So, a 55,000word manuscript is about 220 typeset pages, and a. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. In the publishing industry, they need a standardized way to measure things, and they use word count. 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. Hearthkeeper by cordelia kingsbridge, love, sex, and understanding the universe by harrie farrow, rubble an. Search for word count totals in books word counters. The sweet spot, according to donald maas, is 100,000 to 115,000 words. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. This is a work in progress, and will be updated throughout the next few weeksmonthsyears. Amazon estimates a page count in an ebook to be around 187 words.
Word counts of the most popular books in the world. Feel free to contact me directly for any feedback, corrections, requests, etc, here. The amount of words in a hundred page book is also going to depend on the. Before we begin, i want to take a good, hard look at your goals. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Fifty thousand words isnt that much divided into five days a week for a year. For a partial word count, select the words you want to count. Orit means they have two or more books combined into one. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book.
This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages. Do you want to publish a wide format bookwith inspiring quotes down the side margins. Word count for book series the first book in each series below was the authors first. They can be up to 180,000 words, or even over 200,000, but the novel must be wonderful and must fully justify its word count. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction 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 26, 2020 word count is the total number of words in a document. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page.
In most cases, it is safe to say a first novel should not be shorter than 200 manuscript pages approximately 50,000 words, and not longer than 500 manuscript pages approximately 125,000 words. Also, you may want to bookmark this page, as it will be regularly updated a. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if it is doublespaced. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. 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. Word count ranges by genre is a good place to start. 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. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. The average novel is usually between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Apr 12, 2011 for example, anything that takes up fifty pages ins a short story. Learn how to estimate your page count and how long your book should be. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot.
Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. Estimate your page count fiona raven book designer. If i wanted to write a 100 page paperback novel, how many. I would say again that reader expectations matter much more than industry rules. But depending on the ereading device and the font size setting, it varies significantly between a phone, a tablet, or a kindle. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. A novella is usually between 20,000 and 50,000 words. The status bar shows the word count for that selection and for the entire document. Different books and publishers have different layouts for their pages. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. A manuscript for a novel is typically 500 words per page if singlespaced. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words.
Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. If you are an author of a book or know of a books accurate wordcount, contact me. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy by douglas adams 50,895 words. That means, for example, dont submit a 100 or a 1,000 page novel i have had both cross my desk. You may be trying to increase the word count of your essay for a class or a paper for a school assignment. If they were to be translated to book form, how would they compare in length to other books i mean. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Or, perhaps you want to increase the word count of your novel or short story to meet a deadline. Try not to completely tether yourself to word counts. There are no hardandfast rules when it comes to what word count a novel in a particular genre should be. While your perpage word count may change depending on choices made during your interior layout, this initial calculation is a good place to start.
This translates into just 20,000 to 25,000 words for a 100 page book. In order for objects on your page to reach all the way to the edge of the page, those objects must extend past where the page will be trimmed by 0. How many pages would my manuscript be in paperback. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. 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. If i wanted to write a 100 page paperback novel, how many pages in microsoft word would i need to write. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. The 5 x 8 trim size means about 250 words per page. A novelist of my acquaintance insists that the only way to estimate the number of words in a book is to multiply the number of pages by 250. You could have anywhere from 150 to 800 words on a page in a printed book. How many words per page are there in a typical novel. But a good general estimate for a novel size book 5x8. The number of pages changes depending on the number of words, the font and the font size.
Put simply, the sweet spot for a novel s word count is generally said to be around 8090k. If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me. 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. 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.
Tom clancys latest in the traditionally published jack ryan series now written by another author has a word count of 124k, which is way above the standard. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Usually, only great epics get away with more than 100,000 words because of the brilliance of the material and content, like j. Here are some popular scifi novels and their word counts. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document.
Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page count leading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. This tool is useful when writing essays at university to determine how many pages you are required to write. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. This program is called book in 100 days, and before you begin writing your first page, you have to get really cle. If it is instructionalself help, etc with lots of subheadings, sections and bullets, id say 250 page for a 9x6 if it has lots of picturesdiagrams, it would be less of course. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. This means that a 75,000 word novel would be around 300 pages. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. When the final work is printed for sale and published, the number of words per page will differ.
That being said you can usually assume about 250 words per a printed page. Nov 25, 2009 its hard enough to land a book dealdont make it harder on yourself by writing a book which is shorter or longer than industry standard. This calculator provides an indication only and works most accurately for an academic essay with four paragraphs per page and no sub. Apr 05, 2015 generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. Mark dawson, a highly successful bestselling indie author of crimeespionage novels, averages a word count of 95 to 100k. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. 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. Science fiction and fantasy novels typically have a word count between 90,000 to 125,000 words. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words or characters are counted.
