Apr 27, 2014 to find the word count in your favorite kids book, visit the a. Word count word count discrepencies in novel submissions a reader writes to ask. There are general guidelines for each literary category. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. The word count in picture books is sliding like stocks in 2008. 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. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write.
Pick up a childrens book in your collection and count the words on one page. I also include word counts from some best sellers in. Word count is the devil you have to love, or at the very least, respect. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures. The only reason to adhere to a certain word count for your book is your assessment of reader expectations. Apr 11, 2015 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. Finally, youll find i prefer the compound word wordcount as opposed to splitting the word into two. These are the basic classifications of what a book is by word count. On the macro level in any type of edit, but especially a wordtrimming one, you always want to start with the big picture. 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. Word count matters because every book, regardless of genre, has an inherent contract with the reader. While page counts are a common but not universal feature of bibliographic metadata, word counts are much less frequently provided and are not at all mandatory.
As a result, a 100k manuscript can size up very differently on a shelf. 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. Even if you dont have a word count yet, prompts are an excellent way to exercise the writing muscle. By the fifth book, harry potter and the order of the phoenix, the word count had grown to 257,000 words. But that contract is dependent upon the books genre. For others, making sure that they dont go over the word count can be a chore especially if their editor is strict about not going over that numbe. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Heres what you need to know about this often overlooked. Featuring found photographs from real asylums and filled with chilling mystery and pageturning suspense, asylum is a horror story that treads the line between genius and insanity.
According to wikipedia, these are the classifications are novel, novella, novelette, and short story. Yup, thats right i managed to keep it within industry standard. 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. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. It is, i think, the easiest to use to quickly find the word count of a book. Is there a website that gives the word counts on books that. If youre writing your first novel, the general rule of thumb for novel writing is a word count in the 80,000 to 100,000 range. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. Yes, having a book that is overly short or overly long for its genre will incrementally decrease your odds of finding. For full titles, authors and descriptions of these books, see whats on my travel memoir bookshelf. Short stories range anywhere from 1,500 to 30,000 words. Feb 12, 2018 heres a quick word count guide for adult fiction, adult sff, young adult contemporary, young adult sff, and middle grade. Learn the average wordcount for every type of novel, novella, genre, etc.
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. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. What is the proper word count for a collection of short. If you want to learn how to write a book, sign up for our online course. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average wordsperline count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted then. To find the word count at for a particular book, search the books title, and click on it. I talk more indepth about this in stories classified. That often dreaded, while at the same time appreciated, element of freelance writing.
Tolkiens initial novel, the hobbit, contained 95,022 words. This is a true statement if your goal is to be published through traditional methods someday. Go play cricket or bake a souffle or save the whales. The impression im left with is mainstream, mass market paperbacks are stretched as much as possible so they appear bigger works than they actually are, in terms of page count. The word count that your computer gives you is not a standard word count like they use in publishing. To get an accurate word count for your manuscript, take the character count and divide by 5. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. I clicked on the unabridged version, and it lists the word count as 97,364. I also include word counts from some best sellers in each age category. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Multiply it with the page count and you get a vague idea.
In this post, id like to share some thoughts on word count considerations. Feb 20, 2008 to get an accurate word count for your manuscript, take the character count and divide by 5. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. At there is a nifty search tool outlining the interest level, book level, word count and number of pages in many childrens books, as well as various awards, booklists and groupings. For some content writers or bloggers, hitting their word count is a pain. The the fellowship of the ring, the first book of the lord of the rings series, swelled to 177,227 words. Smashwords gives a precise word count for each and every b. Is there a website that gives the word counts on books. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. Well, the answer is about one half page single spaced or one page double spaced.
Famous books and their word counts freelance writing jobs. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. But more than word count, its content and reading difficulty that will better define what you have. Word count, with a little help from amazon alexis grant. I put in anne of green gables and clicked on the first entry, and it listed the word count as 17,129. The reason for this is that when i refer to wordcount im referring to a single, distinct idea.
