I put in anne of green gables and clicked on the first entry, and it listed the word count as 17,129. As you can see, established authors get much more flexibility when it comes to the length of their book. Jen discusses palgrave macmillans shortform monograph, the pivot what prompted the development of this publishing format. Where academic staff suspect that you have not declared the word count honestly, and that the piece of work is over the. The book will be part of a trilogy, and although ive only written little over half of the entire thing, the estimated word count is looking to be nearly 300 000 words. But that contract is dependent upon the books genre. Book chapters can be quite short say 5,000 words and are rarely much more than 8,000.
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. This is not a post for the writers who have trouble writing books that arent long enough. May 11, 2012 this question came in as a reader comment on one of the earlier blog posts. That means your manuscript must be at least 3540,000 words long. Posted on april 26, 2016 by academicbookfuture in academic books, authors. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. Google book mentions of hello from 18601900 show a doubling of the word s frequency. 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. Those of you who dont care about traditional publishing can leave the room now.
Even if you dont have a word count yet, prompts are an excellent way to exercise the writing muscle. Odd thomas 108,9 the face of fear 60,8 the bad place 146,472. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is advisable. Coha shows a fivefold increase in print mentions between 1860 and 1900. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. Word count is the devil you have to love, or at the very least, respect. This gives you 200 large print, 500 for an academic book with 350 words per paperback page as a working average. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and.
I currently write, edit, and proofread fiction novels and short stories. Word count for book series the first book in each series below was the authors first. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference. 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. Ive looked at articles that say literary agents wont consider a book with a word count of over 100 000, so you can see why im a little concerned. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Dec 28, 2017 a book length word count is already an approximation. This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. Word count is important because it helps you select your readers. Word count ioe writing centre ucl university college. Word count matters because every book, regardless of genre, has an inherent contract with the reader.
Having said all that, there are a number of conventions regarding word count. What is the average number of actual words in comic books. Im 55 years of age and writing a book which covers 7 years, from 2001 until 2007, of my life. See my sad little word counter down there on this blog. Aug 05, 2019 for most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Given that there is additional work to do in a book chapter see 4 above this means that there is much less. Nov 25, 20 typical thesis chapters are 10 12,000 words long. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. 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. Before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length. I was quickly flooded with emails from many an angry author for daring to put a word count on a level of book. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. The only reason to adhere to a certain word count for your book is your assessment of reader expectations.
Nope, this is a post for writers who set out to write a nice little 100,000word noveland find themselves at the finish line with a 200,000word behemoth on their hands. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Put a title the exact title in the search engine, then click on the title, or one of the titles if more than one comes up. The word count lets you know information such as how much detail to give, how many main points and sub points to choose, and how detailed the examples should be. It would be possible to write a short statement of 80 words, or a thesis of 80 000 words, on the same topic. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write.
The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 words. Publishers word count requirements were set up back in the days of typewriters when courier was the only option. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. These figures represent continuous words with no blank lines or breaks. That will give you a good guide if you want to emulate it. I was fortunate to attend a terrific session at this years london book fair, organised by the brilliant project, the academic book of the future. Im a retired ministry of defence police officer and was seconded to the united. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Some years go i edited proofread and did the desktop publishing to create a 500page book filled with insights on medical marketing statistics. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. Google book mentions of hello from 18601900 show a doubling of the words frequency. This is a true statement if your goal is to be published through traditional methods someday. Butindie authors are not bound by these rules even when they create print books and they are especially not restricted by word count when it comes to ebooks, where cost is not a limiting factor, and shelf space is irrelevant.
That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter. Before you decide your average chapter length, its a good idea to think about the purpose behind dividing a book into chapters. Using e publisher word count will almost always give you more words than the straight word count. What is a good word count per chapter for a book geared. Posts about monograph written by academicbookfuture. Since opinions vary greatly, i did some research to verify the numbers in my head. You can use word to count how many words you have written in a document. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. Its word count will changeat least slightly, and maybe radicallybefore it appears in book form. This of course depends on what font size, line spacing and page margins you are using, but on average a word count of 250 words will yield around half a page single spaced and a whole page double spaced when set in either times new roman or arial at a 12 point font size. Jul 01, 2015 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.
Word count list how many words your text should have. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. This question about average word count was on my mind as well, when i started writing my book. May 28, 2018 nowadays, it is rare that an academic book is seen in an actual bookstore and, if it is, not for long. This question came in as a reader comment on one of the earlier blog posts. Reducing the word count lets you add more detail and content to your argument, and allows you to use more words for cohesion and transition devices. One of the plot threads i included in my story involved a characters attempts to cover up her past. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Zi thought less in terms of pages than word count, and suggested i work toward a goal of 100,000 words. You wont get exact, but youre wondering whether 35k is reasonable, so you dont need exact.
