Word count for book types

As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. This post covers why word count matters for novels, the standard word count ranges for various genres, and the word counts of some famous. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. So should i stay with this word count, or try to bring the word count down. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. If you see any issues or if your book doesnt look the way you want it to, we recommend converting your pdf to a word document and formatting it according to our ebook formatting guide. I got it from the scwc blog im attending in february.

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. That being said, it should provide a more accurate indication of the number of pages a specific word count will be and the number of words per page you. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. Mar 20, 2020 a plan for your book that includes a word count helps you not write too little or too much. Aug 05, 2019 certain publishers of very specific genres like love inspired, harlequin will require a set word count or range, but my first bit of advice is to plot out a strong, solid story using timetested structure, write the book with careful and expert crafting learn to be a great wordsmith and develop your unique voice, and ignore the constraints. Generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. So i did some research, and came up with approximate word counts for various types. A 95,000 word bookeven by page countis a different story than a 70,000 word book. Even if you dont have enough words to qualify as a novel, it will ultimately fall into one of the other categorizations. Other issues such as margin space and paragraph length will likely result in some variation from the calculations given. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. The best research tool is to read lots of books and see which publishers print books at which lengths.

To check word count, simply place your cursor into the text box above and start typing. For a partial word count, select the words you want to count. Besides, this tool also includes many other features like readability, keyword density. A plan for your book that includes a word count helps you not write too little or too much. Aug 15, 2019 average word count for this book genre. Show word count and other statistics in pages on mac. Well, different publishers look for different lengths for different genres. Readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the book.

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 then. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. Choose your book type, genre, and audience for a word count and page. Word counts for childrens books i received a request awhile ago to do a post on word counts for different age categories in childrens lit. That being said, it should provide a more accurate indication of the number of pages a specific word count will be and the number of words per page you type when compared to the general rule of thumb. May 15, 2011 well, while the accelerated reader program is lame in a lot of ways, this is a very handy tool. Realize it over the maximum word count for erotic, science fictionfantasy genre. If youve ever read a joke book or a book revolving around a humorous endeavor of some sort, it falls under this book category. Because yes, different types of books require different book lengths. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen.

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. Yes, having a book that is overly short or overly long for its genre will incrementally decrease your odds of finding traditional publication. In word, the word count will appear on the status bar at the bottom of the workspace. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. In all cases, you can find an author who has successfully pushed the envelope one way or another. 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. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. There are a lot of agents that will reject on atypical word count alone. Within the world of literary fiction, different genres follow more specific word count targets.

Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. Word count is a very important metric of a writing. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. I recommend staying within or close to the recommended word count for your age categorygenre unless youve received a lot of feedback verifying it needs every word or doesnt need more if youre low. Typically, youll want your novel to be much shorter. Word count tool this tool also reports the number of syllables, monosyllabic words, polysyllabic words, sentences, paragraphs, unique words, short words, long words. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. It turns out a better book in the end as well, which means your readers enjoy it. Well, while the accelerated reader program is lame in a lot of ways, this is a very handy tool. But if youre curious to see how your manuscript measures up to to the standard wordcount expectations for your genre, the following is a summary of an informative article by chuck sambuchino called word count. Show word count and other statistics in pages on mac apple.

The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. I use amazons data feeds to come up with the calculation. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. The actual word count for the hunger games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 94,743 words. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages. Word also counts pages, paragraphs, lines, and characters. Word count and story classification the vintage bookworm. Enter your books trim size into the width and height fields. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. A while ago i was wondering what my writings would be considered, short stories, novellas, or novels. Nonfiction books also vary tremendously in word count. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. But if youre curious to see how your manuscript measures up to to the standard wordcount expectations for your genre, the following is a summary of an informative article by chuck sambuchino called word count for novels and childrens books.

You can upload and convert your ebook manuscript file from several supported formats. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. This is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Generally, the word count would not include the title page, if you have one. Dont let the word count dictate what you want to write, but definitely keep it in mind. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. They are arranged from shortest to longest, though you probably could have figured.

The word counts of some famous novels for comparison. Fits what ive heard that publishers want shorter and shorter books. We all know there are exceptions, but i wouldnt count on being one. On the layout tab, in the page setup group, click size, and then select more paper sizes. Pacing is vital in creating suspense, which means it couldnt be any more important to nail the word count. You may see show paragraph count or one of the other options instead, because the name of the menu item reflects the statistic thats. My first book, three times a lady was roughly 100,000 words. The word count for your book in microsoft word will be located in the bottom left corner next to the page number. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. For the classic picture book group, i realize that 48 is a pretty big age range. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words.

