths. Today we write in word processors that can count words. This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each. Im curious about your advice compose the novel in the standard format from the start rather than changing it later why does this matter. When i am working on a book or a story i write every morning as soon after first light. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. Im presently working on a novel and want to make certain my word count.
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