Average word count for book

Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. 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. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. The first book in each series below was the authors first.

We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count. 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. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Apr 23, 2018 standard word count ranges for various genres. Rowlings recordbreaking series began with two titles on the high end of that spectrum and finished with five that left the guidelines in the dust. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. The sorcerers stone 77,325 words the chamber of secrets 84,799 words the prisoner of azkaban 106,821 words. That doesnt mean you can submit a manuscript twice the length a publisher.

I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count. What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. 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. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. 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. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. The word counts of some famous novels for comparison. If you have 6 panels, stick to a maximum of 35 words per panel.

The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. As you write more and more your word count will probably go up for each chapter because you become a stronger writer and are able to go more in depth in each chapter. Jan 08, 2018 this article on writers digest also suggests a length of around 100115,000, and takes a good look at desirable word count ranges for different genres. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near 200,000 words. 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 story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel.

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. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or short, perkins says. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. Nevertheless, you would be wise to come close to these suggested manuscript lengths. 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. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. This should capture the authors writing style and provide a reliable estimate of the number of words used by the.

Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. 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. This article on writers digest also suggests a length of around 100115,000, and takes a good look at desirable word count ranges for different genres. The average word count for a novel is between 70,000 words and 120,000 words. 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. According to this cool site, the one minute manager, talked about i. Average the count by taking the total number of words counted and divide by three. 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. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. In this article, were going to look at how many words are in the harry potter series.

As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. 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. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. The following are average wordcount ranges by genre. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts.

Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. Your best bet is to figure out what books yours is comparable to, then sit down and count the words on 23 typical pages. Many of these books are written in rhyme or in a simple singsong meter that is catchy and fun. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. Between the ages of four and eight, children have picture books read to them and also begin to read themselves. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be. May 14, 2018 readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average wordsperline count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot.

According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. 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. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Jun 27, 2019 that said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels generally lies between 100,000 and 115,000. 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 article how to write a bestselling business book has a good, concise, logical answer on the ideal length today for a business book less than 100 pages. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. There are a few book word count guidelines for each genre, but these arent hard. 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 eight harry potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words. I know that this is considered long but i really cant cut anything, it is all integral to the story. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. When combined, the total harry potter word count is over a million words. Nicholas sparks word count popular novel word count. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. Word counts of famous book series harry potter by jk rowling. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic.

As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. That was the formula in the good old days when courier. 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.

A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Apr 18, 2020 this article how to write a bestselling business book has a good, concise, logical answer on the ideal length today for a business book less than 100 pages. Writing for young adults a look at the numbers hannah holt.

Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. 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. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. Famous book series and novel word counts count words and. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page.

The average mean word count was about 73,000 words. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. So itll be off on occasion, but it should get you relatively close for the average book. Sep 20, 2019 the total word and page count will vary from book to book and is dependent on your writing and overall book formatting average time to write this book.

Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. My middle grade novel is complete at 250,000 words, and have five sequels planned which will each be approximately the same length. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. 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. What is the average number of actual words in comic books or. Yes, having a book that is overly short or overly long for its genre will incrementally decrease your odds of finding traditional publication. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the.

The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000 word range. 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. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word. At an average reading rate of 125 words per minute, thats about 145 hours of reading. 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. In the first book i tried to write my chapters were about 500 words long. This reduction will be very small, like maybe 12 lines less per page, and 510 pages less for the book. What is the average number of actual words in comic books. 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. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute.

These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words. For nonfiction books, word count guidelines are more flexible, sometimes even double the word counts listed here. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers.

For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 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. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. I once entered a competition that set a maximum word limit of 80,000 for young adult novels and 100,000 for adult novels. 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.