Because while formatting can drastically change the page number, wordcount is a much better standard to run by. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. If you complete the word count, which comes to about 200 pages, you win. The variation from publisher to publisher, and even from book to book within the same publishing house, depends on several factors.
Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. However, very few novels these days are as short as that. Its the perfect reference to reach for when i need to come up with words targeting certain sounds in specific positions of words as well as number of syllables needed. 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. Most massmarket paperbacks are a good 80,000 words. Estimate your page count fiona raven book designer. But if youre writing a typical novel 50,000 words or more on a typical schedule a few hours of writing per. 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.
Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. I remember reading some westerns in high school and, if i. Now, if youre using an unconventional formatting or margins you could see different results, however, with standard word processor defaults and a 12 point arial or times new roman font your output should be very similar. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Lets say you end up with a structure of, say, 20 chapters, and a goal of 40,000 words. The truth is the number of words per page depends on a variety of factors such as the type of font. Sycamore row, john grisham 642 pages the invention of wings, sue monk kidd paperback 384 pages concealed in death, nora robertsj. We explain two easy methods to estimate your book s page count.
A fairsized genre book scifi, fantasty can be expected to run 100,000 words, easy. Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. This of course will depend on your word processor settings and how you format your work, however, with standard margins and arial or times new roman 12. For example, it is said that the most perfect word count for a novel is between 8090k. For single spaced pages, 62 and a half pages would be about 50,000 words.
Here is a partial list of wellknown novels that contain roughly 50,000 words, which in turn is roughly 175 pages, and are thus comparable to the average size of a nanowrimo winners novel see also list of published authors who write quickly for published authors who consistently write at the nanowrimo pace or faster the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy by douglas adams 46,333 words. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. While its not possible to take into all these factors when estimating how many words per page there will be for your writing. This website converts the number of words to the number of pages, online and for free. A 50,000 word count will create about 100 pages singlespaced or 200 pages doublespaced with normal margins 1. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. A 10,000 word count will create about 20 pages singlespaced or 40 pages doublespaced with normal margins 1.
When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. The typical book s words perpage count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. All of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as the definitive word count you must reach in your book. How to write your book in one week business chicks. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. The first alone has sold more than 120 million copies, and the rest have sold at least 65 million each. Words per page is a free online words to pages calculator which converts the numbers of words you write into pages and allows you to change margins, font size and fonts. Even the complexity of the words you use affects how many words are on a page. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. However, this figure really varies inside the industry.
Doing 50,000 words in 30 days a nanowrimo participant chronicles the pluses and minuses in 750 words. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. But first youll want to know approximately how many pages your finished book will have. The overview below provides an indication of the number of pages required based on font. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. Now we have computers and word processing software.
Estimate your page count book designer linda parke. Examples of 5000 word count pages include college theses, dissertation research, or very comprehensive, indepth blog posts. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. The number of words in a novel will vary depending on the genre. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. Our words to pages converter is a tool that will assist you in determining how many pages a given number of words is. Harry potter and the halfblood prince 168,000 words. Tips from raven book design for writers estimating word counts. The average manuscript is 30 50,000 words nonfiction, or 5090,000 words fiction. This book is a staple to my practice as a speechlanguage pathologist slp.
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. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. A double spaced page has about 400 words, so 50,000 words would be about 125 pages. Heres our word count guide for 18 different book genres. In my nanowrimo draft of the novel, many of the most important.
If the industry standard is 250 words per page and the book you read contains 200 pages then you could reasonably expect that the number of words read is 50,000. Harry potter and the deathly hallows 198,000 words. How to write 50,000 words in a month books the guardian. 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. It basically works as a page calculator whereby you will just feed with the number of words and it will give you the number of pages right away. This tool is useful when writing essays at university to determine how many. A 50,000 word count is about 100 pages singlespaced or 200 pages doublespaced. And now were seeing some publishers produce book that run from 100,000 to 120,000 words. A manuscript over 40,000 words is considered to be a novel. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near. Your debut novel is 20,000 words long how not to self. Multiply the industry standard by the number of pages contained in your book. A 10,000 word count is about 20 pages singlespaced or 40 pages doublespaced.
You 50,000 word manuscript may be half the page length of another authors 50,000 word manuscript. For the mathimpaired, that means you multiply the number of manuscript pages times 250 to get your word count. A single novel can be longer, but once the length is above 110,000 words publishers may look at cutting it. Calculate the number of pages using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. When talking about book length, its common to talk about word count rather than page count. As a publisher who has laid out dozens of books for printinga 50000 word manuscript should end up somewhere between 180 and 220 pages. For me, there is reflection on the meaning of so many words being. Do keep in mind that 50k words is way too short to qualify as novellength for publishers in most genres. Generally, your book needs to hit the mark of 40,000 words before it can be considered a novel. Many authors will, of course, scout out the books they consider their. National novel writing month challenges more than 300,000 aspiring. Here are five recent fiction titles and the number of pages they have in paperback. Book format the same exact book in hardback and paperback.