Number of words in nonfiction book

It depends on the font you are using, of course, but in general, 250300 words per page. I heard 10,000 words can be accepted as an ebook at a short length at least for nonfiction. So lets begin our calculations by focusing on word count first. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. Id go for at least 60,000 words and no more than 90,000 words for commercial nonfiction. Average word count ranges from 70,000 to 100,000 words, although biographies of major celebrities or public figures can support a higher number. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. The definitive guide to a nonfiction book marketing strategy that saves time, money, and sells more books. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Over that size is the territory of the academic or technical business book.

Jan 08, 2018 now that you know the average number of words per page in your book, you can calculate the page count with a little arithmetic. Im not sure if im pushing the word count over, been trying cut back the word count. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Harry potter and the deathly hallows 198,000 words. Below are steps that will take you through how to format a nonfiction manuscript and make it industry standard. When writing for children, its imperative that certain guidelines are followed. 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. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. But as a nonfiction book, youd want at least 40,00050,000 words. May 11, 2009 word count and book length one of my biggest problems as a publisher is having authors deliver more than was agreed to. That means your manuscript must be at least 3540,000 words long. Simply divide the total word count from your word document by the number of words per page.

Apr 05, 2015 it word count 274,407 and page count 417. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales, but also cause fewer 5star. A key issue is the fact that picture books are 32 pages storybooks. One of my biggest problems as a publisher is having authors deliver more than was agreed to. How to format a nonfiction manuscript book editing services. The most important thing here is to realize that there are always exceptions to these rules. Sep 29, 2014 he wrote, the number of ebook singles any ebook between 5,000 and 30,000 words in length published in the third quarter increased a whopping 27 percent compared to the second quarter of 20. Nov 03, 2012 i am outlining a nonfiction book that will have part one, part two, part three, and part four. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. 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.

Aug 05, 2019 for most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. The first alone has sold more than 120 million copies, and the rest have sold at least 65 million each. At the other end of the spectrum a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words has significant heft, 320400 pages. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless youre jk rowling. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Students will cut apart the letters to spell each number word included, mix the letters up, and then unscramble. 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. 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. 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. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. Longer word counts allowed for fantasy, scifi, historical.

I just finished pachinko, which is over300 pages long, and a little life, which is 800 pages long. How to write a nonfiction book stepbystep guide to show. There is no reliable data from 2012 to make a viable yeartoyear comparison. New word count guidelines for contemporary fiction and nonfiction.

At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. How to format your nonfiction manuscript barbara mcnichol. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. Shes a writer, ghostwriter, and editor specializing in nonfiction. These word counts are my personal references they are not official, and do not include back matter, which is bonus material for the reader or information geared for parents, teachers, or older readers. Still unsure of how long to make your nonfiction book. We explain two easy methods to estimate your books page count. Unfortunately, there is not a simple answer to that 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. It covers all of my core initial free marketing strategies. So 50,000 words is the minimum for a nonfiction book. What is the ideal word count for a nonfiction book in the. Karen, it depends on where you are going to publish your story.

Do you recommend the chapter numbers to continue in sequence throughout the manuscript, or number chapters in each part separately. Go out and find similar books to the one you want to write and figure out how many words. The publisher determines this number by weighing production costs against projected sales numbers. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. So should i stay with this word count, or try to bring the word count down. Find the top 100 most popular items in amazon kindle store best sellers. Boni wagnerstafford is author of one million readers.

Book writing and publishing faq how long should my. Books range from several words to several thousand compare goodnight moon to the polar express. 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. Sep 06, 2016 some of the other answers are idiosyncratic. Picture book word count, and other rules that are meant to. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different. For nonfiction books, word count guidelines are more flexible, sometimes even double the word counts listed here. More important is whether or not your book reads like a picture book succinct, musical, pictorial. The size of each chapter will depend on the number of subtopics that you need to write about. And man, people love to point out exceptionsand they always will. He wrote, the number of ebook singles any ebook between 5,000 and 30,000 words in length published in the third quarter increased a whopping 27 percent compared to the second quarter of 20. Jul 23, 2012 so 50,000 words is the minimum for a nonfiction book. We will be using amazons estimation formula, which is that there are 300350 words in a page they do take into account images as well, if your ebook has those.

You would be wise to come close to these suggested. Mar 17, 2010 karen, it depends on where you are going to publish your story. Generally speaking, traditional publishers expect completed nonfiction book manuscripts to be between 50,000 to 75,000 words. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot. How many words should be in an adult nonfiction book. Find 705 synonyms for nonfiction and other similar words that you can use instead based on 5 separate contexts from our thesaurus. Picture books that teach counting and learning numbers. Readers tell me that they like getting lost in a book. 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. How to finally write your nonfiction book the new york times.

These can be found on a publishers website or can be requested in writing. It can cover almost any topic, from wild animals to vikings. However, the reason is simple the publisher usually determines the word count that they want for a nonfiction book. By the time you finish reading this article, youll know how to write nonfiction books your ideal readers will. Many aspiring authors assume that getting started means cranking out tens of thousands of words before you approach an agent or publisher, but. When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. In all cases, you can find an author who has successfully pushed the envelope one way or another. Your 4,000 words might be a short story, but there are fewer opportunities for publication of. If your intentions are to submit your manuscript to a publisher or an agent, please check their guidelines first as they may vary. As a nonfiction writer myself, i know this is tough. Nonfiction books also vary tremendously in word count.

These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. Therefore, a 55,000 word book should be about 200 manuscript pages. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words. A nonfiction book is one that tells you facts and information about the world around you. Some nonfiction books have illustrations pictures as well as words. Short and punchy books are 40,000 to 60,000 words, but many nonfiction books are lengthy.

Sep 03, 2017 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. Your 4,000 words might be a short story, but there are fewer opportunities for publication of such stories. 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. Do not abbreviate the words pounds or ounces, feet or inches or yards, hours or minutes or seconds, or miles per hour or similar words in dialogue or narrative. A typical popular business book runs 25,000 to 75,000 words. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. I heard 10,000 words can be accepted as an e book at a short length at least for nonfiction.

Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Know your content, know your mainline pitch and some. 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. Many of the most popular recent books are well over 270,000 words.

And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. She is also cofounder of ingenium books, where she coaches nonfiction authors writing in the genres of business, selfhelp, personal development, memoir, and. This is a composite taken from a number of publishing industry websites. Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. If yes, then most publishers still work on specific word count lengths for books so youll. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing stack. A recommended wordcount might be 15002000 words but, more. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. Divide your word count by 300 and that is an estimate at the number of printed pages the book will have in physical form. Less than 100 pages and it becomes difficult for a printer to print the title of the book on the spine. Realize it over the maximum word count for erotic, science fictionfantasy genre.

According to chuck sambuchino see below for word count. In other words, how long should a nonfiction book be. A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. I conduct all my work under the philosophy that a book is only as long as it needs to be, and it does not matter if the book is fiction or nonfiction. While the stories of other peoples lives are fascinating, readers dont want to slog through anything that drags on and on. I am new at this, and want to get started correctly. The greater the word count the larger the book more sections and pages that are required to be printed upping the price of your book once it hits the shelves. One of the first challenges a writer faces is how to format a manuscript. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is. If the presidency is beginning to look like an autocracy, it is because trump has assumed the power to protect the guilty while cultivating impunity for and from friends.

The second book is the kindle formatting bible its a step by step guide for formatting books for kindle and also stepbystep instructions on uploading your book to kindle and publishing it. The best guideline you can follow is to make your book as long as it needs to be. The third book is the kindle publishing bible and this is the gold mine for marketing. If its about something that really happened or something that really exists, it is nonfiction.

This is an emergent reader to provide students with an opportunity to learn their number words zeroten in a handson way. Harry potter and the halfblood prince 168,000 words. Integrate reading and math skills with the numbers series of books that build number sense through number words, engaging illustrations of quantities, and hidden numerals to find. Guidelines for writing childrens books pen and the pad. Each book in this themed nonfiction series focuses on one number in patterned text for level aa readers. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near 200,000 words. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline.