Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long. Count characters and words with the anycount tool for a precise estimate and get every single cent youve earned. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. 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. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Every category will have an average length, including childrens books, young adult, business books, etc. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages.
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. If you have front or back matter dedications, forewords, bibliography, indexes, etc. Depending on the text formatting, a page word count may include from 200 large print up to 600 words academic book. These questions made us fill the need of a book page count calculator we put at the bottom of this page. Note that in the table, ive converted everyones estimates into words per hour wph instead of pages per hour. Inciting incident, plot point 1, midpoint, plot point 2, denouement. Multiply the average number of words per line by the number of lines on a full page. So, if you have an hour to write and aim to get down 300 words, you might wonder, how many pages is 300 words and the answer is less than one.
When the final work is printed for sale and published, the number of words per page will differ. Paperback books typically contain how many words per page. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. Using a standard font size, you can estimate about 250300 words per page. The average singlespaced document typed in 12point font contains about 500 words per page, but that can vary pretty drastically depending. So, a 55,000 word manuscript is about 220 typeset pages, and a 100,000 word manuscript is about 400 typeset pages. This format generally averages about 300 words per page, thus about 30,000. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. The typical books words per page count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. Some editors charge a minimum fee for their services to cover the cost of their time and energy spent on a particular project in lieu of other work. 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. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if it is doublespaced.
In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of. Publishers want to know the overall length of your book. How many words per page varies depending on what font size and type. The typical books wordsperpage count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. 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. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling.
According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts. The truth is the number of words per page depends on a variety of factors such as the type of font, the font size, spacing elements, margin spacing, and paragraph length to name a few. Jan 08, 2015 if i use 800 words per hour as my average, that equals about 6,500 words per week. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. Divide the result by 10 to find the average number of words per line. All we have to do is use the wp tool that shows word count. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has an average of 4,560 words per chapter. Targeted for 2 to 8yearold kids, this type of book typically has between 400 800 words. In 2015, the drop resumed as the average fell to 345. Some will tell you 2,500 words is the average, while. Books for 7 to 9yearold readers would probably start at the 15,000 word mark, rarely going higher than 30,000 words. Nov 15, 2015 a rough guideline to start with would be 500010,000 words per book.
As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. What do most writers see as a good average chapter length. This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each. Hello, ive just received a contract for an academic book at 110,000 words with what looks like a 5 per cent capacity to go over, which is supposed to include the index. 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. Further, that font and size will put 49 singlespaced lines on a page. In other words, a 12 page story tends to be roughly 3000 words, etc. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Help yourself understand how much can fit on the page to still retain the visual you desire. Estimate a small reduction for the linesperpage and the numberofpages values.
Although drafts are often doublespaced to aid editing, books are singlespaced. In just three weeks id have enough content for a nearly 20,000word ebook. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Write out your basic storyline in major plot points only. Larger print, or smaller print, of course, and wider. In other words, a 12page story tends to be roughly 3000 words, etc. The average picture book is 32 pages long, but the front matter title page, page, etc. How to calculate a word count per page pen and the pad. 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. Ultimately, you can expect there to be roughly 300 words per page in a book you write as a whole.
So 25 50 k words is about right depending on your target age. An average doublespaced manuscript page has about 250 words on it. Oct 27, 2018 james patterson the mostselling author in the world is famous for his tiny chapter of a page and a half around 250500 words. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. I always try to make books for boys a little shorter. Aug 05, 2019 the average singlespaced document typed in 12point font contains about 500 words per page, but that can vary pretty drastically depending on your formatting. The hunger games uses 3,700word chapters, dividing each chapter into three parts. While a general guideline is one page is 500 words single spaced or 250 words double spaced, this is a ballpark figure. This would mean a book with 30,000 words would be roughly 120 pages.
Yes, its possible to break this model by having lots of staccato dialog, or paragraphs that are more than 250 words long, but those are extreme cases. Heres how 90,000 words which is 360 pages at 250 words per page breaks down by act. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. 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. Word count signals to people what kind of book theyre dealing with. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length klytics. Jan 08, 2018 now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. James patterson the mostselling author in the world is famous for his tiny chapter of a page and a half around 250500 words. Whether or not a book has more or less words per page depends on the layout, the physical size of the pages, the linespacing, the length of paragraphs, and the size of the font. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book.
