These questions made us fill the need of a book page count calculator we put at the bottom of this page. Its like visual poetry without lines and stanzaz of words. Nov 30, 2012 doing 50, 000 words in 30 days a nanowrimo participant chronicles the pluses and minuses in 750 words. Imagine writing a 50, 000 word novel without using the letter e. A published author in 10,000 words or less writeraccess. It organizes almost every common word in the english language by vowel and consonant placement, and is used to help any student of speech pathology, e. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Adding 10k words translates to roughly 4050 words per page. Writing a speedy first draft without selfcensoring is still what i aim for with my books, and in todays show i discuss how it. The words with friends cheat tool provides a full list of playable, legal words from those letters, straight from the words with friends dictionary. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic.
Gadsby is a 1939 novel by ernest vincent wright written as a lipogram, which does not include words that contain the letter e. Doing 50,000 words in 30 days a nanowrimo participant chronicles the pluses and minuses in 750 words. List of 50,000 word novels the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy by douglas adams 46,333 words. And now were seeing some publishers produce book that run from 100,000 to 120,000 words. A 50,000 word count is about 100 pages singlespaced or 200 pages doublespaced. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven. Similarly, if your book is lengthy and you want to keep printing and shipping costs down, your book designer can minimize your page count by creating a design with this in mind.
For print books, a massmarket paperback runs around 300350 words per page. November is national novel writing month, a usbased initiative that sees wouldbe authors around the world pledge to complete a 50,000word work in 30 days. These are great quick reads for readers and writers. The beauty of the project is that its not about competition or selling something, but its more about expressing yourself, and sometimes making a statement. Most massmarket paperbacks are a good 80, 000 words. Thats a lot of extra words for a novel thats already working, but its not insurmountable. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Here i sit with my book at 30,000 words and it suddenly gets hard. Childrens books, however, are allowed a lower word count than comparable books for adults. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. It was created to answer all the questions you want to ask and more. Your tiredness levels suggest that youve written an epic trilogy.
Here is a partial list of wellknown novels that contain roughly 50, 000 words, which in turn is roughly 175 pages, and are thus comparable to the average size of a nanowrimo winners novel. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. When i first came into the trade around the time when sweet were singing ballroom blitz and footballers had long sideburns a lot of people wanted strange and odd books, the more outlandish the better. Feb 18, 2016 novels that are around 50,000, which is the word count goal for national novel writing month. How to write 50,000 words in a month books the guardian. If your book needs to be thicker to improve perceived value, your book designer can help in many ways.
Do you wonder how many pages a given number of words is. The word it book like others have said is both whimiscal, sometimes edgy, and above all an outlet for free creative expression. A 50,000 word book or a book of any length, for that matter isnt an easy undertaking. Besides, once you get very well known, you can always create a deluxe version of the complete book, with your 200,000 words, and nobody will complain then. You might say why do i want to torture myself with a deadline of 30 days and 50,000 words. These are great quick reads for readers and writers alike. A 20page doublespaced paper is about 5000 words, so a 20, 000. Its interesting my preedit is so high, even though, i am halfway through the first story. Im sorry to be the one to tell you this, but 20,000 words is not a novel. The perks and perils of writing a 50,000 word novel in a month. Your mileage may vary of course depending on what font you use. At a writers conference i recently attended, publishing. That said, if your book is around 40, 000 words, youre in good company. In her drunken stupor and peer pressure of her friends.
Every set of search results comes sorted by length and. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. 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. May 10, 2018 on camp nanowrimo, you can set a goal anywhere from 30 to 999,999 words, hours, lines, or pages for your project the annual write thon nanowrimo requires participants minimum of 50, 000 words be. Nov 05, 2012 people take a personal challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. A 20page doublespaced paper is about 5000 words, so a 20,000. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. However, some decide to ramp that up and try to write it in 24 hours. Heavy dialogue will mess with that, but for the most part its going to be 250 a page.
