Nbook chapter word count

Getting published comments and advice for academic authors. Word count is the devil you have to love, or at the very least, respect. You have decided you want to write a book in the next year. Im 52 000 words into my first draft, and if my chapter length remains the same throughout the rest of the novel, i will land at around 110 000 words give or take of course. You wont get exact, but youre wondering whether 35k is reasonable, so you dont need exact. Basically, instead of applying a formula for word count, we apply the final format and see what results. How to increase your novels word count noveldoctor. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words. If your protagonist has just discovered something and is going. Depending on the writing genre, word count in book chapters can vary considerably. Ali, 9000 words is on the upper end of the chapter book spectrum.

The actual word count for harry potter and the sorcerers stone is 78,792 and my utility calculates 77,876. While its important that every story find its natural length, it takes time to develop an instinct as. Mgs are usually around 2545k, even longer if its a fantasy. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. If youre writing an adult fantasy novel or an epic fantasy novel like game of thrones, your word count can skew higher at 90,000 200,000 words. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. I still wasnt sure of my genre, but in my creative process, i discovered.

The length of a chapter in a novel should be less about words and pages and more about plot points. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king. Chapters give readers a stopping point without abandoning the book. Maybe it would be a beginning reader, but my cinder rabbit story seemed beyond the limited word count, and simple repetitive language and structure found in typical beginning readers. It is feasible to count the number of words in a published chapter. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Comparing the three books is so useful for setting my own chapter lengths. This is due to the audience youre reaching preferring that length. Book chapters can be quite short say 5,000 words and are rarely much more than 8,000.

Games are structured based on total word counts and chapters. Page count is determined by the publisher, not the writer. Sep 29, 2015 kid owner is about this 12 year old boy named ryan zinna. For the book hatchet, the actual word count is 41,672 and i give you. Hi, im a little confused about the word count for chapter books. For this reason, there really is no average word count within the range. Word for microsoft 365 word 2019 word 2016 word 20 word 2010 word 2007 more. When i first started in the business around 7 years ago, we looked for picture book manuscripts that were less than words. If youre writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages.

Those of you who dont care about traditional publishing can leave the room now. For nonfiction, such as a how to book the publisher expects chapters of a fairly standard length, but you will find this information in their guidelines. Normally, its enough that you count these notes but obviously a lot of notes will skew your page calculation. Also, the chapters are evenly divided into 3 titled parts.

In chapter 4, well flash back to the protagonists childhood. Thats great, but now you need to come up with a plan to make that happen thats simple enough to help you reach the goal, yet allows you to write enough to complete a book within a year. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. This of course depends on what font size, line spacing and page margins you are using, but on average a word count of 250 words will yield around half a page single spaced and a whole page double spaced when set in either times new roman or arial at a 12 point font size. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Ive been reading a 123 chapter fic and it is around 120ksome chapters were long, some were short.

From a conference, paula sadler had given out a handout that said the word. Im leaving this in the list to show that word count isnt offered for every book. Youll see that the aspirational reach for the sky stuff where the respondent knows nothing about the subject will get upvoted, whilst practical advice based on industry standards gets down voted. Most stories dont reach 200k, let alone three million. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Apr 11, 2015 nicholas sparks word count the notebook 38,520 message in a bottle 92,760 a walk to remember 49,311 the rescue 100,916 a bend in the road 93,766. Of course, word count wont matter if a story doesnt hook the target audience. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. As a result, a 100k manuscript can size up very differently on a shelf. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. Word count depends on the publishers specifications. Ive looked at articles that say literary agents wont consider a book with a word count of over 100 000, so you can see why im a little concerned. Titling your chapters is a personal preference and not mandatory. Nowadays, it is rare that an academic book is seen in an actual bookstore and, if it is, not for long.

