For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. Recently i got asked this question, what is the ideal length word count wise for my first book. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. However, book length varies widely between genres, among authors, and based on the content of the book. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts.
That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. Nicholas sparks word count popular novel word count. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. Books can be as short as 25,000 words, around 100 pages, or as long as 3 million words, or about 1,000 pages. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. The actual word count for harry potter and the sorcerers stone is 78,792 and my utility calculates 77,876. Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy by douglas adams 50,895 words. 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. The first alone has sold more than 120 million copies, and the rest have sold at least 65 million each. At an average reading rate of 125 words per minute, thats about 145 hours of reading. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline.
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. When combined, the total harry potter word count is over a million words. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Oftentimes, professional editing will cut down the unnecessary information so your memoir is the appropriate word count. Books that can be read by many ages are called crossover books. From these numbers, we can establish some guidelines. Its a question often asked by aspiring authors wondering if their manuscript is several thousand words too long or short, but its also an intriguing one for readers to consider. 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. The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be. I publish my books first on smashwords and then, after they pass vetting for the smashwords premium catalog, i publish them on amazon as well. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. But at the end of the day, you have to write the novel you want to write.
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. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Books with much shorter sections become bestsellers all the time. The first book in each series below was the authors first. 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.
In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. 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. 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. Between the ages of four and eight, children have picture books read to them and also begin to read themselves. Less than 70,000 unless fantasy scifi supernatural, which can be longer, max 90,000. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. Yes, you should go through the novel revision checklist and take out anything extraneous no matter what. While average word length is 50,000 to 80,000 words, this genre has so much variety that word count depends on the book and its intended audience. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. The greater the word count the larger the book more sections and. An adult fiction book is most marketable in the suggested word count. I was scared that agents would reject my book simply because i had got the length wrong.
I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count. But, most nonfiction publishers want to be sold the concept, and therefore be able to discuss the direction of the project, before you write the book. Harry potter and the deathly hallows 198,000 words. Middle grade is from 20,000 55,000, depending on the subject matter and age range, and the word count of these books has been trending up in recent years. As previously discussed, there are different requirements for both fiction and nonfiction genres.
The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. 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. I have rounded the averages down slightly, both to account for twilights outlier status and. Well, while the accelerated reader program is lame in a lot of ways, this is a very handy tool.
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 average word count for a typical novel ranges anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words, with the average hanging. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. Harry potter and the halfblood prince 168,000 words. This should capture the authors writing style and provide a reliable estimate of the number of words used by the. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page.
If this thread still going can someone tell me how many words is reasonable for a chapter im writing my first fantasy novel and worried if i have too short or to long of a chapter right now my first chapter word count is at 1,436 and in counting. What is the average number of actual words in comic books or. 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. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. I just did a word count on maurice sendaks picture book where the wild things are. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. This article suggests that essentially, it should be as long as it needs to be, meaning dont look at the word count, just get the story out then edit. What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. A you should be aware that the majority of readers are actually adults. The hunger games has a word count of 99,750 and my utility calculates it at 98,916.
The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. As a nonfiction writer myself, i know this is tough. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near 200,000 words. Word counts of famous book series harry potter by jk rowling. Frequently asked questions on getting published how can i get the book ive written published.
The best thing that you can do is look over comparable books and try to judge word count by their size, average words page, and illustration content. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is advisable. The author selling the most copies was a scholastic author published only in softcover hello, scholastic school. Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. Books in this genre are also often gag gifts or are meant to be facetious. Word counts for chapter books and middle grade can range from 1,50030,000 or more. 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. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book.
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. Does this mean that every chapter must end up somewhere in this range. Most memoirs need to be in the 70,000 to 100,000word range. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. 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. We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count. Only if youre a major celebrity can you blow right through that word count and just keep going. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range.
The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. 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. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. There are many different different paths to getting published. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. Here are some popular scifi novels and their word counts.
First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. To save the time and effort of counting wordbyword, often a rule of thumb for the average number of words per line was. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to aim for 90,000. In this article, were going to look at how many words are in the harry potter series. Short novels in general hit around 40,000 to 60,000 words, but most publishers wont touch a novel.
Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. If youre new to selfpublishing on amazon and wondering, just how much should i write for my kindle book. Basic trade picture books as seen in most stores will typically have a standard set of 32 pages. Longer books increase the number of pages that need to be printed. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. The writing market has changed a lot since i first got published. The 57 year old reading range straddles a few different categories of books. 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 eight harry potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words. If the book offers more complicated instructions such as for creating an origami bird or a fashionable paper doll, the word count can extend as high as 1,500 words. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. 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. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. A good way to gauge appropriate length is to check out similar books for comparison. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. Im just saying that some things are more important than word counts. The average word count in a book is between 60,000 and 100,000 words. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. 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. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words.
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. 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. Audiences are used to a certain story length and page count. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words.
Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. Every book is different and for any suggested word or page count you see, you are likely to encounter several popular fantasy books that are outside. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Know your content, know your mainline pitch and some possible permutations, create a highlevel outline, write a compelling chapter and sell that. Jul, 2017 i dont think there is a way and this is odd. Word count for novels and books is something i dont think about too often until i travel to a writers conference, and then someone asks a simple, innocent question. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon. 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. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. It was 333 words which tends to be lower then the average picture book. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and.
In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. I wrote a book actually, many books, then found read more. Writing chapter books a look at the numbers hannah holt. Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. Average the count by taking the total number of words counted and divide by three.
On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. The page count is 32 or 40 pages with a word count of under 1,500. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page.
The authors had sold between 10 copies and 2 million copies of their chapter books. To find pretty much any kids ya word count, you can. If you have 6 panels, stick to a maximum of 35 words per panel. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be. Do you want to publish a wide format bookwith inspiring quotes down the side margins. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. Before you decide your average chapter length, its a good idea to think about the purpose behind dividing a book into chapters. Average word count in a book book editing services. A books have a teenage protagonist, but if you want to write y. Aug 15, 2019 average word count for this book genre. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and.
It was 333 words which tends to be lower then the average. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. 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. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. That makes them more expensive to print and a bigger investment. Word count varied from 5,000 words to 40,000 words, with an average mean of 17,200 and a median word count of 8,500. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. If youve ever read a joke book or a book revolving around a humorous endeavor of some sort, it falls under this book category. That said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels generally lies between 100,000 and 115,000.