Average book page length

All book publishers and book designers have a standard they go by to estimate page length. Before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length. Oct 18, 2017 but chapter word count is something that you want to keep in mind for future edits. So you could assume that since 4 pages words, 240 pages 60,000 words, which was the typical length for most mainstream and mystery novels. How does your book measure compare to whats succeeding in todays marketplace. Then, more importantly, lets talk strategy and consider some case studies. One factor can be measured, though, and that is the average page length of a book. Trim sizes in this post were updated on january 30, 2015 as soon as you get serious about selfpublishing a book, you are confronted with the choice of what size your book ought to be for instance, if you want to get a price on how much a book will cost to print, the first thing you need to know is the size. The skys the limit for the maximum length, though anything over 250,000 is getting into war and peace territory. 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. Sep, 2010 of course, foundation posts work best for this, and ive started with a blog post dating from 2010, and one of the more popular destinations for search traffic, selfpublishing basics. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. The figure was found through looking at a number of books text stats.

A short story has a word count of under 20,000 words though anything over 10,000 puts it into that no mans land along with novellas where its. However sometimes, like today, the reverse happens. 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. Writing a first novel that doesnt represent too much of an economic gamble for a publisher makes it so much easier for the publisher to say yes.

Recently i got asked this question, what is the ideal length word count wise for my first book. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Any selfhelp or motivational nonfiction book should be between 30,000 and 70,000 words. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. The first five years of bookerwinning novels average out at around 300 pages, but even taking into account julian barness 2011 triumph with his 160page novella the sense of an ending, the. Using this exercise, you should end up with a good idea of book length expectations for a novel like yours. For paperbacks you get 2550 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. All of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as the. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words.

Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. But chapter word count is something that you want to keep in mind for future edits. Trim sizes in this post were updated on january 30, 2015 as soon as you get serious about selfpublishing a book, you are confronted with the choice of what size your book ought to be for instance, if you want to get a price on how much a book will. How to put together a poetry manuscript for publication. These are books that resemble young adult in matter and storytelling. Although the length of fiction is genredependent to an extent fantasy novels, for example, tend to be on the thicker side, sticking to the ideal novel length is still the best advice. You can write as short or as extended a chapter as you want, with as many scenes in each that you want. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is advisable.

For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. In a bookstore window, passersby are more likely to see a larger book. Kindle finally updated the page count to 276 from 114. If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. This type of information is very helpful to your book designer.

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. Surely when writing the important thing is to get words on the page even if theyre in pink comic sans. Then came the personal computer and the writers own choice of typeface and point size. Every book is different and for any suggested word or page count you see, you are likely to encounter several popular fantasy books that are outside. Dec 10, 2015 the first five years of bookerwinning novels average out at around 300 pages, but even taking into account julian barness 2011 triumph with his 160page novella the sense of an ending, the. We explain two easy methods to estimate your books page count. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. Oct 10, 2016 the right answer to how long should my book be.

If you are an author of a book or know of a books accurate wordcount, contact me. With upper middle grade, you can aim for 40,000 55,000 words. May 11, 2009 word count and book length getting published was indeed a good blog post. Moving to even a slightly larger page size can lower your page count and save printing costs. The bestselling creativity guide which i edited, the artists way, is one of the shining examples of this wide format book. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from folio the largest, to quarto smaller and octavo still smaller. But another question you should be asking is if the average kindle book size is something you should worry about. According to the 2007 guinness world records, the largest published book in the world was the little prince printed in brazil in 2007. For starters, the average count for a page in a book is 250300 depending upon its trim size, margins, and font size.

Jun 07, 2017 to answer the immediate question, lets look at some numbers. This is an art rather than a science but here are a few tips. Frequently, checking how many pages already are there helps them know when they are done, or if their books are too long or short compared to the average book in their chosen genre. If you dont know how to find your documents word count, this article shows you how. So, with all of this in mind, is there actually an average word count you should aim for. 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 size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. Standard book sizes, dimension, and specifications chart. The 57 year old reading range straddles a few different categories of books. Basic book designpage size wikibooks, open books for an.

The trade paperback is 314 which is at least 350 on a standard paper book. A web page can be almost any length, but you have only the area above the foldat the top of your pageto capture the average user, because that is all he or she will see as the page loads. If youre new to selfpublishing on amazon and wondering, just how much should i write for my kindle book. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. I noticed way too many nonfiction kindle books around 3040 pages. Learn how to estimate your page count and how long your book. Or, if your book is slimmer than youd hoped, you can choose a smaller page size, a larger font size, and a paragraph style which adds more generous spacing and more pages to your book. 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. And this ebook page length differs significantly depending on the book genre. If you know how long the book is, you can divide it into eighths to find the perfect timing for all your major turning points.

One crucial difference between web page design and print page design is that when readers turn a book or magazine page they see not only the whole. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. When talking about book length, its common to talk about word count rather than page count. 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. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. In the days of the typewriter, a doublespaced page with 1inch margins would hold an average of 250 words.

If you picked up a scifi or historical novel from a bookshelf, you wouldnt be surprised if it was pretty hefty and probably had a dragon on the cover. On average, how long is a childrens book for children. The average length of the novels we publish varies, but is almost never fewer than 80,000 words. Calculate book page count using word count for book design.

Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. These sizes are only guidelines to approximate sizing, and should not be used in order to design an actual book or magazine. To get an idea of what your book will look like you need to match the number of words per page on your word processing page to the finished printed page. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. The book length on kindle is rather useless since you dont get a real book length.

The book sizes and dimensions listed on this page and throughout most of our site are rounded measurements. From wikibooks, open books for an open world average book length just 7 short years ago, now makes up just % of the books in the top spot. In fact, the majority of printed books are turned into ebooks. The average kindle book size measured in page length is about three hundred pages, and the average kindle ebook file size is 2. One of my biggest problems as a publisher is having authors deliver more than was agreed to. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. An ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a fulllength book. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. This isnt to say that long books are no longer succeeding.

Books are steadily increasing in size, according to a survey that has. Variations of up to 18 can occur from printer to printer to aid in binding. You can use comparable, successful books as models to determine the length you book should be. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. Jan 08, 2018 you can easily calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. You might be more surprised if a ya novel required olympianlevel arm strength to lift. Ive heard and read several reasons for this, including. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. In todays market, this is the goto paperback size range for many novels, memoirs, and nonfiction books. Mar 20, 2020 every category will have an average length, including childrens books, young adult, business books, etc. One rule of thumb is you can get 60 percent of a manuscript page into one typeset page said manuscript being in 12point type, doublespaced, preferably times new roman, with oneinch margins on an 8. The page count is 32 or 40 pages with a word count of under 1,500.

Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. Historically, these terms referred to the format of the book, a technical term. How to calculate your books length before writing helping. Well explain two easy methods to calculate book page count. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. Every category will have an average length, including childrens books, young adult, business books, etc. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures. If perhaps it had even more pictures it would be even a lot better. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. That would be the length of a novella in mainstream fiction.