The binding, font and paper size establish how many pages a published book will be. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. One easy and effective way to accomplish the bookinayear goal is to take the 365day book writing challenge. Sep 20, 2009 make sure that you include footnotes and endnotes if using ms word, by checking the appropriate box. Compressing a very exciting scene so you can meet your chapter word count target is also not going to do you any favors. 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. But more than word count, its content and reading difficulty that will better define what you have. This is not a post for writers who say theyre going to write a short story and actually end up writing a short story. Estimate your page count book designer linda parke. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Know your content, know your mainline pitch and some. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count.

Besides keeping your synopsis concise, make sure that the words you do use carry emotive and imaginative weight. Coyne uses the nanowrimo word count length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon. I currently write, edit, and proofread fiction novels and short stories. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. Less if youre writing a multichapter document, such as a book, that includes figures, you may want to have your figure captions prefaced with the number of the chapter the figure appears in. Heres what you need to know about this often overlooked. Jan 14, 20 hey, im writing a book and im a bit worried about the word count. Ive been researching the word countspages of ya novels to make sure im not under or over.

This explains why you sometimes find a miscellaneous or other stuff chapter made up from what would otherwise have been three or more shorter chapters. 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. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Look sometime at the different number of pages if you switch a piece between verdana and arial of the same font size. Theres no point in obsessing about word choice if your story has whole scenes and whole subplots you can axe. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. Nicholas sparks word count the notebook 38,520 message in a bottle 92,760 a walk to remember 49,311 the rescue 100,916 a bend in the road 93,766. Armed with these word counts, i now have a range of lengths that have been proven popular. Words counts of bestselling novels better novel project. The i would remove the static from counter and howmany and pass the.

The hunger games has 27 untitled chapters, and about 3700 words per chapter. If you select the portions you want to include, the word count on the status bar will show the number of words in the selection. How to write early readers, easy chapter books, and. Discover the sweet spot for your chapters word count in this post. Since opinions vary greatly, i did some research to verify the numbers in my head.

Beware of asking this kind of question of amateur forums. With fun, lighthearted, simple middle grade youll want to stay around the 20k30k word count range. Nope, this is a post for writers who set out to write a nice little 100,000word noveland find themselves at the finish line with a 200,000word behemoth on their hands. Stephen king word count 112263 274,672 bag of bones 203,3 black house 252,270 blockade billy 15,917 carrie 60,718 cell 121,931 christine 193,602 cujo 121,150 cycle of the werewolf 15,955 desperation 195,011 doctor sleep. Twilight has 24 titled chapters, or 26 if you count the preface and epilogue, and about 4580 words per chapter. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to aim for 90,000.

Search for word count totals in books word counters. There are exceptions, of course, one of them for nias press being chris hudsons beyond singapore girl, which continues to resonate and sell especially in the singaporean society it analyses but as discussed elsewhere the brutal reality for most. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. Board books are those tough little things you give to the smallest of readers. Now, i have to look for word counts that are more like 500 words or less because many editors wont even look at something thats 700 or 800 words. If the word count of twilight is disregarded, the average becomes around 88,625. Can be publisher specific, ranging from 3,000 to absolute max 5,000. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average wordsperline 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. This averages to about 22 to 23 chapters per novel, with the average chapter length around 4,280 words. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book.

Dont say after the wedding there is some trouble during the honeymoon but the honeymoon is disastrous. Given that there is additional work to do in a book chapter see 4 above this means that there is much less. Some bookstores designate these as for kids 912 but i would say readers are mostly 68. Failing to mention the word count, or committing the faux pas of stating the page count instead, will also see a quick rejection. If you wanted, you could simply use numbers to denote different chapters. The actual word count for the hunger games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 94,743 words.

Chapter books span a wide audience and reading levels vary. What is a good word count per chapter for a book geared. Well, the answer is about one half page single spaced or one page double spaced. As such, word count for picture book manuscripts are very low. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Word count, with a little help from amazon alexis grant. Manuscripts can range from about 5,000 words to about 15,000 words, max. Also, heres another list i may swipe and add in here. Kid owner is about this 12 year old boy named ryan zinna. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. What is the ideal wordcount per chapter for a novel. Free book formatting templates in ms word and indesign. Your chapter length has to work well with the overall word count of the book short chapters create an even distribution of both content and action.