Aug 03, 2017 the average novel is usually between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. Here is what 187 words looks like in microsoft word. Not sure the answer is that helpful, but i think what he means is that, to get a standard page count from a word count, you can do the inverse of what used to be done to get a word count from counting standard pages.
What writers fail to see is that for every successful exception to the rule e. Feel free to contact me directly for any feedback, corrections, r. If for some reason there is no word count listed, right click anywhere on the status bar to customize your editor. Knowing how many words in a novel is the first step toward writing a book.
Way back when, the average short story was 20 pages and a collection of them and a novel would be about 150 pages long. Nobodys stopping you, of course especially if you think your 100,000word novel justifies the word count. A 90,000 word count signals to professionals that you know what you are doing. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. Word count matters because every book, regardless of genre, has an inherent contract with the reader. Still, if you have any feedback id love to hear it.
As with many publishing standards, word count guidelines exist for a number of reasons including marketing and sales but also to help create stories that are free from plot or pacing issues that can exhaust readers. Jun 27, 2019 well, if your goal is to publish and sell your novel, those rules are pretty darn important. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. The first way to check for the word count is to look in the shaded status bar at the very bottom of the page. Dec 28, 2008 i have forgotten the answer to this, but there is a convoluted way which i used in the past. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words. And if youre only looking for a few examples from a particular genre, the word counts for other books listed on this site have also been verified. Im curious about your advice compose the novel in the standard format from the start rather than changing it later why does this matter. If youre writing for a more literary audience, then the rules above apply on upper limits. This website converts the number of words to the number of pages, online and for free.
Divide your final word count or the word count youre aiming for by 250 or 300 to arrive at your page count estimate. 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. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. Most readers think of books in terms of page count, but thats the very worst way to judge the length of a story, because the number of words on a page varies widely. Just slightly longer than a more common word count of 750 words, 800 words is about one and threefifths of a page single spaced, and a little over 3 pages double spaced. Bolstering word count can be done by adding new content or by expanding on existing. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. Almost always, high word count means that the writer simply did not edit their work down enough. 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.
For example, if an author has to write a minimum or maximum amount of words for an article, essay, report, story, book, paper, you name it. 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. Well, if you use standard modern manuscript formatting, about 2530,000 words total are in 100 manuscript pages. When a book is printed, all pages are trimmed to the selected trim size by cutting 0. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. The graph shows the average length of the top 100 bestsellers in each of the 30 main amazon kindle categories, measured in terms of the number of pages. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words.
However, there are averages and rough word counts expected by publishers. 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. Like, im trying to write a book, and am interested in a page count for a standard sized paper back novel would translate into word. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. On the far left you should see page count and a word count listed.
When writing my novel, whats a good average word count per chapter and per. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. As an indie author, you always have the freedom to play with word count, to modify, expand, compress, and assess what works best. I found some disagreement about the ideal length of mystery novels.
By using these three options to more accurately define your writing, the words per page. From this point, search for your book, click on the title within the list of results, and on the following page youll find the book s word count. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. It mattered a lot in print books, where a book that was too short or too long would be rejected for printing and visual reasons. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english.
If youre using a typical word processing setup with arial or times new roman 12 point font with regular margins your results should be about the same, but as always can vary. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. Surely when writing the important thing is to get words on the page even if theyre in pink comic sans. 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 pages the average novel length. So, do a word count with a word processor, then divide by 250 to get the number of standard pages.
Thats really hard to say, books are usually measured by word count and not page count. How to use our book page count calculator select your word print size select the book genre. The average manuscript for a novel comes in anywhere between 250 to 400 manuscript pages. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. This involves the manuscript being double spaced, with 12 pt tnr, arial, verdana or other easy to read font all throughout the manuscr. But ebooks dont have printing costs, and you cant tell at a glance how long they are. Build your book format a paperback manuscript word for. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of 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.
The rules for word count are nothing if not flexible, in both traditional and indie publishing. Word counts of the most popular books in the world foster. 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. This means your book will be between 100 and 230 pages in total. K rowlings the order of the phoenix, which has a word count of 257,000 words. Also remember because there are a bunch of new novel imprints opening their doors, a novella is 40k or less. In other words, you must be scrupulous about editing every sentence for length. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and novels.