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. Sep 11, 2008 hello, i was just wondering how many words the average novel has on a page. The typical books wordsperpage count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. A manuscript over 40,000 words is considered to be a novel. This 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. What is the average amount of words per chapter in a young. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. But while the length of a novel is to a large extent up to its writer, lengths may also vary by subgenre. 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. So, if you have an hour to write and aim to get down 300 words, you might wonder, how.
The point is that the perpage count is an estimate that will average out over time, and its good enough for most purposes. James patterson the mostselling author in the world is famous for his tiny chapter of a page and a half around 250500 words. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if it is doublespaced. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures.
Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or short, perkins says. Oct 18, 2017 from these numbers, we can establish some guidelines. Lewis the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, roald dahls charlie and the chocolate factory. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. 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. How many words per page are there in a typical novel. We need to count words if we are writing for a publication that asks us to stay within a set number of words. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. 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. How many words are there per page in a paperback novel answers. In the publishing industry, they need a standardized way to measure things, and they use word count. This is about the length readers want for general nonfiction, and it.
Hello, i was just wondering how many words the average novel has on a page. 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. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in words. 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. Analyzing chapter lengths in fantasy fiction creativity. At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. 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. A novel of 50,000 would be the absolute minimum for some genres and, unless you are ken follett or some other established author, you should view 100,000 as the maximum.
Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. Most ebooks i see are double spaced, which makes their pages clearer but also reduces the number of words per page. Does this mean that every chapter must end up somewhere in this range. Using amazons number of words as a guide, 5,000 words would equal 26. Short, choppy segments of dialogue can result in lots of white space and fewer words per page. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. You can use word to count how many words you have written in a document. 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. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words.
Of course, this depends on font size and style, double spaced and margin. Between and 8000 words is a short story also, most short story competitions will stipulate their required word length for entry between 5000 and 10,000 words is a long short story. Books with much shorter sections become bestsellers all the time. To fill a page in word, you would need around 500 words, 1. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around. 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. 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.
In other words, a 12 page story tends to be roughly 3000 words, etc. 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. A single word page is 500 words, going up to as much as 800 or as low as 400. While a general guideline is one page is 500 words single spaced or 250 words double spaced, this is a ballpark figure. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. 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. A young adult novel will run between 20,000 and 40,000 words. So 15,000 words would run to 288 pages, and 30,000 words would run to 576 pages.
The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. Multiply the average number of words per line by the number of lines on a full 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. Other factors that will affect the number of words per page in a published book include. Yes, exceptions for a first novel can be found, but writers who depend upon being the exception are. How many words are there per page in a paperback novel. An average doublespaced manuscript page has about 250 words on it. 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. Depending on the text formatting, a page word count may include from 200 large print up to 600 words academic book. 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. 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. The average words from 60,000 words to 200,000 or more words in a whole novel. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter.
It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. May 07, 2018 this 90,000word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Dont compose your novel with skinny margins, singlespacing and some offthewall font and then make formatting changes when youre ready to market the completed manuscript. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. As you can see, a smaller trim size will produce more pages for the same word count, and a larger trim size will produce less.
The average singlespaced document typed in 12point font contains about 500 words per page, but that can vary pretty drastically depending on your formatting. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. In terms of adult mainstream fiction, that length would be considered a novella. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of 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 books50% of books have fewer words and 50% of books have more words.
The standard minimum is 50,000 words, and the average number for a fulllength novel peaks somewhere at 90,000, with around 250 words per page in published form. How many words per page varies depending on what font size and type. Do check your comparable titles recent debuts onlyto make sure your story falls in that range. 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.
I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. The industry standard for a manuscript page, however, is a firm 250 words. May 14, 2018 with a track record to back them up, established writers have greater flexibility. The writers style has a great deal to do with this. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. This is a story that is between 10,000 and 40,000 words. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. 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. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. The title with the shortest chapters, on average, was whirlwind in the thorn tree, averaging just 2,900 words each.
When the final work is printed for sale and published, the number of words per page will differ. 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. It should be noted that, in a novels finished, published form, the actual number of words per page may be quote a bit higher or lower than 250. Larger print, or smaller print, of course, and wider or narrower margins, can make that vary, depending. How to calculate a word count per page pen and the pad. Just to keep in mind, the average one spaced page usually contains about 3000 characters or 500 words.
A change of scene, a change of chapter seems to make sense to me. You could have anywhere from 150 to 800 words on a page in a printed book. But again as a surprise to me, dune was a close second, averaging just 3,800 words per chapter. Id guess that the actual average number of words in a novel was somewhere close to. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word. These figures represent continuous words with no blank lines or breaks. Larger print, or smaller print, of course, and wider. Jun 27, 2019 a story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project. With a track record to back them up, established writers have greater flexibility. Multiply up by the number of pages and get to a rough word count. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about. If you want to calculate any other word count for a 4. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write.
I am writing a novel right now, and im up to 4025 words in 10. Sep 20, 2019 how many words in a novel vary depending on genre, audience, and the story itself but in general, the average words in a novel is between 60,000 and 90,000 words for most genres. The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. 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. For example, if your book has about 20 chapters, you can put about 10,000 words in each chapter.
The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. A 90,000 word count signals to professionals that you know what you are doing. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. Divide the result by 10 to find the average number of words per line. From these numbers, we can establish some guidelines. You wont get exact, but youre wondering whether 35k is reasonable, so you dont need exact.
It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. The average adult novel runs approximately 100,000 words while those in other categories run 80120,000 words. This format generally averages about 300 words per page, thus about. I personally find the trend these days, particularly in thrillers, is to use shorter chapters. A single novel page runs from 200400 words, heavily influenced by the size of font, book, etc. A manuscript for a novel is typically 500 words per page if singlespaced. All book publishers and book designers have a standard they go by to estimate page length. In other words, a 12page story tends to be roughly 3000 words, etc. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference. 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. Count characters and words with the anycount tool for a precise estimate and get every single cent youve earned. This makes me wonder if publishers choose book sizes based on average scene length, to create the illusion of a certain pace.