Average words in a nonfiction book

Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. Generally speaking, traditional publishers expect completed nonfiction book. Specifically, an accessible nonfiction book might be anything between about 30,000 words and 50,000 words. In general, fiction refers to plot, settings, and characters created from the imagination, while nonfiction refers to factual stories focused on actual events and people. If you are planning to write a 200page book, then at 250words per page you are aiming for 50,000 words total. Now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic.

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. In the publishing industry, 250 words is considered a printed page of text. However sometimes, like today, the reverse happens. The average length of a nonfiction book is 50,000 words, with some books falling at around 3540,000 words, and others running as long as 70,000. Although science fiction and some other genres have been creeping up and can now exceed 400 pages 200,000 words. Unfortunately, there is not a simple answer to that question. Amazons most sold charts rank books according to the number of copies sold and preordered through, amazon books stores, and books read through digital subscription programs once a customer has read a certain percentage roughly the length of a free reading sample. The figure was found through looking at a number of books text stats. 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. The art of the nonfiction book proposal writers relief.

Be aware that the word average means that for every book that sells 15,000, there is one that sells 5,000. 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. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Following are factors to consider when setting the retail price for your book. The range is wide open when it comes to nonfiction books in the christian world. Harry potter and the deathly hallows 198,000 words. The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 words. That means 75,000 words equals 300 pages, which is just about perfect for a first novel. There are a few book word count guidelines for each genre, but these arent hard and fast rules. A word count that is much higher than the average range tells the agent or editor your work probably needs to be tightened. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. Font size is the most crucial factor in typesetting a book, but it can be tricky to get it just right.

And for every book that sells 20,000, there is one that is a disaster. You want 50,000 to 85,000 words for a fulllength selfhelp book, half that for a selfpublished ebook. Heres how pavita singh of pavedita in palo alto, california, breaks down costs for editing services based on word count and type of editing copy editing or line editing per 100 words. Selecting the right one for your book one of the decisions you have as an independent publisher, taking the real selfpublishing path is what book size youll have. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. How to set the retail price for your nonfiction book. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Her picture book nine months, illustrated by caldecott honoree jason chin, released in. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. 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.

That means your manuscript must be at least 35 40,000 words long. How many words should be in an adult nonfiction book. In other words, get famous first and break the rules later. 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. 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. 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. One plastic bag, water is water, and i am farmer were all named junior library guild selections and her book whose hands are these. Book writing and publishing faq how long should my. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing stack. When you read a book that has highquality typesetting, you probably wont even notice it.

If your manuscript is on the short side, make this clear when pitching to a publisher. What is noticeable, however, it that short read ebooks are very popular. According to chuck sambuchino see below for word count. However, the reason is simple the publisher usually determines the word count that they want for a nonfiction book. Once youve finished a draft of your book, the natural next step is to look for a book editor. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. The length of your book will depend on a number of considerations. On average, one doublespaced page has 250300 words.

Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different. 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. Harry potter and the halfblood prince 168,000 words. Technically, in fiction, most publishers and awards consider anything over 40,000 words to be a novel, but many publishers wont. Go out and find similar books to the one you want to write and figure out how many words are in the book. So if you write a 35,000 word manuscript, your formatted book will likely be around 140 pages. By 2017, however, that number has dropped to 273 pages. As an interesting side note, amazons text stats show that the average length of all books on amazon is about 64,000 words. Know your content, know your mainline pitch and some. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000word range. 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. The typical books wordsperpage count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250.

Loves abiding joy 2003 by janette oke, aimed at a younger audience perhaps, is half that length at 65,668 words. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. As a publisher who has laid out dozens of books for printinga 50,000 word manuscript should end up somewhere between 180 and 220 pages. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. For writers and readers alike, its sometimes hard to tell the difference between fiction and nonfiction. Dont decide to write a short book and then take a year to complete and publish it. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. That said, the average adult novel is 100,000, and most publishers for most categories want novels ranging from 80120,000 but some categories run shorter. Long book length at the other end of the spectrum a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words has significant heft, 320400 pages. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words.

But i also know of others who have sold over 500,000 copies. And of course, if youre in need of book editing, youll wonder how much it will cost. Rick warrens first big publishing success, the purpose driven church 1995 was composed of 103,208 words. Sketch out your outline, make sure your structure works, and then start coming up with more clever titles for the chapters and parts, if you use those. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales, but also cause fewer 5star. The first alone has sold more than 120 million copies, and the rest have sold at least 65 million each. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. Miranda paul is an awardwinning author of more than a dozen fiction and nonfiction books for children. One of my biggest problems as a publisher is having authors deliver more than was agreed to. Typically we find that groups of books naturally after 100 pages. The difference between fiction and nonfiction book riot. Less than 100 pages and it becomes difficult for a printer to print the title of the book on the spine. You can use this guideline to help you set a realistic goal for word count, based on the average word counts of the different. 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.

In any event, i struggle to accept that 2500 words can be called a book in any form. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. Choosing the font size for your book typography tips. What is the ideal word count for a nonfiction book in the. Over that size is the territory of the academic or technical business book.

The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about. Memoirs seem to fall within the same range as novels for their age group. Still unsure of how long to make your nonfiction book. Its important to know what to include in a nonfiction book proposal. There is no single formula for calculating the price of a book because there are many considerations. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. How to finally write your nonfiction book the new york times. A typical popular business book runs 25,000 to 75,000 words. This dimension is the territory of an academic enterprise or technical book.

Generally speaking, traditional publishers expect completed nonfiction book manuscripts to be between 50,000 to 75,000 words. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. Typically you will find that books groups naturally after about 100 pages. The size of the book is referred to as the trim size. Setting the retail price for your book shouldnt be an arbitrary decision.

A check of some of the bestseller lists on kindle reveals. A type of popular business book runs from 25,000 to 75,000 words. Ive written many posts about how to write a short nonfiction book, and to do so fast. The average salary for one book varies based on your route to publication. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near. Even a 5000 words essay, at a little over 20 pages, is only slightly longer than an online article or blog post. 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. It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. Right now, when it comes to novellength word count, its all about 90,000 words. 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. I know of an author with a very large publisher whose novel has sold only 1,087 copies in its lifetime.

Harry potter and the chamber of secrets 85,000 words. The most important thing here is to realize that there are always exceptions to these rules. In other words, how long should a nonfiction book be. And man, people love to point out exceptionsand they always will. By fiction standards that is considered very short novella size in fact. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. As a nonfiction writer myself, i know this is tough. A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words.

Virtually every book i try to shop by a debut author thats any longer than thatregardless of categoryreceives the same response from editors. Good typesetting will make the book more legible, easyontheeye and be superbly suited to the genre and context of the book. And dont forget to calculate what your word count will be. In general, the nonfiction book proposal is designed to give editors a wellorganized, detailed sales pitch describing what your proposed book is about and how it. Many aspiring authors assume that getting started means cranking out tens of thousands of words before you approach an agent or publisher, but. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. The 1 thing you need to do to write a new york times. The publisher determines this number by weighing production costs against projected sales numbers. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. In 2011, the average length of a bestselling nonfiction book was 467 pages, but.