Average number of words in a fiction book

Fantasy and science fiction novels are known to be lengthier than other books. The di vinci code 2003 by dan brown is 8,380 words christian book word count. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. Do check your comparable titles recent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range. The grandfather of modern christian fiction, in his steps by charles m. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. 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. 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. You dont have to pick a number like 80,000 and then divide it by 30 chapters to give you 2500. It only takes a quick scan of a handful of ebooks, say in the kindle store, to notice that the number of pages that constitutes an ebook is almost as wide as the pacific. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. New writers tend to assume that a chapter must be a certain set length in order to maintain the average novel length of around 80,000 95,000 words, but in truth, chapters can be as long or as short as you need them to be. 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. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the.

Be aware that the word average means that for every book that sells 15,000, there is one that sells 5,000. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. 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. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Romance novels often run between 50,000 and 90,000 words on average. The average mean word count was about 53,000 words. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. According to this cool site, the one minute manager, talked about i.

Putting it through our production planning spreadsheet, for the three page sizes we use the most often, and using a generic design with an 11point font, i get. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. An ebook with 15 pages amounts to only around 3000 words. But remember that too many short scenes in a row can make the flow of the plot feel choppy, and disrupt the continuity that john gardner said creates a dream for the. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf.

Jun 27, 2019 fantasy and science fiction novels are known to be lengthier than other books. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Know your content, know your mainline pitch and some. However, we do not suggest writing a novel of 500,000 words unless you as established as stephen king is. Publishers ultimately decide what length is proper for a particular book. These questions made us fill the need of a book page count calculator we put at the bottom of this page. But, most non fiction publishers want to be sold the concept, and therefore be able to discuss the direction of the project, before you write the book. May 14, 2018 with a track record to back them up, established writers have greater flexibility. May 11, 2009 for a printed book, 37,000 words is definitely on the short side less than 150 pages so publishers may not be interested as pricing will be low and volumes needing to be correspondingly high. The first alone has sold more than 120 million copies, and the rest have sold at least 65 million each. The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range.

On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Harry potter and the deathly hallows 198,000 words. This is another common question, and for most writers it should be easy to answer by using. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job.

Once you have a vision for your booksmall, standard, or wide formatyou can move on to the second step in deciding how many words you should write. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. As you can see, word count for science fiction books vary widely.

However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for non fiction books. May 07, 2018 this 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. There were rumors in 20 that amazon had set a minimum word. 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. Sep 20, 2019 average book length for fantasy novels.

A typical popular business book runs 25,000 to 75,000 words. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Although science fiction and some other genres have been creeping up and can now exceed 400 pages 200,000 words. Jul 23, 2012 so 50,000 words is the minimum for a non fiction book. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. 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.

In fiction, a short book is between 50,000 to 80,000 words roughly 200 300 pages in paperback. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. Today, even after the introduction of what amazon calls version 2. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words.

A christian book of about 33,000 words will likely produce. I know of an author with a very large publisher whose novel has sold only 1,087 copies in its lifetime. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. Most middle grade novels are between 40,000 and 69,000 words long. This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. I guess 50,000 is a short novel and some early novels before goes as low as 40,000 which can be considered to be a novella. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near. May 12, 2012 new writers tend to assume that a chapter must be a certain set length in order to maintain the average novel length of around 80,000 95,000 words, but in truth, chapters can be as long or as short as you need them to be. 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. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. This is an art rather than a science but here are a few tips.

Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Mind you that great classic, the little prince, was such a work. Aug 05, 2019 for most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. A manuscript over 40,000 words is considered to be a novel. As for non fiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. I heard 10,000 words can be accepted as an ebook at a short length at least for non fiction. Nonfiction book 25,000 150,000 words fiction novella 18,00040,000. A 90,000 word count signals to professionals that you know what you are doing.

This is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. However, many authors, frustrated with the low price of ebooks, have taken to writing ebooks that are between 40,000 and 50,000. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. 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. For a compilation of short stories, i would shoot for at least 30,000 words. Thats because efficacy is a constantly waning resource, and the book needs to keep topping it up.

Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. But for mainstream ya it is always best to stick to under 80k. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. Some will tell you 2,500 words is the average, while others will say that 3,000 to 5,000 word chapters are more likely to be the norm. 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. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction. Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long. For a novel, i would recommend at least 50,000 words in length. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page.

That said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels generally lies between 100,000 and 115,000. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. Sep 25, 2008 the results are sometimes completely impractical. Longer word counts allowed for fantasy, scifi, historical. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range.

In my opinion, if your nonfiction book is fewer than about 30,000 words 120 pages, it does not feel substantial enough to be real 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. Within the publishing industry we tend to talk about the length of a book in words rather than in pages. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. The left behind series original books, not including the prequel, 19952007 by tim lahaye and jerry b. For a printed book, 37,000 words is definitely on the short side less than 150 pages so publishers may not be interested as pricing will be low and volumes needing to be correspondingly high. Oct 10, 2016 most of the data ill be using throughout this article was sourced from writers digest and the manuscript appraisal agency, with any differences split to find the average. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or short, perkins says. This latter tends to be priced at the 100 page mark so preferred lengths tend to come in. This is due in large part to the variety of subgenres within it and the trend for a book series with an ever greater word count. 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 count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted then. A non fiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words.

By 2017, however, that number has dropped to 273 pages. This is a story that is between 10,000 and 40,000 words. As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. Repetition is generally frowned on in fiction, but if youre writing a self help book its a must. For adult fiction especially crime, thrillers, womens fiction, saga and romance, 100,000 words is a good. And for every book that sells 20,000, there is one that is a disaster.

To save the time and effort of counting wordbyword, often a rule of thumb for the average number of words per line was used, such as 10 words per. Mar 17, 2010 the perennial favorite by gary chapman, the five love languages 1995, comes in at only 46,145 words. Most traditionally published novels for adults are about 80,000 words. Core ideas have to be revisited and revisited dogmatically, giving the reader a constant reference through the text and backing up any points. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. For fiction, i recommend 5,000 words or more for short stories. Oct 18, 2017 as with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. Using amazons number of words as a guide, 5,000 words would equal 26. Over that size is the territory of the academic or technical business book. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Harry potter and the halfblood prince 168,000 words. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or.

I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. Today, however, while the physical size of a book may still matter in a bookstore, ebooks have no dimensions. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the book, and for ya novels the average is 50,00070,000 words. If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words when im done. Under 500 words can be described as flash fiction between and 8000 words is a short story also, most short story competitions will stipulate their required word length for entry between 5000 and 10,000 words is a long short story. Bestselling author caleb carr may write novels of 250,000 words, but when you pitch your novel and offer up that number, be prepared for a glacial reception. This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. A reasonable word count for a non fiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. So 50,000 words is the minimum for a non fiction book. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. Jun 24, 2019 be aware that the word average means that for every book that sells 15,000, there is one that sells 5,000. 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. In two minutes, i found ebooks ranging from 10 to 950 pages.

Science fiction books typically have between 50,000 and 150,000 words, like fantasy novels. 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. 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. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. A scene that takes place in ten or fewer pages can comfortably be considered short.