Word count for book types

It turns out a better book in the end as well, which means your readers enjoy it moreand youll sell more copies. 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. Heres how i worked out the word count i literally counted the words in a cathy kelly book, a sheila oflanagan book and a marian. Most literary genres have expected word lengths, which have been driven by audiences in terms. The actual word count for the hunger games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 94,743 words. To find pretty much any kids ya word count, you can use the ar bookfinder.

Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Enter your books trim size into the width and height fields. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number 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. Dec 08, 2010 if a contract calls for a book that is 100k words and you turn in one that is k, expect to go back and find a way to shave 30k words off that puppy before your manuscript is accepted. Word also counts pages, paragraphs, lines, and characters. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. There are a lot of agents that will reject on atypical word count alone. Remember that part of the payout schedule of an authors advance often dangles on that one important word. This post covers why word count matters for novels, the standard word count ranges for various genres, and the word counts of some famous. 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. So i did some research, and came up with approximate word counts for various types. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction.

Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. For instance, when a reader picks up a thriller, they have certain expectations of what theyre about to read. However, book length varies widely between genres, among authors, and based on the content of the book.

The word count for your book in microsoft word will be located in the bottom left corner next to the page number. It turns out a better book in the end as well, which means your readers enjoy it. Less than 70,000 unless fantasy scifi supernatural, which can be longer, max 90,000. But if youre curious to see how your manuscript measures up to to the standard wordcount expectations for your genre, the following is a summary of an informative article by chuck sambuchino called word count. For help formatting a quality ebook, see this stepbystep guide. Word count matters because every book, regardless of genre, has an inherent contract with the reader. They are arranged from shortest to longest, though you probably could have figured. Youll see the number of characters and words increase or decrease as you type, delete, and edit them. You can also copy and paste text from another program over into the online editor above. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. When you need to know how many words, pages, characters, paragraphs, or lines are in a document, check the status bar. I have noticed that many of these seem to be over 90,000, but im still not sure. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books.

As far as word count goes, there was another question posted that pertained to that, and the answer i gave for that question should give you a guideline for the different types of books. On the layout tab, in the page setup group, click size, and then select more paper sizes. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. Typically, youll want your novel to be much shorter.

Learn the average wordcount for every type of novel, novella, genre, etc. Within the world of literary fiction, different genres follow more specific word count targets. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Word count tool this tool also reports the number of syllables, monosyllabic words, polysyllabic words, sentences, paragraphs, unique words, short words, long words. Show word count and other statistics in pages on mac apple. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count.

Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. I was quickly flooded with emails from many an angry author for daring to put a word count on a level of book. May 14, 2018 readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. A while ago i was wondering what my writings would be considered, short stories, novellas, or novels. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. Word counts ill get straight into it, starting with books for grown ups. But that contract is dependent upon the books genre. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. Jul 24, 2009 a 95,000 word book even by page count is a different story than a 70,000 word book. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. This resizes your pages and changes your page count, which you need to know for setting your margins.

These deserve a category all to themselves, as there are quite a few variations to consider. This is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Fits what ive heard that publishers want shorter and shorter books. But if youre curious to see how your manuscript measures up to to the standard wordcount expectations for your genre, the following is a summary of an informative article by chuck sambuchino called word count for novels and childrens books. Pacing is vital in creating suspense, which means it couldnt be any more important to nail the word count. I use amazons data feeds to come up with the calculation.

Search for word count totals in books word counters. If youve ever read a joke book or a book revolving around a humorous endeavor of some sort, it falls under this book category. Word count and story classification the vintage bookworm. Aug 05, 2019 certain publishers of very specific genres like love inspired, harlequin will require a set word count or range, but my first bit of advice is to plot out a strong, solid story using timetested structure, write the book with careful and expert crafting learn to be a great wordsmith and develop your unique voice, and ignore the constraints. Generally, the word count would not include the title page, if you have one.

For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average wordsperline 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 plan for your book that includes a word count helps you not write too little or too much. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. The books have simple plots and some pictures, but the story needs to carry the book, rather than the pictures. Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. Well, while the accelerated reader program is lame in a lot of ways, this is a very handy tool. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. 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. Build your book format a paperback manuscript word for. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors.

