Book word count for books

Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to be. Students, teachers, parents, and librarians can search in english or spanish using criteria such as atos book level or a lexile measure, interest level, title, author, fictionnonfiction, subject, awardwinners, state lists, ccss exemplars, and more. Aug 03, 2017 word counts of the most popular books in the world. Longer word counts allowed for fantasy, scifi, paranormal, historical. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. In this article, were going to look at how many words are in the harry potter series. For nonfiction books, word count guidelines are more flexible, sometimes even double the word counts listed here. If youve ever read a joke book or a book revolving around a humorous endeavor of some sort, it falls under this book category. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens books and even memoir. May 29, 2014 ive put together word counts for every book of the bible.

Jun 26, 2018 while there are no hard and fast rules about word count for childrens books or any genre, it is helpful to know what is generally expected. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. 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 18, 2014 if you liked electric literatures game of books infographic that compared the length of a song of ice and fire to classic novels, you might enjoy this infographic created for cartridge discount. Jul 08, 2014 you have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is. Everything you need to know about novel word counts. Rachelle also mentions that passing 100k in word count means its a more expensive book to producehence agents. 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. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. This isnt to say that long books are no longer succeeding. We explain two easy methods to estimate your book s page count. If you liked electric literatures game of books infographic that compared the length of a song of ice and fire to classic novels, you might enjoy this infographic created for cartridge discount.

The smaller your trim size, the more pages will be required for your content. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. Smashwords gives a precise word count for each and every b. Books in this genre are also often gag gifts or are meant to be facetious.

Publishers want to know the overall length of your book. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Where can i find a database of all published books word. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals.

We thought you might find it interesting to also see some more facts and figures about the bibles 66 different books. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. Im leaving this in the list to show that word count isnt offered for every book. Discover what size your book should be and if thats comparable to the standard book sizes in publishing. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. Because yes, different types of books require different book lengths. 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 have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. But at the end of the day, you have to write the novel you want to write.

Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. You can use the preset styles in microsoft word or modify them for a custom look. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. The graphic looks at the length of some famous novels, poems, and plays from literary history. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. If youre looking for word counts of your favorite books or series, then youve come to the right place. Build your book format a paperback manuscript word for. Searching for books with a corresponding renaissance accelerated reader 360 quiz is easy with accelerated reader bookfinder. Word counts of the most popular books in the world foster. I counted the number of words on page 7 of night whispers, then multiplied by the number of pages, then rounded, and so theres aout 4 words per book. 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. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts.

Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. I was quickly flooded with emails from many an angry author for daring to put a word count on a level of book. Word count, with a little help from amazon alexis grant. Jul, 2017 i dont think there is a way and this is odd. Those word counts will only pile higher, especially there are still two upcoming additions to the series the winds of winter and a dream of spring. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Using the styles function in word can help you ensure your book s font and spacing is consistent. Apr 08, 2019 these word counts are my personal references they are not official, and do not include back matter, which is bonus material for the reader or information geared for parents, teachers, or older readers. The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be.

Famous book series and novel word counts number of words. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Ive put together word counts for every book of the bible. Few elements of the bookwriting process inspire such handwringing and teethgnashing as trying to constrain your novel within certain seemingly arbitrary bounds.

We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count. I use amazons data feeds to come up with the calculation. I created this website to help you better gauge your book s word count, because the more examples you see and the more advice you read, the more confident youll be. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Childrens chapter books word count age 69 word count.

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. Between 80,000 and 89,999 words is a good range you should be aiming for. So itll be off on occasion, but it still works well for the average book. Word counts for chapter books and middle grade can range from 1,50030,000 or more. Yes, having a book that is overly short or overly long for its genre will incrementally decrease your odds of finding traditional publication. So you may not want to tempt fate on the shortshortshort end of the scale. Search for a book, tell us how fast you read, and start reading. Yes, you should go through the novel revision checklist and take out anything extraneous no matter what. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Rowling started with two books of relatively conventional length. As a nonfiction writer myself, i know this is tough.

For full titles, authors and descriptions of these books, see whats on my travel memoir bookshelf. Since opinions vary greatly, i did some research to verify the numbers in my head. Students, teachers, parents, and librarians can search in english or spanish using criteria such as atos book level or a lexile measure, interest level, title, author, fictionnonfiction, subject, awardwinners. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. By the way, if you want to know what i think of logos.

