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. General rule of thumb is that a novel is 80k to 100k, but you can have 120k on larger novels. Below are several different ya series, their word counts per book and total word counts for the entire series. For some reason, the huge form 417 sticks in my head for notice count huge form. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. 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. Count the number of lines on each page to get the lines per page. Anything above 70k but less than 115k science fiction and fantasy tend to run up around 100k115k words. The average book on the planet is 65,000 words at 200 pages, which is pretty close to this method. That will give you a good guide if you want to emulate it. This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. For example, defending jacob has a word count of 122,475 and my utility comes up with 115,320. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word.
Publishers word count requirements were set up back in the days of typewriters when courier was the only option. As far as page count goes with consideration to word count, that depends on what others have already mentioned as well as how much dialogue is contained within the text. Youll see a gear wheel running and once that stops, youll the results of your changes. Well, calculating it out, that would mean the average book was 240480 pages. The 250wordsperpage rule is a copysetting estimate. These were to do with whether the book would be categorised as a novel or a novella or an epic or something else. When i write technical articles, theyre usually 600 words and about a page and a half. I thought the average for a midsized novel would be around 100200 pages. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Agents ask for the word count in a query letter for a reason. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. In the first book i wrote my chapters average about 6k words. 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.
A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Heres how the wordcount of your book will decide what category your masterpiece falls in. I dont doubt that ill be able to fit it into the common page count window. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count.
Go to that books page and scroll down to inside this book. Page count option allows you to set how many words per page you want to be calculated for paperback pages. For example, childrens books are going to have fewer words per page than a book meant for adult readers. 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. 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 first book in each series below was the authors first. What will happen in each chapter, and how much has to happen before you move on to the next chapter. The book provides simple but powerful techniques for parents and other loving adults in babys life to encourage language and literacy development from the earliest days. Aug 14, 2008 for some reason, the huge form 417 sticks in my head for notice count huge form. Its the overall word count publishersagentsanyone cares about. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in. If the average length is 300 pages, youre looking at a 75,000 word manuscript approximately one reason its harder for a new author to sell a 140,000 word manuscript is the size of the book. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel.
The typical books wordsperpage count tends to range between 225 and 275 an average of 250. When you query a publisher, its customary to include your novels estimated word count. Between birth and age two is a critical period for your childs language development. Words per page value can be changed in the options section of the project statistics. 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. Estimate a small reduction for the linesperpage and the numberofpages values. When the final work is printed for sale and published, the number of words per page will differ. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length.
Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. Nov 04, 20 ever felt that the page count of a book wasnt an accurate reflection of how much youve read. How to use our book page count calculator select your word print size select the book genre. There are times when it helps to know how many words per page youre writing. Well, the answer is about one half page single spaced or one page double spaced. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the speed at which the narrator talks.
Feel free to contact me directly for any feedback, corrections, r. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Well just see how it goes when im finished, i guess. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. The typical books words per page count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. Having said all that, there are a number of conventions regarding word count. This is a work in progress, and will be updated throughout the next few weeksmonthsyears. Every word counts shows you how to establish an effective daily readaloud routine to take charge of your babys future understanding and success. Feb 18, 2008 general rule of thumb is that a novel is 80k to 100k, but you can have 120k on larger novels. Search for word count totals in books word counters.
Well explain two easy methods to calculate book page count. Learn how to estimate your page count and how long your book should. In this post, id like to share some thoughts on word count considerations. The pages printed count is calculated based on your compile settings. When reading ebooks, progress is measured by percentage or location. Once youve made your changes hit ok, and reopen the project statistics window to see your changes. Paperback books typically contain how many words per page. A manuscript for a novel is typically 500 words per page if singlespaced. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if it is doublespaced. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Publishers can now include it in the look inside, but a good rule of thumb is 10 words per line x 33 lines per page times number of pages. 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. So that comes out to about 400 a page and then factor in the double spacing and you get to 250 or so. That is saying a page with 12point font and double spaced with 1inch margins all around will average about 250 words, which were averaged at i believe 5 letters per word.
Jan 18, 2010 word count, with a little help from amazon. Once you know what your book will be about, its time to start planning the structure of the story. Another rule of thumb is you can get 250 to 300 words on a typeset page. Thats really hard to say, books are usually measured by word count and not page count. The 250words per page rule is a copysetting estimate. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. The typical books wordsperpage count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Feel free to contact me directly for any feedback, corrections, requests, etc, here.
