Nbook average word count

Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon. The average short story should run anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 words. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Word count for the book the notebook word counters. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. Teen novels can range in all sorts of word counts depending on the type of book it is.

When i analysed the most tweeted blog posts ever, i found that twitter users like posts that are around 1,100 words long. What is the average number of actual words in comic books. The word count report can be found under the reading practice reports. Harry potter and the deathly hallows 198,000 words. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. A you should be aware that the majority of readers are actually adults. 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. On average, when writing a memoir should not exceed 90,000 words and that is a stretch when it comes to memoir word count. There are no hardandfast rules when it comes to what word count a novel in a particular genre should be. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page.

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. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. When i wrote the most important blogging analysis ever, i found that the average length of popular posts was 1,600 words.

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. Books with much shorter sections become bestsellers all the time. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me. 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. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Average word count in a book book editing services. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Word count tool is a word counter that provides an extensive statistics about the word count, character count, the number of characters without spaces. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has 17 chapters with titles, and about 4560 words per chapter. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. Publisher word count for magazine writing word counter blog.

That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. What will happen in each chapter, and how much has to happen before you move on to the next chapter. Since opinions vary greatly, i did some research to verify the numbers in my head. A books have a teenage protagonist, but if you want to write y. 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 popular novel word count the worlds largest word count encyclopedia. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. To get an idea of word count average for indie authors, below are the current bestselling books from smashwords, a leading distributor of indie novels.

Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. Line count governs length irrespective of whether the line contains one word or ten or twelve. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. However, book length varies widely between genres, among authors, and based on the content of the book. 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. The word count to aim for with this type of book is usually between 500 and 600 words. Nicholas sparks word count popular novel word count. 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. 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.

We wish there was a simple, onesizefitsall answer to this. You can use this guideline to help you set a realistic goal for word count, based on the average word counts of the. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. 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. Word count for picture books the standard is text for 32 pages. 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. 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.

The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. You want to shoot for writing the highest number of words you can to cross the highest number off the chart, but as long as you write any number of words which corresponds with a number thats still available. Aug 21, 2019 ill talk about what this means to content producers and how to figure out the best word count for your posts. There are no set rules for how long a childrens novel should be, and the lack of clear guidance can be frustrating. This tool also reports the number of syllables, monosyllabic words, polysyllabic words, sentences, paragraphs, unique words, short words, long words. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. The hunger games has a word count of 99,750 and my utility calculates it at 98,916. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near 200,000 words. 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 counts of famous books and series. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. It was 333 words which tends to be lower then the average picture book.

I was scared that agents would reject my book simply because i had got the length wrong. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. 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 actual word count for harry potter and the sorcerers stone is 78,792 and my utility calculates 77,876. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. Now that weve covered how many words are in a novel, its time to break it down even further by finding out the ideal number of chapters in a novel and how many words are used in a typical chapter depending on the writing genre, word count in book chapters can vary considerably. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. Many attendees myself included were surprised to learn that some editors even refuse to read picture book manuscripts that exceed 500 words. Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. So itll be off on occasion, but it should get you relatively close for the average book. The popular book the noticer 2009 by andy andrews barely breaks the novel barrier at 40,454 words without the readers guide that was added to pad the book.

Average tenyearolds are at a far different reading level, and like far different things, than sixteenyearolds. Average the count by taking the total number of words counted and divide by three. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. We recommend memoirs be between 45,000 to 80,000 words in order to maintain intrigue and reduce intimidation. Word counts for chapter books and middle grade can range from 1,50030,000 or more. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to aim for 90,000. The average novel is usually between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Recently i got asked this question, what is the ideal length word count wise for my first book.

The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Free online pdf word count free word counter tool online to count the number of words in pdf files and documentsthe counter can includeexclude numbers years, dollar amounts. For the book hatchet, the actual word count is 41,672 and i give you 41,212. It provides word count information for the reading practice quizzes each student has taken within the reporting period. For each student, the report shows the students name, the reading practice quizzes the student has passed and taken and the total word count for the. Having said all that, there are a number of conventions regarding word count.

You can use word to count how many words you have written in a document. Then you will see what the usual is in terms of word count and length. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and.

