Ideal word count for ebook

Much like the number of sentences in a paragraph, theres no single answer to this question. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. Book length varies according to genre, but a print nonfiction book length averages 50,000 words and commercial fiction averages 80,000 110,000 words. Jul 09, 2012 plus, youll be able to use that same 8. This article suggests that essentially, it should be as long as it needs to be, meaning dont look at the word count, just get the story out then edit.

If you are in high school i am a hs senior, i suggest using a more academic vocabulary that will make your sentences fuller. A short story has a word count of under 20,000 words though anything over 10,000 puts it into that no mans land along with novellas where its a long slog for a short story but too short for anything resembling a novel. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. If you want to write a memoir, for example, look at four or five similar memoirs and determine their wordcount. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Regardless of the font you choose for your ebook manuscript, once the file is converted to epub format, the customer will decide which font they want to read. I feel like its definitely something youll want to be aware of when deciding upon the ideal email length. Thats when sentences become runons and you lose points. When it comes to book length, shorter is usually better. This looks like a simple question, but you have to look at several factors before you can determine optimum length. A longer blog post word count could boost the performance of your seo and content marketing efforts, but the results largely depend on what you are trying to achieve with your content. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words.

With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens. How to choose the right book cover dimensions in 3 simple steps. This means that for every 1,000 pixels in width, the image should be 1,600 pixels in height. Amazon estimates a page count in an ebook to be around 187 words.

Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. How to write an ebook for a b2b audience complete guide. 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. If those writers can do that, you can write a 20,000 word ebook in a month. Will using a particular word count increase your chances of getting recipients to clickthrough to your landing page, offer, etc fortunately, theres data on that too. Never before has it been so easy for anyone to selfpublish an ebook. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be.

How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. These were to do with whether the book would be categorised as a novel or a novella or an epic or something else. Go ahead, tell your writers that 500 words arent enough and you want them to crank out. As a writer, you may find yourself pondering the question, how many words are in a paragraph. Define the problem, pain or desire this person has and let your book solve it. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. Smashwords gives a precise word count for each and every b. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count.

This isnt to say that long books are no longer succeeding. Its a valid question and something that i have researched extensively. Minimum length for ebooks on kindle warrior forum the. In 2016s list, ron chernows 816page alexander hamilton managed to crack the top spot. To ensure the best quality for your image, particularly on high definition devices, the height of the image should be at least 2,500 pixels. May 11, 2012 these were to do with whether the book would be categorised as a novel or a novella or an epic or something else. Heres how the wordcount of your book will decide what category your masterpiece falls in. Book word count is one of the first questions to ask when youre considering writing an ebook. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline. Word count matters because every book, regardless of genre, has an inherent contract with the reader.

Word count seems like a leftover from typewrited days. However, the drop in the overall average length of bestsellers over the last 7 years points to a marked. Then produce a manuscript that falls within a similar range. Here is what 187 words looks like in microsoft word.

If you plan to turn your ebook into a print book at some point, you might want to consider length. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. The right word count for content marketing kaleidico. See our separate guides for formatting a paperback in microsoft word for mac and pages for mac. Go ahead, tell your writers that 500 words arent enough and you want them to crank out 2,000 word blog posts from now on. The ideal size of your ebook cover art is a heightwidth ratio of 1. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. 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. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Line count governs length irrespective of whether the line contains one word or ten or twelve. Recently i got asked this question, what is the ideal length word count wise for my first book. But depending on the ereading device and the font size setting, it varies significantly between a phone, a tablet, or a kindle.

Its a topic that receives a lot of coverage these days. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. How to write a highquality ebook in 30 days copyblogger. Jul 23, 2012 then model your manuscript after that book. Heres how to determine the right word count for content marketing to match your marketing objectives. Word count, on the other hand, doesnt change from one device to another by more than 25 to 50 words a variance i can live with. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. If youve never given much thought to the word count of your blog posts, articles, or other digital marketing assets, now is the time to start. Organizers of ted have found that 18 minutes is the ideal length of a presentation, and so all presentersincluding bill gates and bonoare required to come in under this mark. If youre new to selfpublishing on amazon and wondering, just how much should i write for my kindle book. Check out the best methods on how to write and publish a selfhelp book. In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of 273 pages. Ebook reading creates many challenges and questions about how many words you should write in a novel.