We offer topquality professional book cover and page design for authors worldwide. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. Check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted then go to the last page before any bibliography, acknowledgements, appendices, etc. How many words per page are there in a typical novel. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. This trim size is good for only 200 to 250 words per printed book page. Richard castle, played by actor nate fillion, is decripting a code and mentions that the average number of words per page in his nikki heat books is just bel. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. As a publisher who has laid out dozens of books for printinga 50,000 word manuscript should end up somewhere between 180 and 220 pages. Still, if you have any feedback id love to hear it. Lets take a quick tour of copy fitting, casting off and related issues here.
Word count for book series the first book in each series below was the authors first. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. But if word and page counts were available for every dead tree book and ebook, value for money would be easier to establish. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. How many pages would my manuscript be in paperback. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. In the current one my longest chapters are 4,600 and my shortest merely journal entries 600. While a general guideline is one page is 500 words single spaced or 250. What are the average character counts for a paperback. I was looking online and most of the sources i found said the average number of words per novel page is 250, and the average words per book were 60,000120,000. Linda parke is now our senior designer and will treat you to a beautiful book design.
Sep 20, 2009 how to calculate book length in an earlier post i discussed broad issues relating to word count and book length but didnt actually explain how the length of a book is calculated. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. Assuming you use the standard conventions for manuscript format 1 margins, 25 doublespaced lines per page, and a 12 point nonproportional font like courier, then a good rule of thumb is one page equals 250 words for the mathimpaired, that means you multiply the number of. In practice you need to subtract 1520% from the page word total once the white space is taken into account. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Word count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a manner unaffected by variations of format and page size.
You can easily calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. I use microsoft word and a print page is different then a book page. Sep 16, 2019 if theres a business book you admire, why not count the pages, tot up the words on an average page, and see how long it is in total. For published books, mainly paperback novels, fonts such as garamond and. When we talk of copy fitting, generally we think of a publishers production editor or typesetter looking at fitting the delivered. 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. The pages paperback count is calculated in the following manner. Most ebooks i see are double spaced, which makes their pages clearer but also reduces the number of words per page. For christmas 2010 i was gifted with a kindle keyboard kindle 3 so in the following year i read many kindle editions, which rarely include a page count in the goodreads database. Some people consider 50k or more to be novel length, while others consider that to be a novella up to the 75k word count. Towards the bottom, i also checked the ongoing epic fantasy series, a song of ice and fire and the original lord of the rings trilogy. 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.
At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. In actuality, however, almost all editors and agents now. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Of course, word count wont matter if a story doesnt hook the target audience. Im just getting nervous the closer i get to the end. Pages by paperback uses an industry standard formula for english language publishing of taking the average number of words per page and multiplying it by the average number of characters per word five including a space, for six total, the product of which is then used to divide against the total character count of the project. How many words per page varies depending on what font size and type, margins.
May 11, 2012 these were to do with whether the book would be categorised as a novel or a novella or an epic or something else. Many category editors find it easier to judge the length of a book in the way theyve always done. If theres a business book you admire, why not count the pages, tot up the words on an average page, and see how long it is in total. Fantasy novels tend to be longer than most other novels. 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. Also, you may want to bookmark this page, as it will be regularly updated a. This gives you 200 large print, 500 for an academic book with 350 words per paperback page as a working average. Do check your comparable titlesrecent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range.
So itll be off on occasion, but it still works well for the average book. Youre writing your first novel, and you know you must shoot for around 80 to 95 thousand words. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. Assuming you use the standard conventions for manuscript format 1 margins, 25 doublespaced lines per page, and a 12 point nonproportional font like courier, then a good rule of thumb is one page equals 250 words. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. These figures represent continuous words with no blank lines or breaks. How many chapters will you need before you reach your target word count. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. When i started to work on novels i wanted to keep an estimate of how many words and book pages. My own word count per page fluctuates between 120150. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. Only word counts are below, not page counts, as some novels vary between editions. This of course depends on what font size, line spacing and page margins you are using, but on average a word count of 250 words will yield around half a page single spaced and a whole page double spaced when set in either times new roman or arial at a 12 point font size.
I actually remember this perhaps incorrectly from an episode of the tv series castle. Word count, with a little help from amazon alexis grant. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. 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. 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. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words or characters are counted. Decades of research have proven the value of reading aloud to children to help them acquire the foundation they need to speak earlier.
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