If youre struggling, go ahead and open a book that looks right to you i. Average amount of words per page of an essay we can understand them. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime. So that comes out to about 400 a page and then factor in the double spacing and you get to 250 or so. The average adult novel runs approximately 100,000 words while those in other categories run 80120,000 words. When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. When i write technical articles, theyre usually 600 words and about a page and a half. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot.
On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. To fill a page in word, you would need around 500 words, 1. The average young adult book today is about 1200 pages. Then use the following formula to calculate the average number of words per page. As a publisher who has laid out dozens of books for printinga 50,000 word manuscript should end up somewhere between 180 and 220 pages. Richard castle, played by actor nate fillion, is decripting a code and mentions that the average number of words per page in his nikki heat books is just below. Mar 20, 2020 howtos or selfhelp usually have 4050,000 words. The point is that the perpage count is an estimate that will average out over time, and its good enough for most purposes. The industry standard for a manuscript page, however, is a firm 250 words. A manuscript for a novel is typically 500 words per page if singlespaced. Middle grade novels vary a lot, but a safe spot to aim for would be 30,000 words. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages.
Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and. Id guess that the actual average number of words in a novel was somewhere close. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. Just to keep in mind, the average one spaced page usually contains about 3000 characters or 500 words. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Other factors that will affect the number of words per page in a published book include. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job.
A rough guideline to start with would be 500010,000 words per book. How to measure your productivity in words per minute. 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. Using this exercise, you should end up with a good idea of book length expectations for a novel like yours. If using 12 point times or times roman font, its about 10 english words per line, on average. So, if you have an hour to write and aim to get down 300 words, you might wonder, how. In five weeks of consistent effort that number would rise to 32,000 words enough for a small paperback. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Both rules of thumb are imperfect, but weve found the 250300 word per page rule works better more often than the 60 percent per page rule. In five weeks of consistent effort that number would rise to. 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. 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.
It was created to answer all the questions you want to ask and more. Mark up your manuscript where you think the page breaks might go, or place the text on 28 separate pages, staple them together like a book, and read the story as you turn the pages. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. I find it is a stereotype, but boys are less prone to read longer books. Apr 10, 2008 the average young adult book today is about 1200 pages. Even when a student is a great essay writer, they might still not have enough time to complete average amount of words per page of an essay all the writing assignments on time or do this well average amount of words per page of an essay enough, especially when the exams are near. Larger print, or smaller print, of course, and wider or narrower margins, can make that vary, depending. This reduction will be very small, like maybe 12 lines less per page, and 510 pages less for the book. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. How does your book measure compare to whats succeeding in todays marketplace.
It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. If i use 800 words per hour as my average, that equals about 6,500 words per week. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten to be longer, around 80,000 words on average. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. However, as i understand it, the index isnt done until the final proofs are in place so as to get the page numbers right, and so im not sure how much buffer to leave. Its no longer necessary to estimate according to the 250wordsperpage formula. You can use comparable, successful books as models to determine the length. Because dialogue requires paragraph breaks, there will be fewer words than if you have a few pages of full paragraphs instead of dialogue. Set the trim size and type specs to whatever you wish see instructions below, and see how many pages the text runs to. Most ebooks i see are double spaced, which makes their pages clearer but also reduces the number of words per page. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. I remember reading some westerns in high school and, if i. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words.
For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. The average singlespaced document typed in 12point font contains about 500 words per page, but that can vary pretty drastically depending on your formatting. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference. Sep 11, 2008 i tend to get about 500 words, singlespaced, per page which is probably a fair estimate. The estimated length is calculated using the number of page turns on a kindle. While its not possible to take into all these factors when estimating how many words per page there will be for your writing. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. Estimate a small reduction for the lines per page and the number of pages values. In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of 273 pages. Oct 18, 2017 as with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words.