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. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. 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. Stine writes over hundreds of books in a series, so a low word count is actually acceptable. Printing costs vary depending on page count and ink type black ink or color ink. 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. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. Search for a book, tell us how fast you read, and start reading.
This is because these programs only count actual words, but publishers. The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be. Your book may be complete and you are just telling the agent or editor its length. Word count, with a little help from amazon alexis grant. Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. See more hello, i need to calculate the number of words from a pdf file i translated, as when i copiedpasted the file, i could not see how many words there were and i need the number for invoicing. You can follow the question or vote as helpful, but you cannot reply to this thread. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. Word is calculating the word count microsoft community. The choice is yours, and you can use it to your advantage if you evaluate the per scene word count from a bigpicture view. I put in anne of green gables and clicked on the first entry, and it listed the word count as 17,129.
Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Book spine calculator book thickness calculator what is a. As a result, a 100k manuscript can size up very differently on a shelf. I use amazons data feeds to come up with the calculation. Book spine calculator book thickness calculator what. If youre writing an adult fantasy novel or an epic fantasy novel like game of thrones, your word count can skew higher at 90,000 200,000 words. Count the number of characters in an average, midparagraph line btw, this all assumes a monospaced font. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. This is due to the audience youre reaching preferring that length. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. You have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. It also can remove all the repetitions from the text.
First, reading length estimates the books word count, based on the length of the audiobook or when theres no audiobook the page count. The dimensions from the spine calculator include a 18. Other issues such as margin space and paragraph length will likely result in some variation from the calculations given. Word count matters because every book, regardless of genre, has an inherent contract with the reader. 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. No matter how much you adjust the other variables, if the ms is only 50,000 words in length instead of 95,000, then you have a problem if the book was announced as being 288 pages in. If youre using a proportional font, the number of characters can vary immensely, throwing off the numbers and word count. For manuscripts, the answer is about 250300 words per page if. That includes scenes like the hero at the mercy of the villain, but. If you are an author of a book or know of a books accurate wordcount, contact me. Well calculate the word count, and estimate how long the finished audio will be. How many words per page are there in a typical novel. Wordprocessing programs have a function that calculates the number automatically, but the results are not reliable in the publishing world. Calculate book page count using word count for book design.
Seems silly to have to set up an account and submit a book to get such basic info. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. Free thesaurus definition of to calculate or count from the macmillan english dictionary a free english dictionary online with thesaurus and with pronunciation from macmillan education. 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. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the book. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. Our book page count calculator will help you figure out how many pages your final book will contain based off of our your current word count. 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. While its important that every story find its natural length, it takes time to develop an instinct as. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. The actual word count for the hunger games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 94,743 words. May 07, 2018 your book may be complete and you are just telling the agent or editor its length. The word count formula is a method accepted by the american institute of cpas, the national association of state boards of accountancy, the california tax education council, and the irs return preparer office for measuring the credit hours awarded upon completing a selfstudy continuing education course or program.
But that contract is dependent upon the books genre. To find the word count at for a particular book, search the books title, and click on it. 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. We want to give authors an easy way to show how long their book or novel is. Ive been speaking with an agent who has expressed keen interest in my scifihumor novel, and what shes telling me is that while she really digs it, the manuscript is simply coming in too long. 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. When you query a publisher, its customary to include your novels estimated word count. Sep 30, 2016 if youve written your manuscript in word or some other wordprocessing program, youll have a page count. How to calculate your books length before writing helping. This question came in as a reader comment on one of the earlier blog posts. That means you dont have to pay any costs upfront or carry any inventory.
Assuming you use the standard conventions for manuscript format 1 margins, 25 doublespaced lines per page, and a 12 point nonproportional font like courier, then a good rule of thumb is one page equals 250 words. This question about average word count was on my mind as well, when i started writing my book. Find the word count for published ya and childrens books. For example, childrens books are going to have fewer words per page than a book meant for adult readers. May 11, 2012 this question came in as a reader comment on one of the earlier blog posts. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. That being said, it should provide a more accurate indication of the number of pages a specific word count will be and the number of words per page you type when compared to the general rule of thumb. 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. If youve written your manuscript in word or some other wordprocessing program, youll have a page count. I calculated the word count words per line for 10 lines divided by 10 times the number of lines per page times the number of pages, rounding the product for dan browns origin 231,000 words, robert ludlums the prometheus deception 210,000, daniel silvas the black widow 180,000, brad thors code of conduct 166,000, michael connellys the crossing 129,000, and vince flynns enemy. Estimate your page count fiona raven book designer. Word is calculating the word count when i save documents, there has begun to appear on the taskbar the message. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook.
