Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. I put both the word count on mine and the number of pages, being the word count divided by 330, which is the number of words on a typical paperback page. If your book is divided into parts or sections, youll probably add a part or section divider page followed by a blank between each part or section. It was published by random house, and released in 2015. The typical books words per page count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. Feb 18, 2008 general rule of thumb is that a novel is 80k to 100k, but you can have 120k on larger novels. Usually, this is about 400 for a standard academic book but only about 350 if the page size is demy octavo. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. The number of the beast is a science fiction novel by american writer robert a. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. The task is to assign books in such a way that the maximum number of pages assigned to a student is minimum. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. According to this way of calculating, a 70,000 word book corresponds to about 175 printed pages.
When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. 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. There are times when it helps to know how many words per page youre writing. Sep 20, 2009 determine the average number of words per page. Jul 23, 2006 you can approximate about 300 words per page depending upon print size and if there is a lot of dialogue which would give you in the area of 90,000 words for a 300 page book and tell your mum never to pay an agent they work on commision and get paid only if they sell a work beware the con of an agent who wants upfront money etc best to you. There are numerous examples of books going high in this genre, including the da vinci code with 8,952 words and gone girl with 145,719 words. When the final work is printed for sale and published, the number of words per page will differ.
I remember reading some westerns in high school and, if i. Learn how to estimate your page count and how long your book should. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. A manuscript for a novel is typically 500 words per page if singlespaced. Do the number of pages in an ebook differ from the number. To calculate your paperback s printing cost, we add the applicable fixed cost to the product of your page count multiplied by the applicable per page cost. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. This is another common question, and for most writers it should be easy to answer by using a word count feature in your writing tool.
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. The more words, the more pages, the higher the print costs, the more copies that need to be sold to recoup their investment, and so on. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. Debut novels are the best gauge when determining word count for a first time author. Oct 26, 2007 you dont count pages, you count words. However, some pages have a different number of lines and some lines have a different number of words. 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. Book of numbers, published in 2015, is a metafiction novel written by author joshua cohen. The 250 words per page rule is a copysetting estimate.
The average novel is between 90 and about 140 thousand words. Paperback books typically contain how many words per page. How many pages would my manuscript be in paperback. If you use the name of a competitive book, or a popular author, your ebook could get removed from the store, or worse. Using this exercise, you should end up with a good idea of book length expectations for a novel like yours. He must be using a huge font and doublespacing all of the lines to make it look like more than it is.
If you want to get a target for your nonfiction book, the best thing may be to look at a dozen or so bestselling books in the genreniche youre aiming at and see what their word counts are. How many words in the average selfhelp book answers. Once you have a vision for your book small, standard, or wide formatyou can move on to the second step in deciding how many words you should write. How many chapters will you need before you reach your target word count. Chris was born in toledo, ohio and grew up in mansfield, ohio. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. They average 150 to 300 pages and between 40,000 and 90,000 words, depending on the target age. 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. For the larger, 6 x 9 trim size, would be about 300 words per page. Please find below all the answers for the shortest book in number of words.
What are the average character counts for a paperback novel. The books are arranged in ascending order of number of pages. Furthermore, it depends on the size of the page of course. Guidelines for writing childrens books pen and the pad. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page.
This also includes words that refer to sales rank best selling and marketing terms like free or. Do not abbreviate the words pounds or ounces, feet or inches or yards, hours or minutes or seconds, or miles per hour or similar words in dialogue or narrative. Fantasy novels seem to be about 125,000 wordsper volume, with some. Any day of the week, if you know were to look youll find us.
This is a very popular question from the bible quiz trivia game. The page doublespaced on the right fills less than half the page. Im attempting to write a novel but am constantly fretting that id write either too much or too little. For print books, a massmarket paperback runs around 300350 words per page. Now, word processors keep a running total for the writer. This number was significantly different from the average we had seen for the estimated print length that had been given in the product details of each book s amazon sales page. Well, calculating it out, that would mean the average book was 240480 pages. Since theres no easy way to measure, say, three inches from the top of the page in word, one way to position your chapter headings is to start them at the top of the page and then drop them down by a specific number of lines carriage returns. 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. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. Some use 250 words per page, but 330 is closer to reality and gives a reader a good idea of book. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel.
