Average book length in pages

The page count is 32 or 40 pages with a word count of under 1,500. However, many authors, frustrated with the low price of ebooks, have taken to writing ebooks that are between 40,000 and 50,000. You shouldnt set manuscript guidelines for yourself on chapter length. As you can see, a smaller trim size will produce more pages for the same word count, and a larger trim size will produce less. Word count and book length by maeve maddox 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. The graph shows the average length of the top 100 bestsellers in each of the 30 main amazon kindle categories, measured in terms of the number of pages. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. If the content is stepbystep and high quality, 15 pages is enough for a 99 cent kindle book or a freebie used for lead generation. The ideal book length depends not only on your content, but on. Long book length at the other end of the spectrum a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words has significant heft, 320400 pages. If the average length is 300 pages, youre looking at a 75,000 word manuscript approximately one reason its harder for a new author to sell a 140,000 word manuscript is the size of the book. While 50,000 words is a fairly firm minimum, plenty of ya books reach up to 100,000 words, with a sweet spot at 75,00080,000.

Eye of the world was one of the more normally distributed book in terms of chapter wordcount, which essentially means it had a mostcommon chapter length and a comparable number of chapters that were longer or shorter the dragon reborn was rightskewed, which means there was a heavy distribution of. Divide your total word count by 250, and thats about how many pages it would have in book form. Jul 23, 2012 of course, a printed book probably needs to be at least 100125 pages in length. 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. In the days of the typewriter, a doublespaced page with 1inch margins would hold an average of 250 words. 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. There are no hardandfast rules for the number of pages in a book. In my opinion, if your nonfiction book is fewer than about 30,000 words 120 pages. Feb 09, 2009 what is the average size of a normal book page.

Mysteries and young adult books run between 40,000 and 80,000 words. All book publishers and book designers have a standard they go by to estimate page length. We found that the median file size and number of page of a single kindle ebook is 1. You 50,000 word manuscript may be half the page length of another authors 50,000 word manuscript. On average, young adult novels usually fall around 55,000 and 70,000 words. Jun 07, 2017 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. This isnt to say that long books are no longer succeeding. However sometimes, like today, the reverse happens. For your reference, the standard book sizes in inches are. In comparison, the database gives an average length of 89,000 words for adult fiction excluding fantasy, smack in the middle of the commonlycited range of 80,000100,000. Mar 20, 2020 the average adult novel runs approximately 100,000 words while those in other categories run 80120,000 words. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. This book has 144 pages, so it contains about 28,800 words.

For adult fiction especially crime, thrillers, womens fiction, saga and romance, 100,000 words is a good benchmark to aim for. If you self pub, places such as amazon will print a book as low as 24 pages, so if your poetry is an epic poem it can be almost 1. Book pages vary on fonts, sizes, spacing, formatting, and size. Perkins agency in new york says its much easier to market a firsttime novelists book if the word count falls between 80,000 and 100,000 words, or roughly 300 doublespaced, typed pagesthe average novel length.

There are no hardandfast rules on how long or short a chapter needs to be. One of my biggest problems as a publisher is having authors deliver more than was agreed to. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. One thing to keep in mind with how many pages is words is that it depends on the text. A 40,000 to 80,000word memoir is around 150265 pages, a standard booklength for the genre. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. We took some of the most popular books of all time and estimated how long it would take the average reader to finish by multiplying word count by the average persons reading speed, 300 words per minute, which will give you an approximate gauge of how long it. 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. 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 ebook is almost as wide as the pacific. 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. If you dont know how to find your documents word count, this article shows you how.

Calculate the number of pages your images will require in addition to text, you may also include illustrations, photos, diagrams, charts, and tables in your book. If you search the internet for novel length, youll mostly receive the standard advice that a novel should fall somewhere between 80,000 and 100,000 words. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. I just finished pachinko, which is over300 pages long, and a little life, which is 800 pages long. Readers of individual genres anticipate certain book lengths, and so do publishers. Then i can compare mine to other books to see if mine is about the same size. So you could assume that since 4 pages words, 240 pages 60,000 words, which was the typical length for most mainstream and. As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. Estimate your page count book designer linda parke. This is a fairly short book, but it packs a spiritual punchand the 5 x 8 trim size is perfect to read this book sitting on the beach or on park bench. In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of 273 pages. Last year i went through a 5 book ya series average 400450 pages each in about a week but it takes me a lot longer to get through one of the books im currently read with fewer total pages because of the amount of words per page and how dense it. In 2015, the drop resumed as the average fell to 345. So whatever length you start with, be prepared for your book to be shorter by the end.

Although hir book was just under 300 pages, which is more of an industry standard, it seems. Books are steadily increasing in size, according to a survey that has. How does your book measure compare to whats succeeding in todays marketplace. A hardcover and a paperback have completely different settings. Mar 03, 2015 there are no hardandfast rules on how long or short a chapter needs to be. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king.

