Book length number of words

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. According to this cool site, the one minute manager, talked about i. This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each paragraph is. Sep 20, 2019 for example, agatha christie, one of the bestselling mystery writers of all time, write between 40,000 and 60,000 words per book. The first book, harry potter and the sorcerers stone, has 76,944 words. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. By 2017, however, that number has dropped to 273 pages.

A young adult novel will run between 20,000 and 40,000 words. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. May 19, 2008 and ya novels, which have grown in popularity, can often be the same length as a standard novel 80,000 words. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. And no agents or publishers would even look past that number. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction.

These are books that resemble young adult in matter and storytelling. Because yes, different types of books require different book lengths. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. Recently i got asked this question, what is the ideal length word count wise for my first book. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. 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. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me. In this article, were going to look at how many words are in the harry potter series. The important thing is that your length fits your book. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. You can use comparable, successful books as models to determine the length you book should be. Since this was the first book, rowling had more time to edit the book.

However, book length varies widely between genres, among authors, and based on the. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Many authors will, of course, scout out the books they consider their competitors, and then try to imitate their page. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is advisable. In 2015, the drop resumed as the average fell to 345. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Literary agent danielle zigner takes a look at typical novel lengths per genre and what appeals to publishers within the current marketplace. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words or characters are counted. 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.

Whether youre just curious about how many words are in these books or youre writing a book and want to compare the length of your novel to these famous tomes, then read on to find the word counts of famous books and series. Lets take a quick tour of copy fitting, casting off and related issues here. 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. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. If you are an author of a book or know of a books accurate wordcount, contact me. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. If youre looking for word counts of your favorite books or series, then youve come to the right place. What isnt often considered is the sheer number of words a person who reads the entire series consumes.

If i aim for any university press how likely would they be in 35,000 words book. If youre a new author, id recommend staying on the shorter side, perhaps around the 75,000 word mark. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. Jan 08, 2018 now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. Every category will have an average length, including childrens books, young adult, business books, etc. Whether youre just curious about how many words are in these books or youre writing a book and want to compare the length of your novel to these famous tomes, then read on to find the.

Harry potter and the deathly hallows 198,000 words. It makes quite a difference whether you want to publish a childrens picture book, a 50recipe smoothie book, a science fiction novel or a technical encyclopedia. Just write a good book on the topic and let length look after itself. One of the vexing questions many authors face is how long their book should be. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Heres how to find your books word count for a number of writing.

Api interface to get data programmatically to retrieve the number of minutes for. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Now we have computers and word processing software. 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.

How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Aug 10, 2011 number of words should be visible in amazon for book s details. Every book type has its own recommended length based on the age of the reader, education and book. This may seem like a nonissue, but the truth is, every author has different questions about their books length. In fiction, a short book is between 50,000 to 80,000 words roughly 200 300 pages in paperback. 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. This video explains why word count is important and the. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. Since just comparing the number of unique words in a book does not take its length into account i decided to calculate the percentage of unique words of the whole text. In fact, the majority of printed books are turned into ebooks. If you dont know how to find your documents word count, this article shows you how.

First, well look at the number of words for each book in the series. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and novels and. Yet any piece of fiction climbing over the 110,000 word mark also tends to give editors. 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. Harry potter and the halfblood prince 168,000 words. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words.

What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. This latter tends to be priced at the 100 page mark so preferred lengths tend to come in. We want to give authors an easy way to show how long their book or novel is. The first alone has sold more than 120 million copies, and the rest have sold at least 65 million each. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this is very rough run perhaps 150450 pages, and at about 350 wdpage that works out to something like 50150k words. For those who like to keep track of their reading word count or those who want to encourage their kids to read more the harry potter books series is an. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. Guess how many words are in a novel by gabe habash for pwxyz according to amazon s great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words.

While every book can be an exception, you are far better staying within suggested guidelines for book length if you want your book to be accepted by publishers, parents and young readers. How many words are there in the harry potter book series. Some publishers issue guidelines as to word length usually between 2,000 and 5,000 words and other requirements. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book.

Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average words perline. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. How long should your blog post be the write practice. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. This is a question that many beginning writers have. If you know how long the book is, you can divide it into eighths to find the perfect timing for all your major turning points. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. Oct 27, 2018 chapter length matters more than you think. Aug 09, 2019 a dance with dragons, the fifth book in george r. 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. I use the running time of the audiobook to come up with the word count total.

Write as much as it takes to tell the story, and no more. Before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length. A rough way to count words in an english language text is to assume that a standard formatted page with 12 pt courier font and doublespaced lines is 250 words. The science fiction and fantasy writers of america specifies word lengths for each category of its nebula award categories. Alternatively, this is an acceptable length for a short work of nonfiction. If the muse moves you, dont be afraid to write posts that are 2,000 words or more. If youre new to selfpublishing on amazon and wondering, just how much should i write for my kindle book. A typical popular business book runs 25,000 to 75,000 words.

Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. Martins a song of ice and fire series, is the lengthiest of the five currently released books, with a word count of almost 415. Your job is to write a good story, and that means including all the detail needed to to make it good, and to leave out anything extraneous. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to aim for 90,000. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit.

On one level, you could argue that word count, or length, is probably the last thing a fiction writer should worry about. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. May 11, 2009 word count and book length one of my biggest problems as a publisher is having authors deliver more than was agreed to. T he indie author chris fox coined the term potato chip chapters for easilydigestible book chapters of a certain size. With upper middle grade, you can aim for 40,000 55,000 words. 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.

Search for word count totals in books word counters. Over that size is the territory of the academic or technical business book. The society of childrens book writers and illustrators scbwi does offer length guidelines in terms of the appropriate number of manuscript pages for various genres meaning the number of pages a writer would submit to a publisher. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. Id guess that the actual average number of words in a novel was somewhere close to 90,000.

The hobbit has more unique words and a higher unique word density than both the silmarillion and each volume in the lord of the rings. Most print publishers prefer a minimum word count of around 70,000 words for a first novel, and some even hesitate for any work shorter than 80,000. Novels intended for the adult market will be longer than those targeted at children and young adults. How to calculate your books length before writing helping. Longer word counts allowed for fantasy, scifi, historical. Sep 12, 2018 by book do you mean novel or nonfiction. Count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage.

However sometimes, like today, the reverse happens. It has fewer words than the other six books, making it the shortest book in the series. Word count signals to people what kind of book theyre dealing with. Aug 05, 2019 coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon. An ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a fulllength book.

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. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Horror is much like mystery in the sense that you dont want to drag these novels on too long. In terms of adult mainstream fiction, that length would be considered a novella. Number of words should be visible in amazon for books details. The graphic looks at the length of some famous novels, poems, and plays from literary history. They know they have to produce more words than a college essay, but exactly how long is a book. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Press calculate number of pages just 4 easy steps and youre done.

The length can vary greatly between genres, though. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Different kinds of books should be a different length. Classification word count novel over 40,000 words novella 17,500 to 40,000 words novelette 7,500 to 17,500 words short story under 7,500 words. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Although science fiction and some other genres have been creeping up and can now exceed 400 pages 200,000 words. The harry potter books are popular, and once someone reads the first book in the series, they often end up reading the entire series. And ya novels, which have grown in popularity, can often be the same length as a standard novel 80,000 words.

Keep in mind what that post length will likely bring to your blog, and vary. Within the publishing industry we tend to talk about the length of a book in words. 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. At the same time, dont feel bad if you want to write a post thats just 200 words long.