So, do this for some books in your field, find one that matches the same depth and detail that you want to attain for your book, and give yourself an estimate based on that. 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. Bilobalide bb is a download the teachers word book of 30,000 words, been from ginkgo bilobaleaves. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Perhaps you dont have enough content to create the standard nonfiction book at 80,000 words. Theres nothing wrong with publishing a 20,000 word ebook in fact, ebooks are perfect for. Books of smaller word counts were more common in the 1800s and early 1900s, but the trend for books became longer with the rise of modern printing techniques. There are elegant small books that weigh in at 30,000 words. 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. It really depends on the font size, margin size, spaces if its doublespaced, size of the book, if there are illustrations, and just how the authoreditor formats the book. Proofread 30,000 words ebook book writing academic. A word count that is much lower than the acceptable range alerts the agent or editor that your novel or nonfiction book probably hasnt been adequately developed. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. So it took 26 months in all, working in my spare time on evenings, weekends, and during the summer.
Ya young adult novels are much shorter, depending, again, on the genre. A single novel can be longer, but once the length is above 110,000 words publishers may look at cutting it. Heres our word count guide for 18 different book genres. Will my book be enough at 30,000 words for publication. The average novel is between 75,000 and 100,000 words. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Easygoing, fairly light, userfriendly, nonfiction book for the masses. That dreaded 30,000 word wall the writing cooperative. If so, you might give yourself a goal of writing a 96 to 128page book in the 6 x 9 format, thus only about 30,000 to 40,000 words. At the other end of the spectrum a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words has significant heft, 320400 pages. Favorite answer a selfpublished piece of efiction can be any length you want.
Historical romances at harlequin will run to 75,000 words, but everywhere else theyre longer. Generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. The topic of this book is dealing with mental health and overcoming it. Im thinking that a year would be enough to write a reasonable 100kword book, working on it. A books word count does matter and if you get it wrong, this.
When talking about book length, its common to talk about word count. Its the perfect reference to reach for when i need to come up with words targeting certain sounds in specific positions of words as well as number of syllables needed. The final manuscript was 85,000 words, submitted 6 months after that. However, very few novels these days are as short as that. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. But as to if the length of this book is enough, ask yourself these questions. Due to wide variation between definitions, it is always a good idea to put a word count at the bottom of your product description when selling an unusuallength book. A manuscript over 40,000 words is considered to be a novel. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot.
The shortest that routinely gets contracted is the category romance, which runs about 55,000 words. If they typed 300 double spaced pages, is that enough to match their competition. The most accurate plagiarism checker free trial oxphrase. Its often possible to take a good 30,000 words out of a book without really affecting the content, just by being rigorous about what works what words, sentences, paragraphs, scenes and chapters truly earn their place. With 2,500 to 3,000 words, you can understand 90% of everyday english conversations, english newspaper and magazine articles, and english used in the workplace. Your debut novel is 20,000 words long how not to self. Childrens books, however, are allowed a lower word count than comparable books for adults. Your debut novel is 20000 words long how not to selfpublish. At a writers conference i recently attended, publishing veteran jane friedman said 80,000 words is good for most fiction, below 60,000 isnt novel length territory, and above 120,000 is likely too much.
The second day i couldnt believe id get more than 4000, if that. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. A word count that is much higher than the average range tells the agent or editor your work probably needs to be tightened. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. Unlimited search oxphrase enables you to check unlimited times as long as your credits are sufficient. Writing too many words in your novel is just as embarrassing as not writing enough. If you think of a certain kind of novel, you will probably not only imagine a certain kind of story, but also how slim or hefty the book will feel in your hand. This is how stephen king writes and if its good enough for him. It only takes a quick scan of a handful of ebooks, say in the kindle store, to notice that the number of pages that constitutes an. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen.
It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. Youll need to fix spelling mistake, improving grammar, restructure the writing to make it e. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Today, however, while the physical size of a book may still matter in a bookstore, ebooks have no dimensions. Keep in mind that if your book is too small, it will be hard to print the title on the spine and people will not find it on a bookshelf in a store. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. Enough challenges the status quo pursuit of the american dream, which has produced lessthanstellar results. Nowadays, adult novels generally tend to range from 80k to 120k depending on genre, however, young adult is often closer to the range of a nanowrimo winner, with 6070k being desirable.
Here is a partial list of wellknown novels that contain roughly 50,000 words, which in turn is roughly 175 pages, and are thus comparable to the average size of a nanowrimo winners novel see also list of published authors who write quickly for published authors who consistently write at the nanowrimo pace or faster the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy by douglas adams 46,333 words. 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. Contrast that with the other novel proposal i received this week with a word count of 540,000 words. But what youve accomplished is not writing a novel. A book that appears too short looks like it wont satisfy, while a book that appears too long looks like it will bore you. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes.
This book is a staple to my practice as a speechlanguage pathologist slp. However, its essential to learn the right english vocabulary words, so you dont waste your time trying to memorize a huge collection. Big spaces in your document will not be counted as words e. If your goal is actually feeling wealthy, secure, and as though you finally have enough, then wills book is a mustread. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. Get in enough of these magazines, and you have the makings of your own. Ultimately, if they have five other books in your genre that are as good as. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. Most standalone novels run between 80,000 and 95,000 words.