What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book. Obviously, the examples under each category are above and below what is generally accepted. Oct 26, 2018 in a nutshell, the trim size dictates your page count. These numbers are pulled from the original languages using logos bible softwareyou can see how i did it below. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Word counts of famous book series harry potter by jk rowling. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Since just comparing the number of unique words in a book does not take its length into account i decided to calculate the percentage of unique words of the whole text. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime. Author eve tells me her book came in at 95,000 words.

Word count news newspapers books scholar jstor july 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally. Make sure you take a look at our range of reading glasses if you need a little help reading your next book. The best way to find out how many pages will be in your book is to use this calculation method. How many words in each book of the bible the holy word. I have found the website dogobooks to be the most useful place to check the word count of popular books for kids. There are a few book word count guidelines for each genre, but these arent hard. I believe the word count has increased as she wrote more books. The hobbit has more unique words and a higher unique word density than both the silmarillion and each volume in the lord of the rings. In some cases, these books will have no words at all, such as for the very small child who likes to feel the fluffy cotton tail of a bunny or push the squeaker for a duck quack.

A game of thrones 298,000 a clash of kings 326,000 a storm of swords 424,000 a feast for crows 300,000 a dance with dragons 422,000. Novelty books include popups, puzzles, pulltabs and other interactive features. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words or characters are counted. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me. For example, if an author has to write a minimum or maximum amount of words for an article, essay, report, story, book, paper, you name it. Few elements of the bookwriting process inspire such handwringing and.

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. I use the running time of the audiobook to come up with the word count total. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the book. If the publisher has a convincing argument for cutting a passage or two, the book will be shorter. Rowlings recordbreaking series began with two titles on the high end of that spectrum and finished with five that left the guidelines in the dust. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to.

The eight harry potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words. Many of these books are written in rhyme or in a simple singsong meter that is catchy and fun. For the book hatchet, the actual word count is 41,672 and i give you 41,212. The hunger games has a word count of 99,750 and my utility calculates it at 98,916. To view word count in pages on a mac, go to the toolbar and click view show word count. 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. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Find out how long it will take you to read any book by using our book word count search. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a. Up to 6070k is probably safe though there are even longer exceptions. 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.

Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000word range. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. This post covers why word count matters for novels, the standard word count.

Word counts of the most popular books in the world foster grant uk. The word count range for each age level is only a guideline. A single novel can be longer, but once the length is above 110,000 words publishers may look at cutting it back, unless it is a particular kind of book books over the 110k word count are usually considered epics. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan.

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. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. Even with the wiggle room allowed by ebooks, authors follow commonlyaccepted book word count. Whether youre just curious about how many words are in these books or youre writing a book and want to compare the length of your novel to these famous tomes, then read on to find the word counts of famous books and series. 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.

Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. And, in case youre wondering, here are the average word counts for other popular genres. These word counts are my personal references they are not official, and do not include back matter, which is bonus material for the reader or information geared for parents, teachers, or. The best thing that you can do is look over comparable books and try to judge word count by their size, average words page, and illustration content. All we have to do is use the wp tool that shows word count. However, the drop in the overall average length of bestsellers over the last 7 years points to a marked.

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. The word counts of some famous novels for comparison. This is a 100% safe range for literary, mainstream, womens. I used the lexham hebrew bible and the nestlealand novum testamentum graece for these word counts. In 2016s list, ron chernows 816page alexander hamilton managed to crack the top spot. Tucker max tucker has sold over 5 million books as a 4x nyt bestselling author and is the cofounder of scribe. The actual word count for harry potter and the sorcerers stone is 78,792 and my utility calculates 77,876. I created this website to help you better gauge your books word count, because the more examples you see and the more advice you read, the more confident youll be. If youre using open office, the word count is visible in the bottom left corner. You have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. The word count to aim for with this type of book is usually between 500 and 600 words. Using styles also saves you time because you dont have to format the font and spacing for each part of your book.

Thurston, carol august 3, 1997, agents give writers the book on whats hot. Longer word counts allowed for fantasy, scifi, historical. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words.

The average word count for a typical novel ranges anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words, with the average hanging. For more information on word counts for childrens book, check out this post. The actual word count for the hunger games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 94,743 words. In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of 273 pages. Reading length is a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to and affiliated sites. If it has areas that need further explanation the word count will go up. If you are an author of a book or know of a books accurate wordcount, contact me. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Chances are your cozy mystery or literary novel is not an epic. Chapter books will come in at the lower end of the spectrum, while middlegrade books meant for older readers may even slightly exceed 55,000 words. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. Word count for novels and books is something i dont think about too often until i travel to a writers conference, and then someone asks a simple, innocent question. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Aug 05, 2019 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.