Madeleine rouxs new york times bestselling asylum is a thrilling and creepy photoillustrated novel that publishers weekly called a strong ya debut that reveals the enduring impact of buried trauma on a place. 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 tried searching the words word count plus the title of a novel, like the lovely bones, and all i get is the word count of essays and articles about the book in question, not for the book itself. If the text is already as tight and economical as you can make it, and every sentence counts, then the agent will notice that rather than the word count. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. A way to check word count of published books anita nolan. Those of you who dont care about traditional publishing can leave the room now. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books.
Duotrope a free writers resource listing over 3950 current fiction and poetry publications caps their search for short story publishers at 7,500 words, which means most publishers are looking for stories of less than that length. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. Jul 08, 2014 you have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be. Jan 14, 20 hey, im writing a book and im a bit worried about the word count. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. May 11, 2012 these were to do with whether the book would be categorised as a novel or a novella or an epic or something else. 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. When i began writing for kids a decade ago, i was told to keep it under 1200 words, ideally under. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Author eve tells me her book came in at 95,000 words. Where can i find a database of all published books word.
Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. Precise word count definitions will vary, but as a general rule of thumb, a short story is anything up to about 7500 words sometimes 10,000, with. At amazon the page count for books for 10yearsold children varies from 120 to 350. 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. Print sales sites do not require it, and unless the book is also in ebook, you arent likely to find a word count anywhere. Im leaving this in the list to show that word count isnt offered for every book. The problem is, most print books do not tell you word count. For others, making sure that they dont go over the word count can be a chore especially if their editor is strict about not going over that number. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. This reduction will be very small, like maybe 12 lines less per page, and 510 pages less for the book. Find the word count for published ya and childrens books.
Heres a quick word count guide for adult fiction, adult sff, young adult contemporary, young adult sff, and middle grade. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. Since opinions vary greatly, i did some research to verify the numbers in my head. These were to do with whether the book would be categorised as a novel or a novella or an epic or something else. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. It seems the only reliable way to judge the true size of a book, story, whatever is the word count. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. Ali, 9000 words is on the upper end of the chapter book spectrum. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words.
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. Ive been writing a novel over the past year, and with the help on your site as well as a few other sites, ive been converting it into manuscript format. I was quickly flooded with emails from many an angry author for daring to put a word count on a level of book. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. Hey, im writing a book and im a bit worried about the word count. 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. I wrote this book over 2 years ago and have been spending the last few years editing and researching agents etc. 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. Novel 40,000 words or over novella 17,500 to 39,999 words novelette 7,500 to 17,499 words short story under 7,500 words. 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. Heres what you need to know about this often overlooked genre. Of the 161 stories listed, 3081 is the median word count number in the middle and 4052 is the average word count.
When i do try to push my stories to longer lengths, often it feels like im just padding them out for the sake of the word count and nothing more. Theres no point in obsessing about word choice if your story has whole scenes and whole subplots you can axe. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. Nicholas sparks word count popular novel word count. What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book. 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.
Jul, 2017 i dont think there is a way and this is odd. 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. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. 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.
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. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. Mgs are usually around 2545k, even longer if its a fantasy. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Book 1 of my ya fantasy is 99k trimmed down from 107k. Ive rechecked my word count of my childrens fiction book and i have just under 7500. Aug 25, 2011 finally, youll find i prefer the compound word wordcount as opposed to splitting the word into two. While its important that every story find its natural length, it takes time to develop an instinct as.
For a ballpark figure, you have approximately 10,000 words per 50 pages of manuscript if you are using 12pt font and 1 inch margins and doublespaced. That includes scenes like the hero at the mercy of the villain, but. I am currently at 20k words between 16 stories, complete and 3 incomplete. You have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. Its for the ages 710, would i need to stretch it up to 8,000. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count.
The complete stories average around 1500 words, with the longest at around 2500 and the shortest at 311 yeah, not really a short story, but the next shortest one is 1,100. Aug 05, 2019 for most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Goodreads authorsreaders meet your next favorite book. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. Word count is important because it helps you select your readers. 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. For instance, when a reader picks up a thriller, they have certain expectations of what theyre about to read. Search for word count totals in books word counters.
For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. I dont need one of those equations to help calculate word count based on the number of pages times whatever. Heres how the wordcount of your book will decide what category your masterpiece falls in. How to increase your novels word count noveldoctor. 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. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. 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. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count.
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