Average number of words per page in a novel

What is the generally accepted number of words per page for a published novel. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. A publisher gives the range of 80,000100,000 words for a historical romance. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Im curious about your advice compose the novel in the standard format from the start rather than changing it later why does this matter. The average singlespaced document typed in 12point font contains about 500 words per page, but that can vary pretty drastically depending on. We will be using amazons estimation formula, which is that there are 300350 words in a page they do take into account images as well, if your ebook has those. Most readers think of books in terms of page count, but thats the very worst way to judge the length of a story, because the number of words on a page varies widely.

Know what readers expect in terms of your genres word count even if the reader isnt aware of their expectations when it comes to how long a book is. 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. Generally, your book needs to hit the mark of 40,000 words before it can be considered a novel. Please dont take any of the above values too literally. I received a request awhile ago to do a post on word counts for different age categories in childrens lit. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. A manuscript for a novel is typically 500 words per page if singlespaced.

Bestselling author caleb carr may write novels of 250,000 words, but when you pitch your novel and offer up that number, be prepared for a glacial reception. 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. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. How long is a singletitle romance novel supposed to be. 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. Id guess that the actual average number of words in a novel was somewhere close to 90,000 words.

Just ran across this website while trying out to find how many words are common for a small novel. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if it is doublespaced. Plotting a novel by the numbers live write breathe. Today we write in word processors that can count words. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. Multiply up by the number of pages and get to a rough word count. You could have anywhere from 150 to 800 words on a page in a printed book.

Heres how 90,000 words which is 360 pages at 250 words per page breaks down by. Because novels mostly cluster at the shorter end of that 70120k spectrum. A 25 line page, then, will have an average of 250 wordsa nice big round number. To get an idea of what your book will look like you need to match the number of words per page on your word processing page to the finished printed page. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average.

I was looking online and most of the sources i found said the average number of words per novel page is 250, and the average words per book were 60,000120,000. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. But again as a surprise to me, dune was a close second, averaging just 3,800 words per chapter. I am 42000 words in to my first novel and i have 39 chapters, so on average its just over words per chapter, though some may be nearer 2000. This is another common question, and for most writers it should be easy to answer by using a word count feature in your writing tool. Just make sure you vary them slightly so that you can at least reach 75 80k. Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures.

This is an art rather than a science but here are a few tips. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. 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. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. 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. Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. Surely when writing the important thing is to get words on the page even if theyre in pink comic sans. A 90,000 word count signals to professionals that you know what you are doing. Sixty characters per line at an average of six characters per word a publishing industry rule of thumb works out to an average of ten words per line. Ultimately, you can expect there to be roughly 300 words per page in a book you write as a whole. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. Another rule of thumb is you can get 250 to 300 words on a typeset page.

If you want to know the total word count for your document, then multiply this number by the number of pages it. If you want to calculate any other word count for a 4. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Most middle grade novels are not pitched as a series. 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. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. Most middle grade novels are between 40,000 and 69,000 words long. This estimate will vary depending on the typeface, point size, and. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write. A single word page is 500 words, going up to as much as 800 or as low as 400. I am writing a novel right now, and im up to 4025 words in 10. This gives you 200 large print, 500 for an academic book with 350 words per paperback page as a working average. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts.

I also add an extra half page for each chapter, because each chapter opens slightly down from the top margin, and seldom ends at the bottom of the last page. I think you should use the number of words the story needs. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. So, the average wordcount for a typical novel is anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words. A single novel page runs from 200400 words, heavily influenced by the size of font, book, etc. Word count and book length getting published was indeed a good blog post.

If using 12 point times or times roman font, its about 10 english words per line, on average. Right now, when it comes to novel length word count, its all about 90,000 words. Therefore word counts were estimated based on a standard manuscript page using the standard format of double spaced typed pages with one inch margins, which was calculated at about 250 words per page. If so, the number and size of your images will affect your page count. Fifty thousand words isnt that much divided into five days a week for a year. When the final work is printed for sale and published, the number of words per page will differ. Hello, i was just wondering how many words the average novel has on a page. If youre thinking bigger and wondering, for example, how many pages is 50,000 words, simply divide your target word count 50,000 by 500 since thats the average words per page. The title with the shortest chapters, on average, was whirlwind in the thorn tree, averaging just 2,900 words each. I often see more than one example of this per page, even in traditionallypublished novels.

Clarification of answer by pinkfreudga on 22 dec 2005. Count characters and words with the anycount tool for a precise estimate and get every single cent youve earned. The typical books words per page count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. Paperback books typically contain how many words per page.

The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. 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. Multiply the average number of words per line by the number of lines on a full page.

So that your editor can estimate the word count and the final page count of your book. As you can see, there is no pattern, therefore your 1250 words or thereabouts is about average. In the publishing industry, they need a standardized way to measure things, and they use word count. Calculate the number of pages your images will require will you be adding images to your pages. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. 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. I personally find the trend these days, particularly in thrillers, is to use shorter chapters.

This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each. The point of this blog is to show that not necessarily all ya books you see have larger than life word counts. If you read the novels of say, james clavell, herman wouk or jean m. It has nothing to do with the number of pages in a published book. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. A change of scene, a change of chapter seems to make sense to me. If you already know the average number of words you write per scene, use that figure. 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. Average number of chapters in a manga is 410 chapters about 8 per book. Id guess that the actual average number of words in a novel was somewhere close to. The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range.

Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. The typical books wordsperpage count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. The longest average chapter lengths were lord of the rings 7,500, prince of nothing 8,700, and the beefiest chapters were found in the black company, with. I have a few books with varying numbers of words in them.

Further, that font and size will put 49 singlespaced lines on a page. While a general guideline is one page is 500 words single spaced or 250 words double spaced, this is a ballpark figure. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. Auel, it would not be surprising that the words could go to 10 times the average, or 500,000 words in a single novel. Writing middle grade a look at the numbers hannah holt. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. How many pages would my manuscript be in paperback. So 15,000 words would run to 288 pages, and 30,000 words would run to 576 pages. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. How to calculate a word count per page pen and the pad. Well, calculating it out, that would mean the average book was 240480 pages.