And, in case youre wondering, here are the average word counts for other popular genres. As far as word count goes, there was another question posted that pertained to that, and the answer i gave for that question should give you a guideline for the different types of books. What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. Enter your book s trim size into the width and height fields. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. The first book in each series below was the authors first. You can also copy and paste text from another program over into the online editor above. May 14, 2018 readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. Oct 10, 2016 i noticed that while the recommended word count for a ya book is 40,00070,000, the recommended word count for a scifi or fantasy book is 90,000 to 120,000. The number of characters, the number of subplots, the pacing are all affected by 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 195,011 doctor sleep. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. That includes scenes like the hero at the mercy of the villain, but. As you prepare your ebook, consider whether your content should have a fixed or reflowable format. Were going to talk some specific genres in just a moment, but its worth setting the. For nonfiction books, word count guidelines are more flexible, sometimes even double the word counts listed here. Science fiction and fantasy are the big exceptions because these categories tend to run. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be.

In word, click the file tab and then click close to return to your publication. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Apr 23, 2018 standard word count ranges for various genres. For help formatting a quality ebook, see this stepbystep guide. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. For the best results, we recommend a microsoft word docdocx or a kpf file created with kindle create.

That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. Books that can be read by many ages are called crossover books. On the longer word count side, the frog and toad books are a good example. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan.

This resizes your pages and changes your page count, which you need to know for setting your margins. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and nonfiction. Word counts the number of words in a document while you type. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. Most literary genres have expected word lengths, which have been driven by audiences in terms. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Jul 24, 2009 a 95,000 word book even by page count is a different story than a 70,000 word book. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. These deserve a category all to themselves, as there are quite a few variations to consider. However, book length varies widely between genres, among authors, and based on the content of the book. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or short, perkins says.

Basically, having an idea of how long you want your book to be helps you work smarter, not harder. When you need to know how many words, pages, characters, paragraphs, or lines are in a document, check the status bar. Word counts ill get straight into it, starting with books for grown ups. May 24, 2010 dont let the word count dictate what you want to write, but definitely keep it in mind. Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer.

Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. 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. Youll see the number of characters and words increase or decrease as you type, delete, and edit them. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. Words used in tables or graphs, including the legends, would not normnally be included. Each book in the series has a different word count, ranging from 76,944 harry potter and the sorcerers stone to 257,045 harry potter and the order of the phoenix. It turns out a better book in the end as well, which means your readers enjoy it moreand youll sell more copies. You can show the word count, character count with or without spaces, number of paragraphs, and number of pages in a document. 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. Less than 70,000 unless fantasy scifi supernatural, which can be longer, max 90,000. Short and punchy books are 40,000 to 60,000 words, but many nonfiction books are lengthy. If you dont see the word count in the status bar, rightclick the status bar, then and click word count.

How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. Dec 08, 2010 if a contract calls for a book that is 100k words and you turn in one that is k, expect to go back and find a way to shave 30k words off that puppy before your manuscript is accepted. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. There are a few book word count guidelines for each genre, but these arent hard and. Word count matters because every book, regardless of genre, has an inherent contract with the reader. Im not sure if im pushing the word count over, been trying cut back the word count.

Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. But that contract is dependent upon the books genre. Remember that part of the payout schedule of an authors advance often dangles on that one important word. Since opinions vary greatly, i did some research to verify the numbers in my head. Learn the average wordcount for every type of novel, novella, genre, etc. Comics and manga are written as scripts, and as such, a page count rather than word count is used to define their length. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. To find pretty much any kids ya word count, you can use the ar bookfinder. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Search for word count totals in books word counters. The books have simple plots and some pictures, but the story needs to carry the book, rather than the pictures. If you use abstracts as part of the body of your material, then they would be included. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature.

Build your book format a paperback manuscript word for. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. In the apply to list, select whole document and click ok. For instance, when a reader picks up a thriller, they have certain expectations of what theyre about to read.

The science fiction and fantasy writers of america specifies word lengths for each category of its nebula award categories. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. 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. 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. Heres how i worked out the word count i literally counted the words in a cathy kelly book, a sheila oflanagan book and a marian. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. Word counts for different genres of novels vary, but there are general rules of thumb that. Childrens book types and suggested word counts go teen.