Average word count of non fiction book

That being said, this range is true for most booksalways do the research into comparable books and price. If youre concerned about the final page count for your book, you should know that the average 6. Oct 26, 2018 discover what size your book should be and if thats comparable to the standard book sizes in publishing. With digital as well as print books available, the length of books varies. 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. But for mainstream ya it is always best to stick to under 80k. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000word range. 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. I use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. What is the ideal word count for a nonfiction book in the. 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. 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. 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.

Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing stack. 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. Sep 06, 2016 some of the other answers are idiosyncratic. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 words. 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. I heard 10,000 words can be accepted as an e book at a short length at least for non fiction. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. If youre writing a nonfiction book, be sure to look up that category to find the length of similar books. 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. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. And conversely, a longer book of over 60k words or 200 pages can command a higher price. Search for word count totals in books word counters.

A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. 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. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for non fiction books. Long book length at the other end of the spectrum a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words has significant heft, 320400 pages. 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. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. 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. 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. And this ebook page length differs significantly depending on the book genre. In 2011, the average length of a bestselling nonfiction book was 467 pages, but that dropped to 273 pages in 2017. Do you want to publish a wide format bookwith inspiring quotes down the side margins. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript.

But the word count of a chapter matters if you want your story to flow right. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. If you stick to these when youre writing your nonfiction book, youll be fine. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. Between 80,000 and 89,999 words is a good range you should be aiming for. Books in this genre are also often gag gifts or are meant to be. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different. Apr 07, 2014 if youre concerned about the final page count for your book, you should know that the average 6.

Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. 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. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. That means your manuscript must be at least 3540,000 words long. A good way to gauge appropriate length is to check out similar books for comparison. Oct 27, 2018 i use the target average of 1,500 words per chapter. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. 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. Jul 23, 2012 so 50,000 words is the minimum for a non fiction book. For example, memoirs are generally 80,000 to 90,00 words.

It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. If im writing a novel, this gives me 40 chapters and 70,000 words when im done. A recommended wordcount might be 15002000 words but, more. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising.

There is no definitive word count guide for nonfiction books due to the many subgenres. 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. Most publishers like to see chapters that are in the 2,000 to 3,000word range. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. The retail price you set for your book impacts your profit margin. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and.

By 2017, however, that number has dropped to 273 pages. Of course, when youre writing the first draft of your story, you want to just get your words out on paper. 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. How many words should be in an adult nonfiction book. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. So as youre writing a book, a common question if often asked. Now this doesnt mean there arent any guidelines in place. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words. Sep 06, 2014 according to chuck sambuchino see below for word count. How many words in a novel vary depending on genre, audience, and the story itself but in general, the average words in a novel is between 60,000 and 90,000 words for most genres. 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.

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. Nov 07, 2016 generally speaking, a shorter book of 150 finished pages or 40k words or less typically commands a lower price. Jul 24, 2009 my upperlevel ya novel is 211 pages, 61,078 words, tnr 12 pt. And man, people love to point out exceptionsand they always will. My own past research on ya word count turned up 5080,000 as an average guideline. 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. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. Anything in this word count wont scare off any agent anywhere. Apr 05, 2015 generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count.

This is a 100% safe range for literary, mainstream, womens, romance, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Aug 15, 2019 the relationships genre is not to be confused with the fiction romance genre. The most important thing here is to realize that there are always exceptions to these rules.

How to set the retail price of your book mill city press. 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. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and nonfiction. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Now, they dont offer word count or running time for books, but they do have a search api. Any selfhelp or motivational nonfiction book should be. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words.

A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. 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. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a non fiction book. What occurred to me while reading was how the predetermined word counts make it more difficult to query a novel that crosses categories. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. So if you write a 35,000 word manuscript, your formatted book will likely be around 140 pages. 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.

As for non fiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon. The 1 thing you need to do to write a new york times. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. As a nonfiction writer myself, i know this is tough.

Most memoirs need to be in the 70,000 to 100,000word range. Oct 18, 2017 therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. If youve ever read a joke book or a book revolving around a humorous endeavor of some sort, it falls under this book category. You would be wise to come close to these suggested. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Only if youre a major celebrity can you blow right through that word count and just keep going. There are a few book word count guidelines for each genre, but these arent hard and fast rules. While average word length is 50,000 to 80,000 words, this genre has so much variety that word count depends on the book and its intended audience. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages.