Jan 18, 2010 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. 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. Since i work in tnr, a proportional type that gets more words to the page, i kept my first regency to a computer count of 70,000, figuring by guess and by gosh that i had just about reached signets maximum word count of. Last year i went through a 5 book ya series average 400450 pages each in about a week but it takes me a lot longer to get through one of the books im currently read with fewer total pages because of the amount of words per page and how dense it is. The average book on the planet is 65,000 words at 200 pages, which is pretty close to this method. If you are not familiar with print on demand, it is a process where the printer can create. 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. Jun 15, 2006 my latest hard cover release is 126,000 words, which seemed long when i wrote it, but the publisher wanted an epic style book and thats why they bought it. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. Raven book design for self published novels, nonfiction books, childrens books, memoirs, poetry books, art books, coffee table books for authors worldwide.
In this post, id like to share some thoughts on word count considerations. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Dec 22, 2005 clarification of answer by pinkfreudga on 22 dec 2005. Aug 14, 2008 for some reason, the huge form 417 sticks in my head for notice count huge form. I use microsoft word and a print page is different then a book page. Ebooktime book publishing company publish paperback book. And as youve probably guessed it is sitting pretty right in between middle grade and adult. Once you have a vision for your booksmall, standard, or wide formatyou can move on to the second step in deciding how many words you should write. 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. 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 the overall word count publishersagentsanyone cares about. That would put your 150,000word novel at say 300400 pages, not an inordinate length. I clicked on the unabridged version, and it lists the word count as 97,364. The current average for published fiction is about 80,000 words for novels, i believe.
Itll give you the word count in the books summary when you click on its title. Estimate your page count book designer linda parke. A manuscript for a novel is typically 500 words per page if singlespaced. Approx 300 for a normal paperback, 400 440 for hardcover and trade paperback. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. From my experience with latex, i know that a certain amount of characters per line is most pleasing to the eye and is hence used very consistently in publishing. Feb 09, 2007 a 400 page manuscript full of single word paragraphs is exactly the same, from a publishers word count perspective, as a 400 page manuscript made up of a single paragraph, even though the latter will probably have 1015 times as many words. Word count for book series the first book in each series below was the authors first.
Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. A 400page manuscript full of singleword paragraphs is exactly the same, from a publishers wordcount perspective, as a 400page manuscript made up of a single paragraph, even though the latter will probably have 1015 times as many words. This would mean a book with 30,000 words would be roughly 120 pages. My latest hard cover release is 126,000 words, which seemed long when i wrote it, but the publisher wanted an epic style book and thats why they bought it. Sep 12, 2012 put a title the exact title in the search engine, then click on the title, or one of the titles if more than one comes up. According to the latest bowker report september 7, 2016, more than 700,000 books were selfpublished in the u.
If the only thing wrong with your book is its length, then the agent or publisher you submit to will tell you. Lets take a quick tour of copy fitting, casting off and related issues here. You may assume 250 words per page when using 12point courier, doublespaced. I am currently writing a childrens book and i absolutely insist it have illustrations with plenty of text. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. For some reason, the huge form 417 sticks in my head for notice count huge form. I put in anne of green gables and clicked on the first entry, and it listed the word count as 17,129. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. The number of books being published every year has exploded.
According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. 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. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7.
When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Heres how the wordcount of your book will decide what category your masterpiece falls in. There can be 300 to 500 words printed or appearing on a page. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. When i started to work on novels i wanted to keep an estimate of how many words and book pages. Popular novel word count the worlds largest word count. In the current one my longest chapters are 4,600 and my shortest merely journal entries 600. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if it is doublespaced. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Raven book design for selfpublished novels, nonfiction books, childrens books, memoirs, poetry books, art books, coffee table books for authors worldwide. Using a standard font size, you can estimate about 250300 words per page. Nov 19, 2006 approx 300 for a normal paperback, 400 440 for hardcover and trade paperback. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book.
Wheel of time word count in average word count popular novel word count in novel word count harry potter word count stephen king word count this entry was posted in uncategorized and tagged dune word count, novel word count by michael kistner. To get an idea of what your book will look like you need to match the number of words per page on your word processing page to the finished printed page. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. I think it mostly only has kids ie ya and younger books. Feb 18, 2008 general rule of thumb is that a novel is 80k to 100k, but you can have 120k on larger novels.
Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. Clarification of answer by pinkfreudga on 22 dec 2005. The 250wordsperpage rule is a copysetting estimate. In any case, assuming the book is published, what you submit to a publisher.
Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. In standard real paper book publishing it is usually advised not to use san serif fonts like ariel but to stick to serif ones like times new roman or garamond as they are much easier to read. If you havent designed your interior or will have gorham printing design it for you, the best way to estimate a rough page count is from a word count. That would put your 150,000 word novel at say 300400 pages, not an inordinate length.
The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. There are some easy ways to find the word count for a published bookonline bookstores. Victorian novels often ran over half a million words. Put a title the exact title in the search engine, then click on the title, or one of the titles if more than one comes up. When the final work is printed for sale and published, the number of words per page will differ. How to find word count on your favorite novels nathan. 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. I have been struggling with this word count situation for several months now. If you are not familiar with print on demand, it is a process where the printer can create a single copy on demand for shipment to customers. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. Word count, with a little help from amazon alexis grant. Of course, word count wont matter if a story doesnt hook the target audience. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count.
Sep 26, 2016 steven piersanti, president, berrettkoehler publishers updated september 26, 2016. How line height relates to word count a reader writes to ask. Search for word count totals in books word counters. So, to answer your question, think longer rather than shorter. This is an art rather than a science but here are a few tips. These were to do with whether the book would be categorised as a novel or a novella or an epic or something else. Find the word count for published ya and childrens books. 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. 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.
Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. 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. I dont know if it is just because i am from a publishing background or not, but i always see ebooks that are in sans serif fonts as being amateurish. Novels word count 100k 105k books meet your next favorite book. Also, the traditional word count allows for the white space at the beginning and end of each chapter. Very often the first novels remain either unpublished or are published later, when the author is established and their name will sell a more difficult book. In any case, assuming the book is published, what you submit to a publisher will certainly be different from the printed edition. I cant imagine simplifying a meaty story into 25 sentences per page. The 250words per page rule is a copysetting estimate.
Steven piersanti, president, berrettkoehler publishers updated september 26, 2016. I read somewhere that if you format properly you should get 25 lines per page, but i consistantly get 24. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. In the first book i wrote my chapters average about 6k words. A time to kill 168,603 the firm 142,811 the pelican brief 1,926.
Whats a usual word count per page in a published book. This depends largely on the font type, font size, character spacing, and line spacing used for a document. Is there also something like a standard word count per page. How many words per page are there in a typical novel. The easiest way, ive heard to publish and sell your book on the net is by publishing it on amazon and selling it on amazons kindle store. The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be. Ive heard that some people actually dont sell a single book and thats probably the reason why i want to take a stab at it with something relatively short that wont take too long to write. The typical books wordsperpage count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. According to the latest bowker report september 7, 2016, more than 700,000 books were self published in the u. General rule of thumb is that a novel is 80k to 100k, but you can have 120k on larger novels. A way to check word count of published books anita nolans blog. As a result, a 100k manuscript can size up very differently on a shelf. What are the average character counts for a paperback novel. 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.
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