For the classic picture book group, i realize that 48 is a pretty big age range. If you use abstracts as part of the body of your material, then they would be included. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. 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. That includes scenes like the hero at the mercy of the villain, but. 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. To check word count, simply place your cursor into the text box above and start typing. Oct 10, 2016 i noticed that while the recommended word count for a ya book is 40,00070,000, the recommended word count for a scifi or fantasy book is 90,000 to 120,000. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. May 24, 2010 dont let the word count dictate what you want to write, but definitely keep it in mind. Word counts for different genres of novels vary, but there are general rules of thumb that.

For a partial word count, select the words you want to count. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and nonfiction. 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. Mar 20, 2020 a plan for your book that includes a word count helps you not write too little or too much. 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. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to.

Dont let the word count dictate what you want to write, but definitely keep it in mind. Books that can be read by many ages are called crossover books. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. There are a few book word count guidelines for each genre, but these arent hard and. We all know there are exceptions, but i wouldnt count on being one. Nonfiction books also vary tremendously in word count. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. Well, different publishers look for different lengths for different genres. Basically, having an idea of how long you want your book to be helps you work smarter, not harder.

Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. 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. Words used in tables or graphs, including the legends, would not normnally be included. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. Since opinions vary greatly, i did some research to verify the numbers in my head. In the apply to list, select whole document and click ok. For nonfiction books, word count guidelines are more flexible, sometimes even double the word counts listed here. Because yes, different types of books require different book lengths. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. Childrens book types and suggested word counts go teen. Science fiction and fantasy are the big exceptions because these categories tend to run. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k.

Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. For the best results, we recommend a microsoft word docdocx or a kpf file created with kindle create. Were going to talk some specific genres in just a moment, but its worth setting the. The first book in each series below was the authors first. Im not sure if im pushing the word count over, been trying cut back the word count. Books in this genre are also often gag gifts or are meant to be facetious. You may see show paragraph count or one of the other options instead, because the name of the menu item reflects the statistic thats. Other issues such as margin space and paragraph length will likely result in some variation from the calculations given. Apr 23, 2018 standard word count ranges for various genres. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. In word, the word count will appear on the status bar at the bottom of the workspace. Readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing.

May 15, 2011 well, while the accelerated reader program is lame in a lot of ways, this is a very handy tool. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. 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 type when compared to the general rule of thumb. Choose your book type, genre, and audience for a word count and page.

The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be. 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. Show word count and other statistics in pages on mac. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. The science fiction and fantasy writers of america specifies word lengths for each category of its nebula award categories. If you dont see the word count in the status bar, rightclick the status bar, then and click word count. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. And, in case youre wondering, here are the average word counts for other popular genres. As you prepare your ebook, consider whether your content should have a fixed or reflowable format. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average.

The number of characters, the number of subplots, the pacing are all affected by word count. Besides, this tool also includes many other features like readability, keyword density. Generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. Each book in the series has a different word count, ranging from 76,944 harry potter and the sorcerers stone to 257,045 harry potter and the order of the phoenix. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Word counts the number of words in a document while you type. I recommend staying within or close to the recommended word count for your age categorygenre unless youve received a lot of feedback verifying it needs every word or doesnt need more if youre low. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the book. Enter your book s trim size into the width and height fields.

My first book, three times a lady was roughly 100,000 words. 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. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction.

If you see any issues or if your book doesnt look the way you want it to, we recommend converting your pdf to a word document and formatting it according to our ebook formatting guide. As a result, a 100k manuscript can size up very differently on a shelf. In all cases, you can find an author who has successfully pushed the envelope one way or another. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. The best research tool is to read lots of books and see which publishers print books at which lengths. Click librarian or teacher and then search for books like yours click on the titles to get all kinds of info about them, including wordcount. Aug 15, 2019 average word count for this book genre. The word counts of some famous novels for comparison. In word, click the file tab and then click close to return to your publication. A 95,000 word bookeven by page countis a different story than a 70,000 word book. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. Realize it over the maximum word count for erotic, science fictionfantasy genre. Even if you dont have enough words to qualify as a novel, it will ultimately fall into one of the other categorizations.

You can upload and convert your ebook manuscript file from several supported formats. Word count is a very important metric of a writing. So should i stay with this word count, or try to bring the word count down. 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. You can show the word count, character count with or without spaces, number of paragraphs, and number of pages in a document. On the longer word count side, the frog and toad books are a good example. Short and punchy books are 40,000 to 60,000 words, but many nonfiction books are lengthy.

That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. Yes, having a book that is overly short or overly long for its genre will incrementally decrease your odds of finding traditional publication. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. I got it from the scwc blog im attending in february.