With digital as well as print books available, the length of books varies. But, most nonfiction publishers want to be sold the concept, and therefore be able to discuss the direction of the project, before you write the book. Youll probably be familiar with these premium formats. 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. If yes, then most publishers still work on specific word count lengths for books so youll probably be aiming for around 60,00080,000 words for nonfiction.
Ive just about finished a nonfiction book about little known young and other heroes of the american. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. Once the book is published, is the author required. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. How do you know if your novel is literary or mainstream. Most publishers like to see chapters that are in the 2,000 to 3,000word range. Most memoirs need to be in the 70,000 to 100,000word range. Jul 17, 2017 not necessarily, according to a new study by book in a box of 272 nonfiction books that hit the new york times best sellers list between 2011 and 2017. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to aim for 90,000. If youre writing a nonfiction book, be sure to look up that category to find the length of similar books. How many words should be in an adult nonfiction book. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline.
And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. The research ive done seems to point at the 500800 word count for a childrens picture book. For example, memoirs are generally 80,000 to 90,00 words. If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words when im done. I heard 10,000 words can be accepted as an ebook at a short length at least for nonfiction. Once youve committed to what genre youre writing in, and what age group youre writing for, you can use the average ranges below to determine your target word count. Jul 24, 2009 my upperlevel ya novel is 211 pages, 61,078 words, tnr 12 pt. Generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts.
For my travel memoir, should i query when i have a proposal and several sample chapters, like nonfiction, or wait until the manuscript is complete, like fiction. Your chapter length has to work well with the overall word count of the book short chapters create an even distribution of both content and action. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words.
While the story must be good, emphasis on action is not often as important as emphasis on the ideas, themes, and concerns of the book. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction. Long book length at the other end of the spectrum a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words has significant heft, 320400 pages. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. So lets begin our calculations by focusing on word count first. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon.
I guess 50,000 is a short novel and some early novels before goes as low as 40,000 which can be considered to be a novella. Novel 50,000 110,000 most print publishers prefer a minimum word count of around 70,000 words for a first novel, and some even hesitate for any work shorter than 80,000. How to set the retail price for your nonfiction book. The question of how long your manuscript should be is sometimes hard to answer because different publishers have different guidelines.
If your manuscript is on the short side, make this clear when pitching to a publisher and give solid. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. 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. On average, when writing a memoir should not exceed 90,000 words and that is a stretch when it comes to memoir word count. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count.
If your book falls within the standard preferred wordcount range, its one less. My own past research on ya word count turned up 5080,000 as an average guideline. Books in this genre are also often gag gifts or are meant to be. Harry potter and the halfblood prince 168,000 words.
Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. Oct 27, 2018 i use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. This is due in large part to the variety of subgenres within it and the trend for a book series with an ever greater word count. So if youre writing a series, start small, then increase the word count with each release. So as youre writing a book, a common question if often asked. So if you write a 35,000 word manuscript, your formatted book will likely be around 140 pages. Now this doesnt mean there arent any guidelines in place. Search for word count totals in books word counters. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing.
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. Now, they dont offer word count or running time for books, but they do have a search api. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Of course, when youre writing the first draft of your story, you want to just get your words out on paper. Not necessarily, according to a new study by book in a box of 272 nonfiction books that hit the new york times best sellers list between 2011 and 2017. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 words. Having said that, if a publisher really likes and wants your story, it may be okay to go over that word count slightly. How do i raise the word count in my non fiction book with readable material.
Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. Ford, glen book length average length of a non fiction book. For nonfiction, the people who say a book should be however long it needs. I advise authors to ignore word counts when writing. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and nonfiction. The 1 thing you need to do to write a new york times best. Aug 15, 2019 the relationships genre is not to be confused with the fiction romance genre. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books.
Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or. How to set the retail price of your book mill city press. If youve ever read a joke book or a book revolving around a humorous endeavor of some sort, it falls under this book category. If youre concerned about the final page count for your book, you should know that the average 6. 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. And man, people love to point out exceptionsand they always will.
Apr 07, 2014 if youre concerned about the final page count for your book, you should know that the average 6. A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words. As a nonfiction writer myself, i know this is tough. Although, youll notice with the harry potter books the length of each book increases with each release in the series.
We recommend memoirs be between 45,000 to 80,000 words in order to maintain intrigue and reduce intimidation. That being said, this range is true for most booksalways do the research into comparable books and price. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. It makes quite a difference whether you want to publish a childrens picture book, a 50recipe smoothie book, a science fiction novel or a technical encyclopedia. Publishers are probably more open to this approach, since when you become more established, theres less risk for them with bigger books. Harry potter and the deathly hallows 198,000 words. Id guesstimate that non fiction 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 1 thing you need to do to write a new york times. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. That means your manuscript must be at least 3540,000 words long.
When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near 200,000 words. But for mainstream ya it is always best to stick to under 80k. Book size is often based on how thick the spine will be and how it will stand out in a bookstore although things are changing. That doesnt mean you can submit a manuscript twice the length a publisher. As for non fiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels.
Less than 100 pages and it becomes difficult for a printer to print the title of the book on the spine. Most traditional publishers will place restrictions on an author and require that the manuscript not exceed a specified word count, unless special concessions are made. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. Only if youre a major celebrity can you blow right through that word count and just keep going. Different sources give different figures like you say but the average seems to be in that bracket. On average, when writing a memoir should not exceed 90,000 words and that is a stretch when it comes to memoir word count we recommend memoirs be between 45,000 to 80,000 words in order to maintain intrigue and reduce intimidation. Oct 18, 2017 therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. The best thing that you can do is look over comparable books and try to judge word count by their size, average wordspage, and illustration content. Would you consider a post on memoir guidelines, since memoir falls somewhere between fiction and nonfiction in many ways. The relationships genre is not to be confused with the fiction romance genre. Jul 23, 2012 so 50,000 words is the minimum for a non fiction book. If you stick to these when youre writing your nonfiction book, youll be fine.
And this ebook page length differs significantly depending on the book genre. Im going to give you some information here, but first i want you to know why this is important. Do you want to publish a wide format bookwith inspiring quotes down the side margins. In 2011, the average length of a bestselling nonfiction book was 467 pages, but that dropped to 273 pages in 2017. We explain two easy methods to estimate your books page count. Nov 07, 2016 generally speaking, a shorter book of 150 finished pages or 40k words or less typically commands a lower price. Sep 06, 2014 according to chuck sambuchino see below for word count. Therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. So 50,000 words is the minimum for a nonfiction book. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document.
Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different. What occurred to me while reading was how the predetermined word counts make it more difficult to query a novel that crosses categories. May 27, 2008 the question of how long your manuscript should be is sometimes hard to answer because different publishers have different guidelines. What is the ideal word count for a nonfiction book in the. I get a lot of questions about word count for urban fiction novels. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. There is no definitive word count guide for nonfiction books due to the many subgenres. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for non fiction books. There are a few book word count guidelines for each genre, but these arent hard.
Apr 05, 2015 generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. My upperlevel ya novel is 211 pages, 61,078 words, tnr 12 pt. This is a lot harder because its not a specific field im receiving back i have to scrape the results and do some crazy parsing of the data. By 2017, however, that number has dropped to 273 pages. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a non fiction book. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book.
I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count. 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. In my opinion, if your nonfiction book is fewer than about 30,000 words 120 pages, it does not feel substantial enough to be real book. In todays market, this is the goto paperback size range for many novels, memoirs, and nonfiction books. The retail price you set for your book impacts your profit margin. Oct 26, 2018 discover what size your book should be and if thats comparable to the standard book sizes in publishing. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. How do you know if your book qualifies as literary. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Technically, in fiction, most publishers and awards consider anything over 40,000 words to be a novel, but many publishers wont look at anything under 60,000. According to chuck sambuchino see below for word count. But the word count of a chapter matters if you want your story to flow right.
Urban fiction publishing requirements urban fiction news. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing stack. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. And conversely, a longer book of over 60k words or 200 pages can command a higher price. Sep 06, 2016 some of the other answers are idiosyncratic. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Generally speaking, traditional publishers expect completed nonfiction book manuscripts to be between 50,000 to 75,000 words. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. A recommended wordcount might be 15002000 words but, more.
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