I think the fewest words i have in a book is about 15,000. For example, if your book has 14 chapters, add 7 pages to your page count. Given number of pages in n different books and m students. I have 15 books selling in the amazon kindle store of varying lengths. How many pages in a 6x9 novel is 33000 words answers. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word. Jun 11, 2007 to complete an average length book of 100225 pages, with from 200 to 400 words per finished page this varies widely by page size and type size, you will need to write between 25,000 and 80,000 words. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. This reduction will be very small, like maybe 12 lines less per page, and 510 pages less for the book. Many category editors find it easier to judge the length of a book in the way theyve always done. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words.
Page number is a terrible way to estimate word count as it depends on the size of the pages, the font size, the font used spacing, leading etc. For example, heres how we calculate the printing cost of a 300 page black ink paperback sold on the us marketplace. Another rule of thumb is you can get 250 to 300 words on a typeset page. So that comes out to about 400 a page and then factor in the double spacing and you get to 250 or so. Linda parke is now our senior designer and will treat you to a beautiful book design. To figure out how many pages that is, divide your word count by 250 words per page to come up with a page count. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count.
What will happen in each chapter, and how much has to happen before you move on to the next chapter. Some wikipedians anticipate the rate of new article creation eventually slowing down, and effort going instead to improve the quality of existing articles. This will give you a rough estimate of the word count. A 100 page book would be, then, about 25,000 words. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. We offer topquality professional book cover and page design for authors worldwide. It would take an extremely long time to manually count the number of words in a.
Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. How many pages in an average paperback book would equal to. 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. Estimate a small reduction for the lines per page and the number of pages values. 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. This gives you 200 large print, 500 for an academic book with 350 words per paperback page as a working average.
These books are generally heftier in general, so for a 150page book you can target 45,000 words and 60,000 words for a 200page book. Young adult books are appropriate for ages 12 and up. Using amazons number of words as a guide, 5,000 words would equal 26. Particularly interesting is the transition from manuscripts to books book production became more efficient, prices decreased and the consumption of books increased. This website converts the number of words to the number of pages, online and for free.
You only get away with novels of that scale if the story has an epic quality and storytelling is remorselessly. This is an art rather than a science but here are a few tips. Some novel pages can have as little as 250 words to as much as 600 words. How many pages in an average paperback book would equal to a. It is one of her bestknown novels and was adapted for television three times 1966, 1975 and 2004. October 7, 2010 by david 4 comments a very common question among aspiring writers is related to how much they actually need to write before their nonfiction manuscript can be considered complete. Once you know what your book will be about, its time to start planning the structure of the story. I have a few books with varying numbers of words in them. But if you want to sound professional, never use page count, always tell people how many words you have written. The truth is the number of words per page depends on a variety of factors such as the type of font, the font size, spacing elements, margin spacing, and paragraph length to name a few. Feb 09, 2007 a 400 page manuscript full of singleword paragraphs is exactly the same, from a publishers wordcount perspective, as a 400 page manuscript made up of a single paragraph, even though the latter will probably have 1015 times as many words.
When i write technical articles, theyre usually 600 words and about a page and a half. Excerpts from the novel were serialized in the magazine omni 1979 october, november. Have you had lots of questions over the years about word s mirrored margins. Christopher moore is the author of fifteen novels, including the international bestsellers, lamb, a dirty job, you suck and secondhand souls 2015. One of the questions that a new writer often asks is how long should my book be. Most ebooks i see are double spaced, which makes their pages clearer but also reduces the number of words per page. Size comparisons page is the number of words per article.
Before i started my tour of the best books i had no idea that the word nigger would pop up as often as it does. But are the total number of pages different in an ebook than a physical book. While its not possible to take into all these factors when estimating how many words per page there will be for your writing. Most of my life had been spent in scifi where race is simply not an issue, or in science books of various types where race is only discussed in relation to genetics. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words. In a published book, chapters generally begin onethird to halfway down the page. The only time youd run to 250 per page is if you were trying to make a book look longer than it is. There can be 300 to 500 words printed or appearing on a page. The first paperback edition featured a cover and interior illustrations by richard m. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. So hopefully if i find this information, it would possibly motivate me and cure my yearlong block.