As you can see, you need to know your word count, not the number of pages your word processor produces. The science behind this 18minute mark comes from studies of attention spans. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Ideally, youd put your ebook aside for a while before revising it but. Build your book format a paperback manuscript word for. What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book. An ebook, could be quite short3,000 wordsor as short as you can get away with. While there may be no definitive right or wrong answer to this question, there are certainly a lot. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading.

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. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Bloggers and content marketers are always wondering whats the ideal word count to shoot for. Mar 20, 2020 is there a correct length for an ebook. 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. Always plan your book length to be useful to your reader. Jul, 2017 i dont think there is a way and this is odd. A rule of thumb answer is, there are usually 100 to 200 words in a paragraph, but a more accurate answer would be it depends which isnt particularly helpful.

Some online publications get by with a few paragraphs and some images while others use thousands of. I can look at the word count and know that a 2500 word file is a quick read while a 40k word file is going to take me a day or two. For one reason or another, an agent and editor might feel this book length isnt ideal for a particular project. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. In other words, you must be scrupulous about editing every sentence for length. 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. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Oct 30, 2018 the ideal size of your ebook cover art is a heightwidth ratio of 1.

Step 4 is measure your manuscript in word count, not pages. Jul 28, 2016 using newswhip analytics, we looked at the average word count of the most engaged facebook posts from the official pages of the five biggest facebook publisher in our june 2016 ranking. Should every single piece be long form, or is it better to opt for shorter pieces. According to chuck sambuchino see below for word count.

They can be up to 180,000 words, or even over 200,000, but the novel must be wonderful and must fully justify its word count. Yet any piece of fiction climbing over the 110,000 word mark also tends to give editors some pause. When it comes to ebook fonts, your best bet is to stick to standard fonts and let your readers choose the size and style they like best. The information is specific to the 2016 version of word, but the steps are similar in most versions. Several factors go into the price of an ebook, such as author popularity, series number, and demand for the information for nonfiction.

If youre writing for a more literary audience, then the rules above apply on upper limits. Search for word count totals in books word counters. The ideal length for all online content buffer blog. However, the page count is not perfect, as some are based on a paperback version, which can be misleading. May 11, 2009 word count seems like a leftover from typewrited days. Try to give all your sections roughly the same structure and word count. 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. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. Compare word count between print and electronic books so you can plan your ebook. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. How to choose the right book cover dimensions in 3 simple. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff.

Sep 06, 2014 according to chuck sambuchino see below for word count. The perfect word count for your ebook ghost ebook writers. If i were to ask you how long your book is, and you answer that it is 225 manuscript pages, i am still not clear. Word file to print manuscripts on standard computer paper, and youll be able to convert it to an easilyprintable pdf for any readers who prefer that format. And man, people love to point out exceptionsand they always will. What most authors dont realize is that your design and trim size play key roles in determining your ideal book length, so you need to decide what look and feel your book will have.

The most important thing here is to realize that there are always exceptions to these rules. Writers are not only concerned with what words to use, but also, how many in writing conferences, creative courses and in online forums, a beginning writer will invariably ask for a clear definition of what is acceptable in any particular genre. What is the ideal word count for a nonfiction book in the. I use amazons data feeds to come up with the calculation. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is. Why word count is important content marketing agency. Aug 01, 2018 a longer blog post word count could boost the performance of your seo and content marketing efforts, but the results largely depend on what you are trying to achieve with your content. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. In this stepbystep video guide, we walk you through formatting a paperback manuscript in microsoft word. Ebook word count should also be accounted for when setting the price of an ebook. Have you ever wondered how the average ebook page length or word count differs by book genre. The only problem here is that an ebook with a few images can make an ebook appear longer. Tucker has sold over 5 million books as a 4x nyt bestselling author and is the cofounder of scribe.

Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the book. But, only make them longer if it is necessary and meaningful, not to reach a word count. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Let bookbaby handle your ebook conversion so you can worry about more important things, like writing and promoting.

However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. An ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a fulllength book. If a page is 500 words on an ipad, and 250 words on a kindle, it might be only 120 words on a phone. 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. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. In this post, id like to share some thoughts on word count considerations.