On the macro level in any type of edit, but especially a wordtrimming one, you always want to start with the big picture. Well, youll put the book down when you get to the end of this chapter, you. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. Tips to write a novel based on comparing the word counts of harry potter. 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. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone has 17 chapters with titles, and about 4560 words per chapter. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and.

Many books have 40, 50 or sometimes 60 chapters, all varying in length. Oct 18, 2017 the average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. As previously discussed, there are different requirements for both fiction and. Never write a chapter longer than 4,000 words bookfox. Again, word count shouldnt come at the cost of the story. Make sure that you include footnotes and endnotes if using ms word, by checking the appropriate box. Authors have enough costs and publishing challenges to deal with already, so ive built an amazing package of book formatting templates in ms word and indesign you can download for free. For pre1980s novels, longer chapter lengths are pretty. He missed his dads funeral but got to hear his will, he was shocked to find that his dad owned the dallas cowboys. The book will be part of a trilogy, and although ive only written little over half of the entire thing, the estimated word count is looking to be nearly 300 000 words.

Quite frequently, then, such a chapter is the fastest way for new research to get out into the public domain. Writing chapter books a look at the numbers hannah holt. You have to go to a publishers website and look at their submission guidelines for such info. In chapter 2, well meet the protagonists love interest. Word counts for childrens books i received a request awhile ago to do a post on word counts for different age categories in childrens lit. All generally good advice above, but there is one exception.

Anything above 70k but less than 115k science fiction and fantasy tend to run up around 100k115k words. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. The hunger games has a word count of 99,750 and my utility calculates it at 98,916. How to create chapters in your novel ny book editors. Go play cricket or bake a souffle or save the whales. Heres what you need to know about this often overlooked genre.

While the idea of chapters in the 3,000 to 5,000 word range is a good guideline when roughing out your book s structure, it isnt a rule, and the story itself should be the primary deciding factor. Use our handy table to discover how many pages a given word count yields, single or double spaced, in times new roman or arial 12 point font. Word count is what publishers will specify, not page count. Everything else can be cleaned up in the editing phase. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. The variable counter is static, meaning it is the only one in the class so say im reading in 3 words. Hey, im writing a book and im a bit worried about the word count. In any of these books, some chapters are longer than others. Martin and harper lee keep things more evenly paced in a game of thrones and to kill a mockingbird, respectively. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. As persuasion progresses, jane austen seems to elongate hers, building them up on a crescendo. Less if youre writing a multi chapter document, such as a book, that includes figures, you may want to have your figure captions prefaced with the number of the chapter the figure appears in.

Sep 17, 2015 some years go i edited proofread and did the desktop publishing to create a 500page book filled with insights on medical marketing statistics. A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words. There are 5 templates, and each template has 5 different chapter page styles, so you can mix and match to find something perfect for your book. Jan 25, 2018 the length of a chapter in a novel should be less about words and pages and more about plot points. Author eve tells me her book came in at 95,000 words. They are very similar fonts in appearance, but you get as much as a 20% difference in the word count per page.

Count the number of tables and illustrations for each chapter and other element in your book, putting their values in column 3. Nicholas sparks word count popular novel word count. Some years go i edited proofread and did the desktop publishing to create a 500page book filled with insights on medical marketing statistics. He loves football but his mom wont let him play until a certain age. Look inside the front pages of books to get publisher addies. Chapter books are for more independent readers who are making the bridge between picture books and early readers and middle grade. While the idea of chapters in the 3,000 to 5,000word range is a good guideline when roughing out your books structure, it isnt a rule, and the story itself should be the primary deciding factor. This is a true statement if your goal is to be published through traditional methods someday. This is not a post for the writers who have trouble writing books that arent long enough.