Jun 15, 2006 im 55 years of age and writing a book which covers 7 years, from 2001 until 2007, of my life. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book. Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. If youre new to selfpublishing on amazon and wondering, just how much should i write for my kindle book. Harry potter and the halfblood prince 168,000 words. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. That will give you a good guide if you want to emulate it.

Im curious about your advice compose the novel in the standard format from the start rather than changing it later why does this matter. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. But chapter word count is something that you want to keep in mind for future edits. Follow this rough word count guide as you embark on your literary. 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. Twilight has 24 titled chapters, or 26 if you count the preface and epilogue, and about 4580 words per chapter. I feel the need to point out that 1016 is a very broad age group to target. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words. So, with all of this in mind, is there actually an average word count you should aim for. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Pdf word count free online pdf word count tool to count. If you are planning on writing a selfhelp book, a suggested avenue would be to first read other selfhelp books that have been successful.

That was the formula in the good old days when courier. What is the average word count in a youngteenage novel. Nov 22, 2008 the best answer to your question is on the shelves of most bookstores. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. Using e publisher word count will almost always give you more words than the straight word count. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. Over time, the word count diminished and volume 8 the mark contained only 85,341 words, and the last volume, number 16 kingdom come, dwindled to 77,776 words. Word counts for childrens books i received a request awhile ago to do a post on word counts for different age categories in childrens lit. What is the average number of actual words in comic books or.

This information is important whether you are writing fiction or nonfiction. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. May 11, 2009 word count seems like a leftover from typewrited days. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Once you decide to begin, each day you need to write between one and 365 words. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. Between the ages of four and eight, children have picture books read to them and also begin to read themselves. We explain two easy methods to estimate your book s page count. We have compiled a list of the daily word counts of famous authors and what they had to say about writing every day. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. 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.

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. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word. This was quite surprising to a lot of readers and is a. Jan, 2016 the book writing challenge works in the following way. Books that can be read by many ages are called crossover books. 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.

Once you know what your book will be about, its time to start planning the structure of the story. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. We have compiled a list of the daily word counts of famous authors and what they had to say about writing every day what is a word count. 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. A novella is usually between 20,000 and 50,000 words. 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. The average word count for a typical novel ranges anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words, with the average hanging. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. The one main advantage this genre has over every other is that literary agents and publishers will accept the full text with the initial query. Sep 16, 2019 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.

Youre writing your first novel, and you know you must shoot for around 80 to 95 thousand words. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. If you have 6 panels, stick to a maximum of 35 words per panel. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. The golden compass by philip pullman 112,815 words, prisoner of azkaban by jk rowling 106,821 words, and enders game by orson scott card 100,609 words. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. The stories should be easy to follow and have an average word count of 1,000 to 10,000 words, a range similar to an adult short story. The main takeaway from this is that your word count needs to bear some resemblance to reader expectation. Less than 70,000 unless fantasy scifi supernatural, which can be longer, max 90,000. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. 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.

Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. I have rounded the averages down slightly, both to account for twilights outlier status and my own preference for brevity. That said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels generally lies between 100,000 and 115,000. Novelty books include popups, puzzles, pulltabs and other interactive features. If the word count of twilight is disregarded, the average becomes around 88,625. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Word count for book series the first book in each series below was the authors first. Dec 12, 20 the new york times top ten stories had the highest average word count, coming in at just over 2,000 words.

The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. As previously discussed, there are different requirements for both fiction and nonfiction genres. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. Oct 18, 2017 of course, when youre writing the first draft of your story, you want to just get your words out on paper. From these numbers, we can establish some guidelines. Think carefully before you declare a word count in your. Im a retired ministry of defence police officer and was seconded to the united nation mission in kosovo on three occasions.

I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Reading length is a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to and affiliated sites. The average word count in a book is 60k to 100k words. Thats why we often get asked questions like this what word count should i aim for. There is an important question that needs to be answered in your book proposal in the manuscript status section.

Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price for the translation job. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Does this mean that every chapter must end up somewhere in this range. To save the time and effort of counting wordbyword, often a rule of thumb for the average number of words per line was. The first alone has sold more than 120 million copies, and the rest have sold at least 65 million each. Googles john muller said in august 2019 that word count is not a ranking factor. Surely when writing the important thing is to get words on the page even if theyre in pink comic sans. How many chapters will you need before you reach your target word count. 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 line. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff.