Nbook word count average

Depending on the assignment, the professor may require students to divide their papers into sections, with headings and subheadings. Word count matters more than it should in my opinion. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers.

The publisher always encouraged me to trim my books. 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. All of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as the definitive word count you must reach in your book. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. If you are looking to submit a manuscript, i got the impression that many lit agentspublishers prefer picture book submissions in the 300500 word count range. So itll be off on occasion, but it should get you relatively close for the average book. Count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens books and even memoir. Its often possible to take a good 30,000 words out of a book without really affecting the content, just by being rigorous about what works what words.

When cornered and asked this, our usual answer can be a bit. 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. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. A word count that is much higher than the average range tells the agent or editor your work probably needs to be tightened. Teen novels can range in all sorts of word counts depending on the type of book it is. During the introductory month of the new system, the conversion of kenpc into the actual number of words in the book actual word count showed significant differences from one book to the other. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and. According to lexicographer and dictionary expert susie dent, the average active vocabulary of an adult english speaker is around 20,000 words, while his passive vocabulary is around 40,000 words.

What is the average number of actual words in comic books or. Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. But chapter word count is something that you want to keep in mind for future edits. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Newspaper pages are divided into columns, and if you are writing a story for a periodical, you should. What occurred to me while reading was how the predetermined word counts make it more difficult to query a novel that crosses categories. Some books have chapters that are too short, they dont expand the idea enough for you to understand. In many respects the word count is the wrong question. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Realize it over the maximum word count for erotic, science fictionfantasy genre. A lower word count is, literally, less work that the reader has to do. If your book is too long and you need to cut it, dont fret.

Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. How to show word count in microsoft word 2010 youtube. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. Average tenyearolds are at a far different reading level, and like far different things, than sixteenyearolds. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. In example, i have a column with yes in certain cells, and no in the others. The page count was 382, so allowing for chapter divisions and such, we would be looking at something around 150,000 for this book, so lets say 100,000 words for a shorter book or one with rather larger type, the example i chose looks very typical. Then you will see what the usual is in terms of word count and length. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. The question of how long your manuscript should be is sometimes hard to answer because different publishers have different guidelines. In order to show the word count in microsoft word, open a word document.

Im going to give you some information here, but first i want you to know why this is important. Any longer, and the short story becomes a novelette. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. How can i display the total number of yes and no occurrences. Once you have decided what type of book you are writing, which genre you are writing in and the approximate word count, you can then consider which of two ways you will approach your writing.

Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. If the word count of twilight is disregarded, the average becomes around 88,625. My own past research on ya word count turned up 5080,000 as an average guideline. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. I use amazons data feeds to come up with the calculation. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. Aug 05, 2019 all of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as the definitive word count you must reach in your book. 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. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. For a partial word count, select the words you want to count.

Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. For fantasy, the average word count is probably closer to 7080,000 words, whereas the average novel length is 5060,000 words. The average short story should run anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 words. When i wrote the most important blogging analysis ever, i found that the average length of popular posts was 1,600 words. You must provide an accurate word count per page or by document when you are submitting a literary project. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words. Word count seems like a leftover from typewrited days. 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. If your book falls within the standard preferred wordcount range, its one less.

What is the average word count in a youngteenage novel. May 11, 2009 word count seems like a leftover from typewrited days. Jul 01, 2015 if theres a business book you admire, why not count the pages, tot up the words on an average page, and see how long it is in total. How to do word count for newspaper articles pen and the pad. Half the numbers have values that are greater than the median, and half the numbers. What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. The average word count for a novel is between 70,000 words and 120,000 words. If the editor doesnt care and you get paid by word for your articles, using publisher word count can increase your salary for an article by as much as 30% if you write for magazines or newspapers on a per word basis, this count is your friend. Dec 12, 20 the new york times top ten stories had the highest average word count, coming in at just over 2,000 words. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. Take a good look at the average word counts you need for a novel or nonfiction. Publisher word count for magazine writing word counter blog. 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. I am fairly new to excel and know very little about coding in it.

The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. In the opposite direction, it can give a more accurate estimate of how many pages you have created if you only know the word count. How long should my book be word count goals and average. Average this is the arithmetic mean, and is calculated by adding a group of numbers and then dividing by the count of those numbers. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the book. Set amid the austere beauty of the north carolina coast, the notebook begins with the story of noah calhoun, a rural southerner recently returned from the second world war. How many words in a novel vary depending on genre, audience, and the story itself but in general, the average words in a novel is between 60,000 and 90,000 words for most genres. Im not sure if im pushing the word count over, been trying cut back the word count. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Obviously, a prime determinant of book size is the word count. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. Word count, as an attribute and the actual number, do not mean anything, but the number of words in the document directly influence how many words a reader has to read.

So, with all of this in mind, is there actually an average word count you should aim for. There are no set rules for how long a childrens novel should be, and the lack of clear guidance can be frustrating. Oct 18, 2017 of course, when youre writing the first draft of your story, you want to just get your words out on paper. Word counts from the nyt best sellers list writers rumpus. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. Novellas are about 20,000 to 50,000 words, with 30,000 words being the average. This was quite surprising to a lot of readers and is a. When you need to know how many words, pages, characters, paragraphs, or lines are in a document, check the status bar. A word count that is much lower than the acceptable range alerts the agent or editor that your novel or nonfiction book probably hasnt been adequately developed. The word counts of some popular ya novels we often go around thinking that fat, thick books with huge word counts are the best.