Depending on difficulty of book, size of page, line spacing, an average paperback book can have anywhere from 100 words per page to more than 400 words per page. I just checked my kindle and createspace books which ive got set to 6 x 9 and even they have 250 to 300 words per page. I appreciate this article in confirming that there are no rules my book is a saga and takes place over a long period of time, so my chapters are periods of time, like a month, or a day then it moved to another month several months later or maybe the next year, so whatever number of words it takes to tell that particular par of the story in. In the beginning of the book jem one of the main characters says, there are places were kids like me go. You may assume 250 words per page when using 12point courier, doublespaced. Thats really hard to say, books are usually measured by word count and not page count. At a writers conference i recently attended, publishing veteran jane friedman said 80,000 words is good for most fiction, below 60,000 isnt novel length territory, and above 120,000 is likely too much. That being said you can usually assume about 250 words per a printed page. I just counted 38 lines averaging 12 words per line, which, of course is 456. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. The novel is about a writer named joshua cohen who is contracted to ghostwrite the autobiography of a tech billionaire called joshua cohen. Whether you are trying to track how far you have to go or just checking how many pages youve completed so far, there are many times that you wish to know an accurate page count. In the paperback version of forrest gump there are 241 pages. Youre writing your first novel, and you know you must shoot for around 80 to 95 thousand words.
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 books 50% of books have fewer words and 50% of books have more words. While a general guideline is one page is 500 words single spaced or 250 words double spaced, this is a ballpark figure. How many words per page are there in a typical novel. What kind of best selling nonfiction book will you write. The number of words in a novel will vary depending on the genre.
Aug 14, 2008 for some reason, the huge form 417 sticks in my head for notice count huge form. On our website you will be able to find not only the answer for the shortest book in number of words but also thousands of other game answers, cheats and solutions. 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. Carved into our past and woven into our present, numbers shape our perceptions of the world far more than we think. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. Book writing and publishing faq how long should my. Colleen lindsay reminds us that word counts have a practical and commercial effect, in that they translate into numbers of pages per book, which is a direct hard cost of producing your book. 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. A trade paperback 6x9 or hardcover runs around 350400 depending on typesetting.
Understanding book layouts and page margins joel, thanks a ton for all of your info. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Take a look at the size of the page of some smaller edition bibles for example and although the font is way small, because of the size of the page, there are no more. However, based on number of page turns its now estimated at 296 pages, which is close to 340 wpp. Larger print, or smaller print, of course, and wider or narrower margins, can make that vary, depending. In large print books for the visually impaired or books for young children clearly there are fewer words per page. Book writing and publishing faq how long should my nonfiction book be. It depends on the font and the font size of the book. Even dan browns first novel digital fortress is 159,000 words and 186,000 respectively using each method.
Every book i selected off my shelf exceeds the socalled maximum of 110,000 words for commercial literature or 90,000 words per thriller novel. This means that a 75,000 word novel would be around 300 pages. How does your book measure compare to whats succeeding in todays marketplace. The number of pages changes depending on the number of words, the font and the font size. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Nov 08, 2008 i would recommend the book numbers by rachel ward to a friend because the book has a very unique and engaging plot. Every student is assigned to read some consecutive books. The 5 x 8 trim size means about 250 words per page. The 2004 version renewed interest in the novel and attracted a wider readership. North and south is a social novel published in 1854 by english writer elizabeth gaskell. By example, a book with 720,000 characters with an estimate set to 250 words per page will produce a result of 720000 2506 480. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if it is doublespaced.
A major driver for the increased production of books is the revolution of literacy, which we study in detail in our literacy entry. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. Im slowly working through createspace to make it available in paperback, so it will be interesting to see what the page count ends up in actual print. At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. In other words, a 12 page story tends to be roughly 3000 words, etc.
Do the number of pages in an ebook differ from the number of pages in a physical book i know that for an ebook there are 23 ebook pages per page number. Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. With longer books, you can get a rough count by adding up the number of words on an average page and multiplying by the total number of pages. Numbers the book of numbers details the time from the exodus of gods people from egypt when they wandered in the desert for a period of thirtyeight years as they were being prepared to enter the promised land. Answered jan 22, 2020 author has 363 answers and 97. To fill a page in word, you would need around 500 words, 1. Aug 05, 2019 know what readers expect in terms of your genres word count even if the reader isnt aware of their expectations when it comes to how long a book is. A printed paperback may have as many as 400 words per page, depending upon font size and book dimensions. How many pages in an average paperback book would equal to a default word page. This depends largely on the font type, font size, character spacing, and line spacing used for a document. The number one rule for choosing keywords is dont try to game the system. Thats 49,000 words or more too much for a first novel according to nearly everything i read on. This tool is useful when writing essays at university to determine how many pages you are required to write. 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.