The main takeaway from this is that your word count needs to bear some resemblance to reader expectation. As a result, a 100k manuscript can size up very differently on a shelf. That is fully twice the goal i had already set for myself. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. If you analyse the contents of a typical bookshelf in an academic library, you will notice that many of the books are between 272 and 320 pages in. The average minimum word count for a novel is about 80,000 words. Go play cricket or bake a souffle or save the whales. Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. That includes scenes like the hero at the mercy of the villain, but. Word count ioe writing centre ucl university college london. Its an approximation because the manuscript you wrote is your best effort. For instance, when a reader picks up a thriller, they have certain expectations of what theyre about to read.
If you want to learn how to write a book, sign up for our online course. This reduction will be very small, like maybe 12 lines less per page, and 510 pages less for the book. What is the average number of actual words in comic books or. 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.
Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. 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. Therefore, you need to ensure the number is within whats expected for your genre and category. Not only do you need to know how many words are in a novel, but also why and how the genre youre writing it can change this word count this is how many words are in a novel.
For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Hey, im writing a book and im a bit worried about the word count. This is not a post for writers who say theyre going to write a short story and actually end up writing a short story. I was scared that agents would reject my book simply because i had got the length wrong. Everything in your writing should be your own work and you should clearly quote and. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. How to increase your novels word count noveldoctor. I clicked on the unabridged version, and it lists the word count as 97,364. The first book in each series below was the authors first. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. There are exceptions, of course, one of them for nias press being chris hudsons beyond singapore girl, which continues to resonate and sell especially in the singaporean society it analyses but as discussed elsewhere the brutal reality for most. Use our handy table to discover how many pages a given word count yields, single or double spaced, in times new roman or arial 12 point font.
Were sometimes asked to help increase the word count in college papers. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Weve typeset many books and therefore know how to calculate the number of words that fit on an average book. Academic staff will check the declared word count on the cover sheet against the word limit specified for that assessment. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. 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. Unless otherwise specified, the word count is simply the count obtained by highlighting the entire essay excluding the list of references and any appendices and using the word count tool on your wordprocessor. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. With digital as well as print books available, the length of books varies. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words.
The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be. 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. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. 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. For example, if you write a novel and it is long, about 100,000 words long, then naturally there will be some readers to whom it is not suitable just because of the word count. Lets take a comprehensive look at word count list, and find out how it. As a writer, the number of words in a piece matters a great deal. Most blogs and writer websites had the moreorless the same advice forget the length and the average word count of your novel. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. 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. Please provide a word count for both text and notes on the first page of the article.
This will give a book that looks and feels comparable to any other. A book length word count is already an approximation. Although hir book was just under 300 pages, which is more of an industry standard, it seems. Nowadays, it is rare that an academic book is seen in an actual bookstore and, if it is, not for long. 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.
List all your current plot threads, and then explore ways to expand upon them. Therefore, word counts are still based on the standards of umpteen years ago. Everything in your writing should be your own work and you should clearly quote and cite anything you have borrowed from elsewhere. Calculating your word count college of humanities intranet. The academic book of the future and the need to break boundaries. How to increase the word count in an academic paper. Getting published comments and advice for academic authors.
A way to check word count of published books anita nolan. There are exceptions, of course, one of them for nias press being chris hudsons beyond singapore girl, which continues to resonate and sell especially in the singaporean society it analyses. Jun 15, 2016 odd thomas 108,9 the face of fear 60,8 the bad place 146,472. 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. Hence, it includes all words in the essay and intext references. Do check your comparable titlesrecent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Look at the following text and try to reduce the word count by deleting unnecessary words. Well, the answer is about one half page single spaced or one page double spaced.
Im a retired ministry of defence police officer and was seconded to the united nation mission in kosovo on three occasions. The acceptable length of an academic dissertation varies greatly, dependent. Jun 15, 2006 im 55 years of age and writing a book which covers 7 years, from 2001 until 2007, of my life. Aug 28, 2010 word count is the devil you have to love, or at the very least, respect. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. Given that there is additional work to do in a book chapter see 4 above this means that there is much less in your word budget to use to make the point. 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. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k.
Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Publisher word count for magazine writing word counter blog. Sep 17, 2015 some years go i edited proofread and did the desktop publishing to create a 500page book filled with insights on medical marketing statistics. If you have 6 panels, stick to a maximum of 35 words per panel. We need to count words if we are writing for a publication that asks us to stay within a set number of words. I have published three books which have been fairly successful. The word count is a communication about the level of detail required. Jun 16, 2017 butindie authors are not bound by these rules even when they create print books and they are especially not restricted by word count when it comes to ebooks, where cost is not a limiting factor, and shelf space is irrelevant. Most publishers these days will accept manuscripts in any clear, easily readable font, but there is a lingering belief. Now im seeing a lot more mg books with up to 60,000 words, so i think the water has become a bit murky here.
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