A 50,000 word count will create about 100 pages singlespaced or 200 pages doublespaced with normal margins 1. She says you need to write a million words of crap before you can produce anything original. Assuming you use the standard conventions for manuscript format 1 margins, 25 doublespaced lines per page, and a 12 point nonproportional font like courier, then a good rule of thumb is one page equals 250 words. The number of pages changes depending on the number of words, the font and the font size. If you utilize firstprinciples thinking, a 50,000 word book is the same as writing 250 words per day for 200 days. Do it for enough days in a row, and soon enough you will have written a book. In no particular order, here are some of the salient points, should you ever wish to write a book in the future. Due to wide variation between definitions, it is always a good idea to put a word count at the bottom of your product description when selling an unusuallength book. Single spaced, 3000 words yields about 6 pages, while double spacing produces around 12 pages.
If the novel is in the 50 60kword range, short for most markets outside teens then you can either submit it as is, and keep your fingers crossed that this is a book that might be a rare exception, or you can figure out a way to add enough words to it to squeak into your target markets lowend word count. Every year, i participate in national novel writing month, or nanowrimo, an online challenge for which one commits to writing a 50,000word. He asked me how many pages it is but is there an appropriate way to estimate a books size. Adults reading for pleasure typically read at about 300 words per minute. The red badge of courage by stephen crane 50,776 words. Nanowrimo changed my writing life in 2009 when i wrote the first few thousand words of what eventually became stone of fire. I magine writing a 50,000 word novel without using the letter e. Perhaps, you have reached us looking for the answer to a question like. Jun 27, 2016 nanowrimo changed my writing life in 2009 when i wrote the first few thousand words of what eventually became stone of fire. Even if you do not need for medical reason it is a gem to find tens of thousands of words to recite and learn. This type of book should not go more than 200 pages, so 40,000 words is probably your max. Your debut novel is 20,000 words long how not to self. Now, if youre using an unconventional formatting or margins you could see different results, however, with standard word processor defaults and a 12 point arial or times new roman font your output should be very similar. 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.
I told him its roughly 150,000 words, but that ill be cutting it to perhaps 120,000 by the time im done. Your mileage may vary of course based on the content you are reading. And, though on the shorter side, its definitely long enough to be considered a novel. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook.
A book much admired by the pataphysicians and oulipans esp perec and queneau who both. This book is the number one resource of my speech pathologist. That book, the secret of the nightingale palace, will be published by. Jul 28, 2018 along the way, i learned many lessons. In dictionaries, the preferred spelling is listed first among the headwords of an entry. How to write 50,000 words in 30 days, and survive to tell. On camp nanowrimo, you can set a goal anywhere from 30 to 999,999 words, hours, lines, or pages for your project the annual write thon nanowrimo requires participants minimum of 50, 000 words be. The plot revolves around the dying fictional city of branton hills, which is revitalized as a result of the efforts of protagonist john gadsby and a youth organizer though vanity published and little noticed in its time, the book has since become a favorite of. Using the size of a usual book you would be looking at around 200 300 pages. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Feb 18, 2016 novels that are around 50000, which is the word count goal for national novel writing month. Depending on your word processor and preferences the page count may vary slightly, but with typical margins and 12 point arial or times new roman font you should expect a similar number of pages. She says you need to write a million words of crap before you.
Do keep in mind that 50k words is way too short to qualify as novellength for publishers in most genres. It takes countless hours of research, writing, editing, and. A 50,000word count will take about 167 minutes to read for the average reader. As a publisher who has laid out dozens of books for printinga 50,000 word manuscript should end up somewhere between 180 and 220 pages. It is a corner stone for speech language pathologist or stutterer in professional or home stuttering therapy. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. Aug 11, 2014 youve just finished writing your book. This book has 144 pages, so it contains about 28,800 words. I plan on attaching two more stories to this project. Generally, 50, 000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70, 000 words. I magine writing a 50,000word novel without using the letter e. This type of information is very helpful to your book designer.
