Number of words book length by word

It costs money to proofread a book twice the length of another. For people looking at having to cut the word count, if youre in the physical printing world, look at the pages you have in the traditional format criteria. 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. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. I dont mind a publisher, agent or even a writer giving us his opinion of what word count makes a book, but to try to pass it off as definitive is more than arrogant.

Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. When combined, the total harry potter word count is over a million words. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000 word range. Wordcount of unpopular and hefty epics looping world. Smiley lists novels as typically being between 100,000 and 175,000 words, while national novel writing month requires its novels to be at least 50,000 words. From these numbers, we can establish some guidelines. But while the length of a novel is to a large extent up to its writer, lengths may also vary by subgenre. For adult fiction especially crime, thrillers, womens fiction, saga and romance, 100,000 words is a good benchmark to aim for. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count. Before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length.

Thus, one could say each manuscript should be as long as it needs to be. This video explains why word count is important and the word count ranges for. Apr 23, 2018 thanks very much for sharing all this useful information. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Word count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a. Of course, hiring a professional editor does come with a price tag, and most freelancers calculate their costs based on the number of words. 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. You convert the ebook to plain text and then just run wc w ebook. As pointed out in the axis labels, the horizontal x axis represents chapter length in words, and the y axis represents how many times throughout the books a chapter of that length occurred. However, the true word count depends on the category in which youre writing. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common.

On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 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. Word also counts pages, paragraphs, lines, and characters. Ya novels are rarely over 75k, historical novels go up to 120k, ditto speculative fiction. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. According to this cool site, the one minute manager, talked about i. Words with all letters different letter pairs and double letters hook word. That doesnt mean you can submit a manuscript twice the length a publisher recommends.

In other words no pun intended, tell your story in as many words as necessaryno more, no less. 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. However, many authors, frustrated with the low price of ebooks, have taken to writing ebooks that are between 40,000 and 50,000. 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. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Word counts of the most popular books in the world.

These numbers are pulled from the original languages using logos bible softwareyou can see how i did it below. This is a lot of information at a glance, so ill distill a few salient observations. That said, each manuscript should be long enough to adequately tell its story or. In this article, were going to look at how many words are in the harry potter series. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Wolfram alpha tells us that the average word length in english is 5. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price for the translation job. Hilo books for upper elementary grades at ala example titles ranging from 1090k words. Count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage.

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. Now we have computers and word processing software. If i tell you that my book is 70,000 words, and send you an 800 page correctly formated ms the 1. This video explains why word count is important and the word count ranges for various kinds of. Mar 06, 2009 ive looked at the word count of what ive edited so far and the bits i havent yet and its around 230,000 or 230k words or so and still falling as i edit although that is a word wordcount but still a novel starts at 40k words and often is less than 100k these days this seems massive that said while ironmaster is only a. Multiply up by the number of pages and get to a rough word count. My middle grade novel is complete at 250,000 words, and have five sequels planned which will each be approximately the same length. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers. 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. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. May 29, 2014 ive put together word counts for every book of the bible. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book.

Eye of the world was one of the more normally distributed book in terms of chapter wordcount, which essentially means it had a mostcommon chapter length and a comparable number of chapters that were longer or shorter. Mar 20, 2020 an ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a full length book. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words or characters are counted. Ive put together word counts for every book of the bible. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. We want to give authors an easy way to show how long their book or novel is. 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. A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel.

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. 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. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. I got blood rites and death masks in the wrong order, they should be the other way round. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. The graph shows the average length of the top 100 bestsellers in each of the 30 main amazon kindle categories, measured in terms of the number of pages. If youre looking for word counts of your favorite books or series, then youve come to the right place. This is due to the audience youre reaching preferring that length.

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 count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a manner unaffected by variations of format and page size. 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. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Publishers want to know the overall length of your book. However sometimes, like today, the reverse happens. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. First, well look at the number of words for each book in the series. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length.

Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the book. 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. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. When you need to know how many words, pages, characters, paragraphs, or lines are in a document, check the status bar. 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. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Aug 09, 2019 a dance with dragons, the fifth book in george r. Does this mean that every chapter must end up somewhere in this range. List all words by word length, browse all words in the list, explore all combinations of letters or find all adjectives with starting the letter. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. If youre writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages. The harry potter books are popular, and once someone reads the first book in the series, they often end up reading the entire series. Many of these books are written in rhyme or in a simple singsong meter that is catchy and fun.

For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. This tool also reports the number of syllables, monosyllabic words, polysyllabic words, sentences, paragraphs, unique words, short words, long words. Enter your books word count press calculate number of pages just 4 easy steps and youre done. 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. Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. Lets take a quick tour of copy fitting, casting off and related issues here. 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. By the way, if you want to know what i think of logos. Counting chickens a few words about word counts at hope vestergaards site. How does your book measure compare to whats succeeding in todays marketplace. For that group, a novel is more than 40k words, a novella is 17.

Search for word count totals in books word counters. It costs a great deal of money to actually bind books. What isnt often considered is the sheer number of words a person who reads the entire series consumes. 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. Most literary genres have expected word lengths, which have been. Too many words and you risk losing your audience, too few and they. 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. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words.

But rules are made to be broken, and the most successful publishing phenomenon in history did just that. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. How many words are there in the harry potter book series. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to aim for 90,000. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Ebook word count should also be accounted for when setting the price of an ebook. Using this exercise, you should end up with a good idea of book length expectations for a novel like yours. This may seem like a nonissue, but the truth is, every author has different questions about their books length. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Books with much shorter sections become bestsellers all the time. It costs time and money to have an editor work scrupulously with an author to condense their book down to an acceptable word count.

Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. Martins a song of ice and fire series, is the lengthiest of the five currently released books, with a word count of almost 415. I used the lexham hebrew bible and the nestlealand novum testamentum graece for these word counts. This will give you a rough estimate of the word count. 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. Several factors go into the price of an ebook, such as author popularity, series number, and demand for the information for nonfiction. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. Other issues such as margin space and paragraph length will likely result in some variation from the calculations given. I have a word manuscript which when converted to book format loses over six thousand words and i just could nt figure out why. In fact, the majority of printed books are turned into ebooks. The eight harry potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words. Different kinds of books should be a different length.

The red vertical intercept here represents the series average chapter length, which is around 6,000 words. Then consider writing a manuscript of similar length. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. 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. 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.

Here you go, i made sure to count from chapter one till the last word of the last chapter, also keep in mind that different programs count words differently so your results may vary. Sep 12, 2018 by book do you mean novel or nonfiction. A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of time. My thinking was that page count could change, but word count should remain the same no matter what. Word count tool is a word counter that provides an extensive statistics about the word count, character count, the number of characters without spaces. Typically, a book that is published in paperback format at a length of 300400 pages will come in between 80,000 and 100,000 words. An ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a full length book. 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. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. Word counts the number of words in a document while you type. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words.

I know that this is considered long but i really cant cut anything, it is all integral to the story. Id guess that the actual average number of words in a novel was somewhere close to. Each manuscript should be long enough to adequately tell its story. Youre better off going with the answers given by shawn and marion i guess. According to amazon s great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and.

To put these numbers in perspective, if you type with a font size of 10, you could be packing nearly words on each a4 page which would make nearly 3 paperback pages. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. I believe they know what theyre talking about and i clearly didnt. Writing for reluctant readers at writing world stated count of 4001200 words.

May 14, 2018 readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. Jun 27, 2019 most of the time, an overly long word count is a symptom of major plot or pacing problems in a novel issues that need to be solved during the revision process. The graph shows the average length of the top 100 bestsellers in each of the 30 main amazon kindle categories, measured in terms of the number of. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. This gives you 200 large print, 500 for an academic book with 350 words per paperback page as a working average. 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.