You can get shorter books of 24 pages, a few longer ones and board books are usually just 8. The median will be a better indicator of the most typical value here than the average as the effect of extralarge or extrasmall books is minimized. Readers tell me that they like getting lost in a book. Pages and chapters arent a great measure for length chapters can be any length, and pages vary wildly depending on font size and other formatting choices not to mention software. My thoughts on this are not very popular, but i believe the answer is what my advanced writing teacher told me about paper length and i think that extends to books and novels as well. Calculate the number of pages using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. Jan 08, 2018 this excerpt from pages 24 and 25 of book design made simple should help you estimate the length of your front and back matter. Standard offset printing places a childrens 32page picture book on a single sheet. I am writing a book on word a4, size 12 and would like to know how i can set it out to see how many pages this would equal to in a normal book. This type of book should not go more than 200 pages, so 40,000 words is probably your max. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. 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.

Using this exercise, you should end up with a good idea of book length expectations for a novel like yours. Typically, a book that is published in paperback format at a length of 300400 pages will come in between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Even the complexity of the words you use affects how many words are on a page. It should me no shorter or longer than it has to be.

But another question you should be asking is if the average kindle book size is something you should worry about. A statistical analysis of robert jordans the wheel of time. In terms of words, memoirs tend to be comparable to novels. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. But i dont like to do things halfheartedly, so here is the bigger picture of length in fiction a novel is anything over 50,000 words. Every category will have an average length, including childrens books, young adult, business books, etc.

The average kindle book size measured in page length is about three hundred pages, and the average kindle e book file size is 2. Typically books of poems with 1 page per poem are around 2530 pages long, however i have seen books that are longer than 50 poems. May 11, 2009 both length and price are clearly stated when the book is announced, and this information is one of the things that people especially librarians take into account when deciding if they will purchase the book. More recently, though, another colleague, who also wrote a noteworthy book, dismissed this worry of mine about book length as groundless. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. Less than 100 pages and it becomes difficult for a printer to print the title of the book on the spine. 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. On average, how long is a childrens book for children. The skys the limit for the maximum length, though anything over 250,000 is getting into war and peace territory. Dec 02, 2006 the average length of a childrens picture book is 32 pages, sometimes plus endpapers, sometimes including them in the 32, pasting the first and last pages down. If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me.

Zi thought less in terms of pages than word count, and suggested i work toward a goal of 100,000 words. The 57 year old reading range straddles a few different categories of books. The average length of a childrens picture book is 32 pages, sometimes plus endpapers, sometimes including them in the 32, pasting the first and last pages down. What follows is a rough guide to book length expectations in certain genres.

Sep 18, 2017 in comparison, the database gives an average length of 89,000 words for adult fiction excluding fantasy, smack in the middle of the commonlycited range of 80,000100,000. Each chapter in your book tells a ministory that forwards your overall plot. This means your book will be between 100 and 230 pages in total. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or short, perkins says. Volume 1 at 592 sim had to split them because a single volume of 1200 pages was impossible. Ford, glen book length average length of a non fiction book. Any selfhelp or motivational nonfiction book should be between 30,000 and 70,000 words.

Add screenshots or other graphics and youve got a nicesized ebook. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. 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. You can use comparable, successful books as models to determine the length you book should be. One of the questions that a new writer often asks is how long should my book be. Many of the most popular recent books are well over 270,000 words. The average kindle book size measured in page length is about three hundred pages, and the average kindle ebook file size is 2. Dec 23, 2015 the median is the average of the two middle values the 50th and 51st book size. Of course, a printed book probably needs to be at least 100125 pages in length. That means your manuscript must be at least 3540,000 words long.

Finally, ive talked in word counts here rather than pages, as the number of pages is influenced by diagrams, layout, font size and so on. If you are an author of a book or know of a books accurate wordcount, contact me. That length wouldnt fly, because you cant even start a conflict of some size and worldbuild. Oct 18, 2017 as with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules.

Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. Standard book sizes, dimension, and specifications blurb. While 50,000 words is a fairly firm minimum, plenty of ya books reach up to 100,000 words, with a. This is a lot of information at a glance, so ill distill a few salient observations. 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. This excerpt from pages 24 and 25 of book design made simple should help you estimate the length of your front and back matter. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words.

An average high fantasy would feel too long, because i want. Variations of up to 18 can occur from printer to printer to aid in binding. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. Before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length. 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 average adult novel runs approximately 100,000 words while those in other categories run 80120,000 words. Oct 10, 2016 pages and chapters arent a great measure for length chapters can be any length, and pages vary wildly depending on font size and other formatting choices not to mention software. If youre a wordy writer, you may have pages with a lot more than that. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. 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. Today, however, while the physical size of a book may still matter in a bookstore, ebooks have no dimensions.

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. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. According to amazon s great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words.