If i remember rightly, the industry rule of thumb for paperbacks is 250 to 300 words per page, so that word count would amount to about 170200 pages. Desk edition paperback september 1, 1986 by harry sharp author. Jk rowlings harry potter and the philosophers stone is 76,944 words and that book is only about 200 or so pages. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Based on the work of nagy and herman 1987 and a number of other scholars, our best estimate is that typical students enter kindergarten with vocabularies of 5,00010,000 words and graduate from high school with vocabularies of something like 50,000 words. Most massmarket paperbacks are a good 80,000 words. A story that is over 40, 000 words is generally considered a novel. And i mean rockandahardplace, upacreekwithoutapaddle hard. Here is a partial list of wellknown novels that contain roughly 50,000. A typical novel will normally be 60,000 to 100,000 words, with some of the larger thrillers and genre novels being much longer.
What i learned writing a 50,000 word book the writing. When you query a publisher, its customary to include your novels estimated word count. Generally, your book needs to hit the mark of 40,000 words before it can be considered a novel. This number to words converter can also be useful for foreign students of english esl who need to learn both how to write and how to pronounce the cardinal and ordinal numbers. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Writing a speedy first draft without selfcensoring is still what i aim for with my books, and in todays show i discuss how it can be done with grant faulkner. Thousand words is my first jennifer brown read and i can assure you this wont be my last.
National novel writing month challenges more than 300,000 aspiring writers to create a masterpiece in. We explain two easy methods to estimate your books page count. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. By most peoples standards, 40, 000 words would be pretty short for a novel. For example, it is said that the most perfect word count for a novel is between 8090k. This tool is useful when writing essays at university to determine how many pages you are required to write. How to write 50,000 words in 30 days, and survive to tell your story. I have repeatedly used this book for the 5 years and intend to use it for the rest of my life. Here is a partial list of wellknown novels that contain roughly 50,000 words, which in turn is roughly 175 pages, and are thus comparable to the average size of a nanowrimo winners novel see also list of published authors who write quickly for published authors who consistently write at the nanowrimo pace or faster the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy by douglas adams. Aug 05, 2019 for most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words.
The other day i was feeling pretty exasperated with myself. As ebooks became a viable business model, the rise in popularity of books in the 20,000word range opened the door for authors to publish books about topics that didnt require a full 60,000 word treatment. The average new author and book sells about 50 copies. Just as you can trim words without hurting, you can add a few back and not hurt anything. That is alright because most publishers will publish books that are 24 pages the least for black and white published books.
Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. I have almost 5,000 words lol, but i could see my book, being expanded about 20,00030,000, so my question is can i publish it once i get to 20,000finsh it. However, when you check the word count, it says 20,000 words. A fairsized genre book scifi, fantasty can be expected to run 100,000 words, easy. Sure there is, sheila the rule of thumb with most publishers is to average about 300 words per page. That might seem a rather pointless challenge but you can read just such a book gadsby by ernest vincent wright, a selfpublished story from 1939. Novels that are around 50,000, which is the word count goal for national novel writing month. If you have 50,000 words, that should be 200 pages. People take a personal challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50, 000 70, 000 words. November is national novel writing month, a usbased initiative that sees wouldbe authors around the world pledge to complete a 50, 000 word work in 30 days.
How to write 50,000 words in a month with grant faulkner. On the upper end, a novel over 110, 000 words is considered an epic. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. A trade paperback 6x9 or hardcover runs around 350400 depending on. However, this figure really varies inside the industry. All you need to do is type in your tiles and hit the search button. Pretty much, its about 250 words per page for a novel. The plot revolves around the dying fictional city of branton hills, which is revitalized as a result of the efforts of protagonist john gadsby and a youth organizer. I am working on a book of stories and i am already at 10,000 plus words. Gave it a try, and a carpel tunnel diagnosis later, i succeeded. What i learned writing a 50,000 word book the writing cooperative. Jun 03, 2010 well, the average number of words per page is 300 and with 20, 000 words, im prolly guessing that your book will have at least 66 pages.