Average word count for 300 page novel

Mar 18, 2009 average word count for fantasy is significantly higher than it is for other novel types and you have written a novella, not a novel. In north america, the standard used by editorial staff in figuring word count is 250 words per page, 10 words per line using a 12 pt. Well, as to be expected with a book niche like ours, somebody decided to write an article for a howto site on how to go about writing and publishing a light novel in america. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 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. Im curious about your advice compose the novel in the standard format from the start rather than changing it later why does this matter. In terms of adult mainstream fiction, that length would be considered a novella. 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.

When i sign a contract for a book, the publisher specifies the word count they. Novels intended for the adult market will be longer than those targeted at children and young adults. A short story has a word count of under 20,000 words though anything over 10,000 puts it into that no mans land along with novellas where its a long slog for a short story but too short for anything resembling a novel. But in general there are about 250300 words per page. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250 300 words per page if it is doublespaced. 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. Were really asking if they can answer this question. Divide your final word count or the word count youre aiming for by 250 or 300 to arrive at your page count estimate.

Jul 24, 2009 my upperlevel ya novel is 211 pages, 61,078 words, tnr 12 pt. About how many words of that size are in your average 250 300 page book. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. However, the true word count depends on the category in which youre writing. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count.

I keep hearing that houses are looking for books around 200 pages long. These questions made us fill the need of a book page count calculator we put at the bottom of this page. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if it is doublespaced. We explain two easy methods to estimate your book s page count. Jun 27, 2019 well, if your goal is to publish and sell your novel, those rules are pretty darn important. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. The old man and the sea was about 25 to 30,000 words. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. My latest 300 page novel gives an approximate word count of 95,000, so use that as a guideline. 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.

If you think a 270,000word memoir will make it past the agent, do it. Some use 250 words per page, but 330 is closer to reality and gives a reader a good idea of book size. Do check your comparable titlesrecent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. Its hard to fudge word count, and easy to fudge page count. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. Just to keep in mind, the average one spaced page usually contains about 3000 characters or 500 words.

Im presently working on a novel and want to make certain my word count falls in line with what other authors produce. This is due to the audience youre reaching preferring that length. If your book is too long and you need to cut it, dont fret. This format generally averages about 300 words per page, thus about. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. This means pages of html within a web page take up significantly less space than an average page of text. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. 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. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. A manuscript for a novel is typically 500 words per page if singlespaced. Its often possible to take a good 30,000 words out of a book without really affecting the content, just by being rigorous about what works what words, sentences, paragraphs, scenes and chapters. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Count characters and words with the anycount tool for a precise estimate and get every single cent youve earned.

Worse, all three of these answers reveal a lack of understanding of the marketplace in which writers are trying to sell storiesthe same marketplace where we agents are selling stories. Paperback books typically contain how many words per page. How much time should it take to write a 300page novel. 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 longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word. I went to a bookstore, gathered some big, hefty novels in a genre like mine, and sat there on the shop floor and counted words. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250 300 words per page. Sure there is, sheila the rule of thumb with most publishers is to average about 300 words per page. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Do keep in mind that 50k words is way too short to qualify as novellength for publishers in most genres. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books.

The way you decide the number of words, is to count how many in a solid block of writing of say 10 lines. An average adult novel is about 6080,000 words and a childrens novel can be from12,000 to 80,000 depending on the. What occurred to me while reading was how the predetermined word counts make it more difficult to query a novel that crosses categories. Apparently word documents require a lot of overhead for formatting and other information. This depends on the length of the words used, the paper size, and the font typeset used.

For fantasy, the average word count is probably closer to 7080,000 words, whereas the average novel length is 5060,000 words. Surely when writing the important thing is to get words on the page even if theyre in pink comic sans. The graph shows the average length of the top 100 bestsellers in each of the 30 main amazon kindle categories, measured in terms of the number of pages. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. I put both the word count on mine and the number of pages, being the word count divided by 330, which is the number of words on a typical paperback page. Learn how to estimate your page count and how long your book. Most published books average closer to 300 words per page than 200. This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. For instance, my novel runs about 101,000 words, which i would estimate at 101,000 300 336 pages. I believe amazon starts with an estimate in the 325wpp range, but then maps numbers of page turns in ebooks to generate an approximate page count. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. Thats not exactly true, but its a good general guideline. Typically, a book that is published in paperback format at a length of 300400 pages will come in between 80,000 and 100,000 words.

Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this is very rough run perhaps 150450 pages, and at about 350 wd page that works out to something like 50150k words. The shortest novels written by 20 authors you shouldve. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. 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. 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. What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres. Depending on the text formatting, a page word count may include from 200 large print up to 600 words academic book. I am on the record as saying i dont really care about word counts unless they are so offthe wall out of bounds that it is absurd. That said, let me speak to a couple other things you mentioned first, while it could generally be said that most books run. How many words are in the average 400 page novel answers. However, html code often includes many lines with only one word or html tag. If the average length is 300 pages, youre looking at a 75,000 word manuscript approximately one reason its harder for a new author to sell a 140,000 word manuscript is the size of the book.

The answer is one page single spaced or two pages double spaced. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. Take a good look at the average word counts you need for a novel or nonfiction. 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. While your perpage word count may change depending on choices made during your interior layout, this initial calculation is a good. Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. Jan 08, 2018 without extensive sales statistics its hard to say how the size of a book does or doesnt affect its popularity. And the average novel, for the purposes of word count only, is between 80,000 and 120,000 words.

A young adult novel will run between 20,000 and 40,000 words. So itll be off on occasion, but it still works well for the average book. So, do a word count with a word processor, then divide by 250 to get the number of standard pages. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job.

Almost always, high word count means that the writer simply did not edit their work down enough. When the final work is printed for sale and published, the number of words per page will differ. I suspect you are trying to work out how many pages you have written as a judge of how far into your novel you are, but publishers wont ask you how many pages your story is, they will ask you how many words youve written. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page count leading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. So a 200 page novel would be around 55,00060,000 words. Aug 05, 2019 i think theres some confusion here on memoir word count vs. Sep 20, 2019 the average fantasy novel should have between 50,000 and 150,000 words.

We answer for fiction and more i was scared that agents would reject my book simply because i had got the length wrong. This post on fantasy authors handbook does point out that many of the bestselling books of all time of which many are fantasy novels are not the 200,000 word epics many associate with the genre. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. 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.

In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says, the average novel today is about 90,000 words. Another rule of thumb is you can get 250 to 300 words on a typeset page. But, he also mentions that the wizard of oz was 40,000 words. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. This will give you a rough estimate of the word count. My upperlevel ya novel is 211 pages, 61,078 words, tnr 12 pt. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page.

Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. So far, i have about 35,000 words typed for the book i plan to publish. How many words per page are there in a typical novel. Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words. Now, depending on how youve setup your document your page count may vary slightly, but with arial or times new roman 12 point font and conventional margins you should see similar results. That said, the average word count for science fiction and fantasy novels. Web pages consist of html, so they are similar to plain text documents. What writers fail to see is that for every successful exception to the rule e. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. How to set the retail price of your book mill city press.

I am writing a novel right now, and im up to 4025 words in 10. Young adult novels have a wide variation in lengths. The shortest novels written by 20 authors you shouldve read by now. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in. But blake is trying to give everyone here some guidelines. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. Do you want to publish a wide format bookwith inspiring quotes down the side margins. On average, young adult novels usually fall around 55,000 and 70,000 words. In north america, the standard used by editorial staff in figuring word count is 250.

Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. My own past research on ya word count turned up 5080,000 as an average guideline. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words or characters are counted. The best way to guesstimate your page count is to assume 250 to 300 words to a page. Here are the average novel word counts in the top five genres in the book publishing industry in no particular order.

What is the generally accepted number of words per page for a published novel. Instead, i looked at various scenes at the beginning, middle and end of each book, and multiplied the page numbers by the number of words on an average page an average manuscript page is about 250 words, but paper and font sizes vary with published books, so i had to do sample page counts for each bookfor instance, my copy of old man and. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. Learn the average wordcount for every type of novel, novella, genre, etc. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. As with many publishing standards, word count guidelines exist for a number of reasons including marketing and sales but also to help create stories that are free from plot or pacing issues that can exhaust readers. If you want to see what size book is selling in your genre, take a look on the shelves. Hello, i was just wondering how many words the average novel has on a page. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. 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 39 famous authors writers write. 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.

Put simply, the sweet spot for a novel s word count is generally said to be around 8090k. If youre writing an adult fantasy novel or an epic fantasy novel like game of thrones, your word count can skew higher at 90,000 200,000 words. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. For example, defending jacob has a word count of 122,475 and my utility comes up with 115,320. Ive excluded nonfiction and short stories in my estimation, but allowed novellas, since the definition of the novella is hazy at best. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. Amazons initial estimate would run 101,000 325 310 pages. We will be using amazons estimation formula, which is that there are 300 350 words in a page they do take into account images as well, if your ebook has those. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. That being said, this range is true for most books always do the research into comparable books and price your book accordingly.

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 a printed novel, this would be about 200 to 300 words per page, making about 2 pages for 771 words. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. If i remember rightly, the industry rule of thumb for paperbacks is 250 to 300 words per page, so that word count would amount to about 170200 pages. This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each. If youre writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages.

Orit means they have two or more books combined into one. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. Still, if you have any feedback id love to hear it. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the speed at which the narrator talks. 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. How many word document pages are there in a 350 page book.