Number of words book length word

Some of these essays can be done in one day and others in one night. Youre better off going with the answers given by shawn and marion i guess. For most publishers, a book is novel length when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. 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. Jul 23, 2012 so 50,000 words is the minimum for a nonfiction book. A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of time. 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. 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 books amazon sales page. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. To answer the immediate question, lets look at some numbers.

A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. To obtain the double spaced length, multiply the values in the last column by 2. It has fewer words than the other six books, making it the shortest book in the series. But, apart from being harder to read the subject of forthcoming posts on readability and simple english, such flab demands much more hyphenation of your text and even then the result will. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. 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 bookbooks over the 110k word count are usually considered epics. Its no longer necessary to estimate according to the 250wordsperpage formula. Word counts of famous book series harry potter by jk rowling. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel.

Apr 18, 2020 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. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words. No more than 90,000 words seems to be the editors mantra these days. 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. One thing to keep in mind with how many pages is words is that it depends on the text, its size, and the spacing youre using. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. 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. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. May 11, 2009 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. 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. When you need to know how many words, pages, characters, paragraphs, or lines are in a document, check the status bar. At an average reading rate of 125 words per minute, thats about 145 hours of reading.

The ultimate measure of a storys size is its wordcount, however, so the literary geeks here at foster grant have put together a list of many of the most popular books and short stories in history for you. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. Aug 03, 2017 the number of pages also doesnt help much, as publishers use different typefaces, page sizes, font sizes, etc. 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. Estimate your page count book designer linda parke.

Tolkiens the lord of the rings trilogy has an enormous word count, with the longest clocking in at over 175,000 words. Even the complexity of the words you use affects how many words are on a page. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books. Words to pages determine page length from words count.

The sweet spot, according to donald maas, is 100,000 to 115,000 words. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers. That left me with 66 logos word lists, each giving me every originallanguage word in a given book of the bible. 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. Readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. The book with the least total number of words is sorcerers stones, while the book with the most words is order of the phoenix. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. Publishers want to know the overall length of your book. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. My picture books have ranged from 147 words to 1,400 words. Sep 12, 2018 by book do you mean novel or nonfiction. May 07, 2018 right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. I found some disagreement about the ideal length of mystery novels.

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. 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. Since this was the first book, rowling had more time to edit the book and make the writing more concise. 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. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. 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. Then add in all the extra pages for your front matter, back matter, images, chapter titles, and partsection openers see method 1, above. Many of these books are written in rhyme or in a simple singsong meter that is catchy and fun. 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. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book.

How to calculate your books length before writing helping. I believe they know what theyre talking about and i clearly didnt. Wolfram alpha tells us that the average word length in english is 5. In my opinion, if your nonfiction book is fewer than about 30,000 words 120 pages. Word counts the number of words in a document while you type. May 14, 2018 what follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. Word also counts pages, paragraphs, lines, and characters.

So immediately below is a sortable table, showing the number of chapters, verses and words in each book of the bible. However, many authors, frustrated with the low price of ebooks, have taken to writing ebooks that are between 40,000 and 50,000. Wordcount of unpopular and hefty epics looping world. Anything over 110,000 words is considered too long for a fiction novel. If youre a wordy writer, you may have pages with a lot more than that. When talking about book length, its common to talk about word count. The sorcerers stone 77,325 words the chamber of secrets 84,799 words the prisoner of azkaban 106,821 words. We could print flash cards, see which words occur most, and more. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic.

How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. This is a lot of information at a glance, so ill distill a few salient observations. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. Now im seeing a lot more mg books with up to 60,000 words, so i think the water has become a bit murky here. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. 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. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. You convert the ebook to plain text and then just run wc w ebook. Word count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a manner unaffected by variations of format and page size. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Ya novels are rarely over 75k, historical novels go up to 120k, ditto speculative fiction. If your story justifies the length, you neednt worry if you get up to 150,000 words. Today, even after the introduction of what amazon calls version 2.

This video explains why word count is important and the word count ranges for various kinds of. We hope one of these two methods works quickly and easily for you. 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 the dragon reborn was rightskewed, which means there was a heavy distribution of. Lewis the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, roald dahls charlie and the chocolate factory. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. This video explains why word count is important and the. Aug 05, 2019 for most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. 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. How many words in each book of the bible the holy word.

Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. Counting chickens a few words about word counts at hope vestergaards site. I heard 10,000 words can be accepted as an e book at a short length at least for nonfiction. But i wanted all the words of the bible in a spreadsheet, so i had. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. And you will instantly lose readers if you are too far off the general norm. Science fiction and fantasy novels typically have a word count between 90,000 to 125,000 words. The first book, harry potter and the sorcerers stone, has 76,944 words. Writing for reluctant readers at writing world stated count of 4001200 words. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Jun 27, 2019 a story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. We thought you might find it interesting to also see some more facts and figures about the bibles 66 different books.

In fact, the majority of printed books are turned into ebooks. Find out how long your favourite books are and how they compare to their. Word counts of the most popular books in the world foster grant uk. 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.

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. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average wordsperline. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words.

Learn the average wordcount for every type of novel, novella, genre, etc. As a result, a 100k manuscript can size up very differently on a shelf. You 50,000 word manuscript may be half the page length of another authors 50,000 word manuscript. Because yes, different types of books require different book lengths. Count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage. A short story is usually anything from 1,000 to 8,000 words, but many are. The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be.

Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Your chapter length has to work well with the overall word count of the book short chapters create an even distribution of both content and action. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. 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. For a partial word count, select the words you want to count. I heard 10,000 words can be accepted as an ebook at a short length at least 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. What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres.

Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or short, perkins says. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. So 50,000 words is the minimum for a nonfiction book. That said, each manuscript should be long enough to adequately tell its story or. An ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a fulllength book. Id guess that the actual average number of words in a novel was somewhere close. Only 2 of the 7 harry potter books came in at under 100,000 words sorcerers stones and chamber of secrets which happened to be the first two books in the series. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. While anything over 40,000 words can fall into the novel category, 50,000 is considered the minimum novel length.

Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price for the translation job. All we have to do is use the wp tool that shows word count. Jun 26, 2017 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 bookbooks over the 110k word count are usually considered epics. Mar 20, 2020 an ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a full length book. Average the count by taking the total number of words counted and divide by three. Hilo books for upper elementary grades at ala example titles ranging from 1090k words. This should capture the authors writing style and provide a reliable estimate of the number of words used by the. When combined, the total harry potter word count is over a million words. Different kinds of books should be a different length. How many words are there in the harry potter book series. You can sort the table by clicking on any of the headings or search for words or word portions in the search box. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Jan 08, 2018 total number of words in your word document divided by number of words per book page your page count so far then add in all the extra pages for your front matter, back matter, images, chapter titles, and partsection openers see method 1, above.

Then consider writing a manuscript of similar length. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very. This was an intersting bit of information i kinda wish it was 30 words longer, though. Discover the average number of words on a page by counting the number of words on three randomly picked full pages distributed throughout the book.