I clicked on the unabridged version, and it lists the word count as 97,364. Paste your script in this box, and then hit submit below. These guidelines are intended for designers of paperbacks with black and white or color interiors, with fullcolor covers. Keep the type and elements that you dont want trimmed off at least 38. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. Estimate your page count book designer linda parke. We limit title submissions to 1,000 per week per account. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. How to use our book page count calculator select your word print size select the book genre enter your book s word count press calculate number of pages just 4 easy steps and youre done. Word count calculator count total, unique and number of. Aug 05, 2019 certain publishers of very specific genres like love inspired, harlequin will require a set word count or range, but my first bit of advice is to plot out a strong, solid story using timetested structure, write the book with careful and expert crafting learn to be a great wordsmith and develop your unique voice, and ignore the constraints. And this will depend on the dimensions you choose for your printed book.
No matter how much you adjust the other variables, if the ms is only 50,000 words in length instead of 95,000, then you have a problem if the book was announced as being 288 pages in length but the most it can be stretched to is 160 pages. For full titles, authors and descriptions of these books, see whats on my travel memoir bookshelf. Tips from raven book design for writers estimating word counts. Calculating number of words from pdf files software. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count.
Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. You must provide an accurate word count per page or by document when you are submitting a literary project. If youre writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages. I dont need one of those equations to help calculate word count based on the number of pages times whatever. Choose your book type, genre, and audience for a word count and page number total. How to calculate a word count per page pen and the pad. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. Online calculator to count the total, unique and repeated number of words in a given text. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. 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. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. But your word count might be a reason it is being rejected.
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. Its too much hassle and timeconsuming time you couldve spent refining and perfecting your book content. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. Word processing programs have a function that calculates the number automatically, but the results are not reliable in the publishing world. Obviously, a prime determinant of book size is the word count. What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. I assume word count will be somewhat lower than the 4785 i got. Most blogs and writer websites had the moreorless the same advice forget the length and the average word count of your novel. But for printing and to calculate spine width, you need to know the page count of your book in its final printed form. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. 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.
Search for word count totals in books word counters. The revelation another book thats pretty thin, and its part of a series of over fifty books, and each book was written in under a month anyway. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. Where can i find a database of all published books word. Enter the number of words in your script, and then hit submit below. Smashwords gives a precise word count for each and every b. Assuming you use the standard conventions for manuscript format 1 margins, 25 doublespaced lines per page, and a 12 point nonproportional font like courier, then a good rule of thumb is one page equals 250 words for the mathimpaired, that means you multiply the number of. Once the book is bound, it gets trimmed, and at this stage the 18 bleed is trimmed off. Check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted then go to the last page before any bibliography, acknowledgements, appendices, etc. If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me.
Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. Therefore, a 280,000 word manuscript becomes a 900 page doorstop. If you follow a pattern same word count per scene throughout your novel and one scene is way longer than the rest of your scenes, make sure this is the climax scene. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. For help formatting your paperback manuscript, see our guides for microsoft word for windows, microsoft word for mac and pages for mac. Two ways to estimate your word count audiobook creation. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. The counter lists all the words with the number of occurrences in the sentences. Count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage. For instance, when a reader picks up a thriller, they have certain expectations of what theyre about to read. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book.
Before our book page count calculator, you had to dig around through multiple sources to figure out how many words per page for your exact font size and then do the math. A way to check word count of published books anita nolan. The calculator below gives the number of words in a text, number of unique words total number of words minus all word repetirions. If youd prefer to speak with us, call 888321edge 3343 10am 6pm et.
Trim size, bleed settings, and cover finish dont affect printing cost. Kdp prints your book on demand and subtracts your printing costs from your royalties. That being said, it should provide a more accurate indication of the number of pages a specific word count will be and the number of words per page you. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. It is, i think, the easiest to use to quickly find the word count of a book. If you dont know how to find your documents word count, this article shows you how. Estimate the reading time for any book using reading length. All we have to do is use the wp tool that shows word count. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Im leaving this in the list to show that word count isnt offered for every book.
Sep 20, 2009 obviously, a prime determinant of book size is the word count. Find out how long it will take you to read any book by using our book word count search. According to my computer, my second book has 62,389 words. Word 2003 sp2 with certain documents, when opened on any machine, every 10 seconds or so the bottom of the screen flashes with word is calculating the word count. The calculator counts number of unique words in a given text. What is the formula for estimating time based on word count.
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