Line count governs length irrespective of whether the line contains one word or ten or twelve. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline. To save the time and effort of counting wordbyword, often a rule of thumb for the average number of words per line was. If youre writing a feature or news article for a print publication, you might wonder what it means when an editor tells you that they need 10 column inches or 25 inches. I am attempting to calculate a number of specific word occurrences. Im a retired ministry of defence police officer and was seconded to the united. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Go to the file menu and find the information about the document properties in the info tab. Using e publisher word count will almost always give you more words than the straight word count. In terms of actual word usage, the reading teachers book of lists claims that. Twilight has 24 titled chapters, or 26 if you count the preface and epilogue, and about 4580 words per chapter. Follow this rough word count guide as you embark on your literary. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen.

If you dont see the word count in your document, rightclick anywhere on the status bar to bring up this menu, and then click word count. The main takeaway from this is that your word count needs to bear some resemblance to reader expectation. That will give you a good guide if you want to emulate it. If you are planning on writing a selfhelp book, a suggested avenue would be to first read other selfhelp books that have been successful. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is. Weve got all the answers, learn the average wordcount for every type of novel. No matter how much you adjust the other variables, if the ms is only 50,000 words in length instead of 95,000, then you have a problem if the book was announced as being 288 pages in length but the most it can be stretched to is 160 pages. Too many words are a warning sign that the author does not know how to write for the age group and that the book has not been edited seriously enough. When i started writing fantasy and action my word count went up to between 80,000 and 100,000. Thats why we often get asked questions like this what word count should i aim for.

Im a retired ministry of defence police officer and was seconded to the united nation mission in kosovo on three occasions. This is a quick introduction to average book lengths, wordcount goals, series vs serials, and some other useful tips for writing and selling books. Wordprocessing programs have a function that calculates the number automatically, but the results are not reliable in the publishing world. We explain two easy methods to estimate your books page count. For example, the average of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 30 divided by 6, which is 5. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. The fact that this article the length of a decentsized short story managed. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. Apr 11, 2015 nicholas sparks word count the notebook 38,520 message in a bottle 92,760 a walk to remember 49,311 the rescue 100,916 a bend in the road 93,766. This is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Im 55 years of age and writing a book which covers 7 years, from 2001 until 2007, of my life. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count.

My upperlevel ya novel is 211 pages, 61,078 words, tnr 12 pt. As i type, or remove text in my document, the word count updates automatically. Youve finished your manuscript or nearly finished it. Many attendees myself included were surprised to learn that some editors even refuse to read picture book manuscripts that exceed 500 words. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Word also counts pages, paragraphs, lines, and characters. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Word count is very important to writing books for young children. How many words per page generally depends on what word processor settings youre using. As you can see, a smaller trim size will produce more pages for the same word count, and a larger trim size will produce less. Having said all that, there are a number of conventions regarding word count. As i work on my document, i can keep an eye on my word count on the status bar, down in the lower left corner of the word window. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word.

We wish there was a simple, onesizefitsall answer to this. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. But first youll want to know approximately how many pages your finished book will have. I feel the need to point out that 1016 is a very broad age group to target. For debut books in this field the average word count tends to be 35k and it has therefore become the marker many industry professionals look for in queries from new writers.

Im curious about your advice compose the novel in the standard format from the start rather than changing it later why does this matter. Generally, editors are a bit wary of answering questions about word counts. Word counts the number of words in a document while you type. Publishers know this and often wont even look at a book submission that is too long.

Heres a simple way to calculate your books approximate page count using the word count of your. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words. Have you ever wondered how long your novel should be. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. When i analysed the most tweeted blog posts ever, i found that twitter users like posts that are around 1,100 words long. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. Novellas if you are writing a novella, youll probably want to know how many words are in a novella. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. Average word count for fantasy is significantly higher than it is for other novel types and you have written a novella, not a novel. How many words there are on a page depends on the font type, font size, spacing, margins and paragraph length. As a reader i love the huge word count novels steven king has written and the very short gems tom robbins has penned. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words.

Search for word count totals in books word counters. The actual word count for the hunger games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 94,743 words. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Short stories the length of short stories can range from 1,000 up to 7,500 words. Nicholas sparks word count popular novel word count. Average word count in a book book editing services. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. Noah is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Surely when writing the important thing is to get words on the page even if theyre in pink comic sans. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages.

And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. If you have 6 panels, stick to a maximum of 35 words per panel. Word count for novels and books is something i dont think about too often until i travel to a writers conference, and then someone asks a simple, innocent question. By using these three options to more accurately define your writing, the words per page calculator should provide a better estimate on how many words you need to write to fill a page. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales, but also cause fewer 5star. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has 17 chapters with titles, and about 4560 words per chapter. The average word count in a book is 60k to 100k words. Word count for the book the notebook word counters. I have even seen books with chapters that were all the same length that had both problems. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages.

However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Jun 15, 2006 im 55 years of age and writing a book which covers 7 years, from 2001 until 2007, of my life. But the thing is, that thick book that you see in a bookstore may actually contain fewer words than you think. It was 333 words which tends to be lower then the average picture book. In north america, the standard used by editorial staff in figuring word count is 250 words per page, 10 words per line using a 12 pt. How to calculate a word count per page pen and the pad. At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. Nov 22, 2008 the best answer to your question is on the shelves of most bookstores. I have been rereading it, fixing it best i can before i look into finding editor. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average wordsperline. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline.