At the kboards site for kindle readers and writers, one author shared a letter from amazon that explained. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Minimum synonyms, minimum antonyms merriamwebster thesaurus. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job.
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. Minimum definition, the least quantity or amount possible, assignable, allowable, or the like. Another interesting way to find a good chapter length i think, would be to sit down and read a book from the first chapter, for about 510 minutes, or however long you wish your chapters to be, and see how many words you have read in that amount of time. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different.
Ive mostly been writing it for a middle to high school level audience. When writing a book, is there a minimum amount of pages. Minimum threshold definition and meaning collins english. You dont want to overwrite and be forced to use a teeny font. Minimum definition is the least quantity assignable, admissible, or possible.
There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of 273 pages. This is because everyones pages are set up differently, may.
Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Such books will have a minimum length of 75,000 words but seldom exceed. And no agents or publishers would even look past that number. May 11, 2009 for a printed book, 37,000 words is definitely on the short side less than 150 pages so publishers may not be interested as pricing will be low and volumes needing to be correspondingly high. When writing a book, is there a minimum amount of pages that. Professionals in the publishing business use word count for the size of stories, because rega. Novelty books include popups, puzzles, pulltabs and other interactive features. So i would basically say it would be about 50,000 words or more. 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.
Mar 20, 2020 it becomes difficult for a printer to squeeze the title of the book on the spine if a book has less than 100 pages, and its also hard for readers to find a book that thin squeezed among larger books on the shelf of a bookstore. Apparently hemingway wrote between 500 and words a day and stephen king has claimed to write 2000 words a day. Mind you that great classic, the little prince, was such a work. Generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Aug 05, 2019 for most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Tomt controversial childrens picture book words with the. Picture story books for older children between the ages of 6 and 10 include more text with each picture. Ultimately, if they have five other books in your genre that are as good as your book. Everything you need to know about word count and book length for books and novels. Minimum fuss definition and meaning collins english dictionary. It is an industry standard that books are measured in word count rather than the number of pages.
What do you think is minimum length to selfpublish a book on. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. This is a 100% safe range for literary, mainstream, womens, romance, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror. For novels in general, the accepted word count is 7080,000 words. Amazon kindle direct publishing is reportedly planning to remove kindle books that have fewer than 2,500 words. When i was in elementary school in the early 2000s in the southern u. Also, its a good idea to state in the book s description on amazon how many pages the book contains. Found this article interesting, i write what i call short stories. Word counts not that important but average between 3000 and 10,000. Today, however, while the physical size of a book may still matter in a bookstore, ebooks have no dimensions. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. Also, sometimes customers get angry if a book is short. A bit of research into the minimum daily word counts of established writers produced little enlightenment, as it does not seem to be readily divulged information.
We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. Fuss is anxious or excited behaviour which serves no useful purpose. Whether youre formatting your book for print or an ebook, there are some pagination rules you must follow. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. For fantasy novels, you are allowed to go slightly above this limit, but unless you are an established author, i dont recommend going too far above. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. 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. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average words perline count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted then.
There were rumors in 20 that amazon had set a minimum word count of 2,500 words for a textbased ebook, which was reported by many blogs, including galleycat. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. Before we go any further, stop thinking about pages. Ive seen 5 page books on kindle and ive seen 1028 page books there. It was a childrens picture book based on recognizing words with the least amount of letters.
Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Between 80,000 and 89,999 words is a good range you should be aiming for. When writing a book, is there a minimum amount of pages that it should have. Content that is less than 2,500 words is often disappointing to our customers and does not provide an enjoyable reading experience. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. I dont believe, however, that the arbitrary minimum of 500 words had much.
Minimum length for ebooks on kindle warrior forum the. Instead of this being a pick me world its become a i pick myself world. 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. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. If youre working on a novel length book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to.
What is the minimum number of pages a book has to have to. Id guess that the actual average number of words in a novel was somewhere. Anything in this word count wont scare off any agent anywhere. Check out gingers spelling book and make sure you never confuse minimum and minimal again. This translates into just 20,000 to 25,000 words for a 100 page book, 30,000 to 42,500 words for a 150page book, perhaps just 40,000 words for a 200page book.
It is still not clear if amazon has a defined minimum word count for kindle ebooks. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. As with many publishing standards, word count guidelines exist for a number of reasons including marketing and sales but also to help. In the past, amazon removed all books that were less than 2,500 words from the platform except for childrens books. For example, if an author has to write a minimum or maximum amount of words for an article, essay, report, story, book, paper, you name it. Apr 26, 2017 your we are writers book must contain at least 50 chapters. Of course, the 99 cent book is your leading edgefirst in the series. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count.
Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Is there a minimum number of pages needed to be called a. Based on what ive seen of publishers requirements for submissions, these are generally in the 16 to 44 page range my estimate, not official. I am hoping to put them all in a book called tea time tales, as i think most of them could be read over a half hour break. But a nice size book runs about 300 or more pages single lined pages, so you would need over 400 pages double space for a nice size book. A threshold is an amount, level, or limit on a scale. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. Kindle publishing faq tck publishing book publisher. Oct 18, 2017 as with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. 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. Worldwide, estimates vary from a minimum of 50000 up to 150000 abortionrelated deaths per annum. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Frequently asked questions getting published meg cabot.
The best scenario is usually to have lots of short chapters. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing stack. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. Add screenshots or other graphics and youve got a nicesized ebook. Most print publishers prefer a minimum word count of around 70,000 words for a first novel, and some even hesitate for any work shorter than 80,000. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Any item with free shipping messaging on the product detail page that is fulfilled and shipped by amazon is eligible and contributes to your free shipping order minimum. This number was significantly different from the average we had seen for the estimated print length that had been given in the product details of each book s amazon sales page. Word count is something i dont think about too often until i travel to a writers conference, and then someone asks a simple, innocent question and a firestorm follows. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel.
In 2015, the drop resumed as the average fell to 345. On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. Most adult books are about 90,000 words, and no longer than 100,000 words unless. This number can vary depending on if youre writing dialogue or how short each. What is the minimum number of pages i can use for my book. This trim size is good for only 200 to 250 words per printed book page. If the book offers more complicated instructions such as for creating an origami bird or a fashionable paper doll, the word count can extend as high as 1,500 words. I would limit the book at 100,000 words to be safe.
Getting a 40,000 word novel published is not impossible, but. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. Now, speaking broadly, you can have as few as 71,000 words and as many as 109,000 words. What is the recomended wordcount for a fantasyfiction book. Books under 50 pages, particularly if they are saddle stapled or bound in some similar style, are generally referred to as chapbooks. At the other end of the spectrum a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words has significant heft, 320400 pages. Please bear in mind that books containing a small number of very long chapters may not sell enough copies to meet our minimum order requirements. The value of each scholarship can vary from a minimum of 3800 per annum to a maximum of 38000 over the duration of the course. What is the minimum number of chapters that my book can. Yet any piece of fiction climbing over the 110,000 word mark also tends to give editors some pause.
Heres our word count guide for 18 different book genres. The word count to aim for with this type of book is usually between 500 and 600 words. If youve selected black ink and white or cream paper for a book containing gray backgrounds, we recommend a minimum grayscale fill of 10%. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. But that type of book would be for childrens books.
Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures. Synonyms for amount at with free online thesaurus, antonyms, and definitions. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this is very rough run perhaps 150450 pages, and at about 350 wdpage that works out to something like 50150k 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.