Book word count average

This reduction will be very small, like maybe 12 lines less per page, and 510 pages less for the book. 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 older readers. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. 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. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing.

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. For the book hatchet, the actual word count is 41,672 and i give you 41,212. The hunger games has a word count of 99,750 and my utility calculates it at 98,916. If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. For nonfiction books, word count guidelines are more flexible, sometimes even double the word counts listed here.

When combined, the total harry potter word count is over a million words. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Smashwords gives a precise word count for each and every b. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Jun 27, 2019 that said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels generally lies between 100,000 and 115,000. Realize it over the maximum word count for erotic, science fictionfantasy genre. The golden compass by philip pullman 112,815 words, prisoner of azkaban by jk rowling 106,821 words, and enders game by orson scott card 100,609 words. The stories should be easy to follow and have an average word count of 1,000 to 10,000 words, a range similar to an adult short story. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page.

But depending on the ereading device and the font size setting, it varies significantly between a phone, a tablet, or a kindle. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Click librarian or teacher and then search for books like yours click on the titles to get all kinds of info about them, including wordcount. Can be publisher specific, ranging from 3,000 to absolute max 5,000. Here is what 187 words looks like in microsoft word. May 14, 2018 readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. The average word count in a book is 60k to 100k words. 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. 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.

Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near 200,000 words. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. May 15, 2011 well, while the accelerated reader program is lame in a lot of ways, this is a very handy tool. As a nonfiction writer myself, i know this is tough. 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. All we have to do is use the wp tool that shows word count.

Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. Now im seeing a lot more mg books with up to 60,000 words, so i think the water has become a bit murky here. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Apr 23, 2018 standard word count ranges for various genres. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. Famous book series and novel word counts count words and. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. The first alone has sold more than 120 million copies, and the rest have sold at least 65 million each. For you dear authors, the only time you should take note about the word count is probably when you are hiring someone for editing and formatting because the more word count you have, the more the service is going to cost you. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. The word counts of some famous novels for comparison. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year.

Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. Average the count by taking the total number of words counted and divide by three. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. This should capture the authors writing style and provide a reliable estimate of the number of words used by the. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals.

Dec 18, 2010 i believe the word count has increased as she wrote more books. 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. Click librarian or teacher and then search for books like yours click on the. 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. The old man and the sea was about 25 to 30,000 words. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. The greater the word count the larger the book more sections and. 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. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. That left me with 66 logos word lists, each giving me every originallanguage word in a given book of the bible. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. 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.

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. Your best bet is to figure out what books yours is comparable to, then sit down and count the words on 23 typical pages. Im a retired ministry of defence police officer and was seconded to the united nation mission in kosovo on three occasions. Jun 15, 2006 im 55 years of age and writing a book which covers 7 years, from 2001 until 2007, of my life. Word count for book series the first book in each series below was the authors first. 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. The eight harry potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words. Discover the average number of words on a page by counting the number of words on three randomly picked full pages distributed throughout the book. 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.

The word count for your book in microsoft word will be located in the bottom left corner next to the page number. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. You wont get exact, but youre wondering whether 35k is reasonable, so you dont need exact. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or short, perkins says. Board books are those tough little things you give to the smallest of readers. What is the average number of actual words in comic books or. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the. So should i stay with this word count, or try to bring the word count down. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words.

Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime. To find pretty much any kids ya word count, you can use the ar bookfinder. Average word count in a book book editing services. Some are as short as 50,000 words the perfect book for a beach vacation. Amazon estimates a page count in an ebook to be around 187 words. If you have 6 panels, stick to a maximum of 35 words per panel. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. If a page is 500 words on an ipad, and 250 words on a kindle, it might be only 120 words on a phone. What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic.

Yes, having a book that is overly short or overly long for its genre will incrementally decrease your odds of finding traditional publication. Search for word count totals in books word counters. 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. 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. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. That said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels generally lies between 100,000 and 115,000. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter. This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. 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.

Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. Im just saying that some things are more important than word counts. This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each. I believe the word count has increased as she wrote more books. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. If you want to write a memoir, for example, look at four or five similar memoirs and determine their word count. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic.

The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. The first book in each series below was the authors first. 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. The word count to aim for with this type of book is usually between 500 and 600 words. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. The sorcerers stone 77,325 words the chamber of secrets 84,799 words the prisoner of azkaban 106,821 words. We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count. Apr 11, 2015 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.

Im not sure if im pushing the word count over, been trying cut back the word count. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. The actual word count for harry potter and the sorcerers stone is 78,792 and my utility calculates 77,876. In this article, were going to look at how many words are in the harry potter series.

The best thing that you can do is look over comparable books and try to judge word count by their size, average words page, and illustration content. For young adult fiction, the word count is once again lower, with the ideal being 55,000 80,000 words. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. Jul, 2017 i dont think there is a way and this is odd.

Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be. Many of these books are written in rhyme or in a simple singsong meter that is catchy and fun. Novelty books include popups, puzzles, pulltabs and other interactive features. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot.

What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. But, he also mentions that the wizard of oz was 40,000 words. Publishers want to know the overall length of your book.

Fleshing out an imagined historical world lends itself to a higher word count, so historical fiction tends to be closer to 100,000 words. I built one logos word list like this for every single book of the bible. Word counts of famous book series harry potter by jk rowling. In some cases, these books will have no words at all, such as for the very small child who likes to feel the fluffy cotton tail of a bunny or push the squeaker for a duck quack. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words.

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. 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. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Go out and find similar books to the one you want to write and figure out how many words are in the book. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words. Younger still, middle grade fiction ages 912 should. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Between the ages of four and eight, children have picture books read to them and also begin to read themselves. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. 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. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript.

At an average reading rate of 125 words per minute, thats about 145 hours of reading. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Do check your comparable titlesrecent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to.