JUMP AHEAD:
Why Does Word Count Matter?
When I started writing, words were something I had in abundance, something to spend at my leisure willy-nilly. 10 000 words from the count by words end I founded I needed those words bad. Now I needed them back. I lived in a pleasant denial for a few days, and then I had to face the truth: my plot exceeded my allotted word count. No matter how much fluff and stuffing I deleted, I could never finish my book in my internet research alotted 75 000 words. My protagonist was still stuck in another world. She wasn't closing in on the middle, let alone the end. And that's why word count is so important. Among other reasons...
Publishers. That's why book length and word count matters. And readers, but publishers follow where readers lead.
If you are planning to self-publish, you can pretty much do whatever you want, but if you are a publishing house hopeful, then you will need to toe the industry line. With the level of competition, there is out there, you don't want to give publishers a reason to bin your manuscript.
If you are going to self-publish… you might still want to pay attention to the word count guidelines. Traditionally publishers don't make up these guidelines. They follow them because they work.
Why Word Count Instead Of Number Of Pages?
Your everyday reader doesn't work in word count; they work in pages. Writers use word count because it's easier. It's more specific and reliable, providing us with a clearer idea of where we are in our plot. Publishers also (mostly) expect to be supplied with a word count instead of a page count. Although they might ask for both.
Now that my book is finished, the 80% mark is the same whether I look at word count or page count, but that wasn't always the case, particularly in the earlier days. Sometimes I would change fonts or put a whole section in bold because it needed to be revisited. Occasionally I would change my page settings to A5 just to make it feel more like a book. Some writers are more descriptive, making each page more word-heavy. Others prefer dialogue, making the word count per page shorter.
Page counts are easily manipulated, whether by accident or on purpose.
Elements That Can Effect Page Count But Not Word Count:
Size of your margins
Page size (A5, A4 etc)
Font type (Arial, Times New Roman, etc.)
Font size (11, 12, 36)
Font style (italics, bold, etc.)
Formatting—dialogue is likely to take up less space than exposition or descriptive writing, while indents take up more
How Many Words Equal How Many Pages
A general rule of thumb:
Double-spaced A4 manuscript page: 250-300 words
Single spaced a4 manuscript page: +- 500 words
Can A Book Be Too Long?
Personally, the longer the book, the happier I am. I avoid short stories because while many are good, they aren't something I can get stuck into. But not everyone feels the same way as me.
A book that is too long may be indicative of fluff or filler content. Boring content that nobody wants to read and doesn't contribute to the overall story.
Read expectation: Readers expect genres to adhere to specific lengths. Nobody wants a fluffy romance to go on and on and on. They don't want a fantasy epic without any meat on its bones.
Longer books mean more pages, and more pages mean higher printing costs.
The visual of it all: if you are planning on printing your book, you have to think of the length in terms of readability. A tomb of a book will be challenging to cart on holiday or read with one hand over the breakfast bowl.
Can A Book Be Too Short?
Yes. They all are.
Reader expectation: If you publish a short book, it is extremely important that you market it as such. Some authors will even include 'novella' or 'short story' in brackets next to their ebook title. Nothing is more dire than disappointing an audience who bought your book expecting a good long read-only to be hit with a short read. It's setting them up for disappointment. Bookstores don't have to contend with this issue in the same way. There is a physical book for the buyer to see before the purchase.
Ebook sample sizes are a pet peeve of mine. Kindle sample sizes default to 10%. If your book is 3000 words, that leaves me with a lowly 300 words. Weak. Weak sauce. A 40 000 word book would give me 4000, even if that is only 13 pages. Including table content, the inevitable dedication, and all the copyright and publisher legwork, I won't have much to work with.
It's not official, but anything less than 50 000 words is generally termed a short story or a novella. Even if your story is wonderfully written with a satisfying plot and all those good things, calling it a book might be misleading and will likely annoy your readers.
Skinny books might not do as well on bookshelves: Obviously, thin books are literally harder to spot on bookshelves, a potential buyer might skim over your hard work alltogether.
Value for money: People like the feeling that they are getting value for money. A book, whether it is short or long, needs a cover design, which can be expensive. That along with barcodes and all the other extras don't get cheaper because the book is skinny. A short book might also need higher quality paper or a hardcover to prevent them from bending in on themselves. The cover design price won't be impacted by fewer pages slapped in the middle, keeping the base price pretty high even if you have fewer words on paper to pay for.
Book Word Counts By Genre
I found a lot of contradicting advice regarding word counts. In the end I decided to average out the information provided by blogs such as: Weekend Publisher, Author Learning Center, Self Publishing School, Master Class, Reader’s Digest, ProWritingAid, and Reedsy.
What’s The General Word Count For A Book?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: 80 000 – 90 000
Self Publishing School: none supplied
Master Class: 80 000 - 100 000
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: 50 000 - 110 000
Reedsy: 70 000 - 100 000
Average Word Count For Books: 70 000 - 100 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Short Stories?
Weekend Publisher: 1500 - 10 000
Author Learning Center: none supplied
Self Publishing School: 5000 - 10 000
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: none supplied
Reedsy: under 7 500
Short Stories Average Word Count: 2000 - 9200 words*
*This one was a bit weird because of the 'under 7 500 words' from Reedsy. Does that make a word count of zero a short story? Who knows.
What’s The Word Count For Novelleta’s?
Weekend Publisher: 7500 - 20 000
Author Learning Center: none supplied
Self Publishing School: 7 500 - 17 000
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: none supplied
Reedsy: 7 500 - 17 500
Novelletas Average Word Count: 7 500 - 18 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Novellas?
Weekend Publisher: 30 000 - 50 000
Author Learning Center: none supplied
Self Publishing School: 10 000 - 40 000
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: none supplied
Reedsy: 17 500 - 40 000
Novellas Average Word Count: 19 000 - 43 000
What’s The Word Count For Romance?
Weekend Publisher: 90 000
Author Learning Center: 80 000 - 100 000
Self Publishing School: 50 000 - 90 000
Master Class: 50 000 - 100 000
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: 50 000 – 100 000
Reedsy: 80 000 - 100 000
Romance Average Word Count: 67 000 - 97 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: 70 000 - 110 000
Self Publishing School: 40 000 - 80 000
Master Class: 70 000 - 90 000
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: 70 000 – 90 000
Reedsy: 75 000 - 100 000
Mystery, Thriller, and Suspense Average Word Count: 65 000 - 98 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Action and Adventure?
Weekend Publisher: 96 000
Author Learning Center: none supplied
Self Publishing School: none supplied
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: none supplied
Reedsy: none supplied
Action and Adventure Average Word Count: 96 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Science Fiction?
Weekend Publisher: 98 000
Author Learning Center: 90 000 - 125 000
Self Publishing School: 50 000 - 150 000
Master Class: 90 000 - 120 000
Reader’s Digest: 100 000 - 115 000
ProWritingAid: 90 000 – 120 000
Reedsy: 100 000 - 115 000
Science Fiction Average Word Count: 74 000 - 106 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Horror?
Weekend Publisher: 102 000
Author Learning Center: none supplied
Self Publishing School: 40 000 - 80 000
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: 70 000 – 90 000
Reedsy: none supplied
Horror Average Word Count: 71 000 - 91 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Fantasy?
Weekend Publisher: 109 000
Author Learning Center: 90 000 - 125 000
Self Publishing School: 50 000 - 150 000
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: 100 000 - 115 000
ProWritingAid: 90 000 – 120 000
Reedsy: 100 000 - 115 000
Fantasy Average Word Count: 90 000 - 122 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Historical Fiction?
Weekend Publisher: 102 000
Author Learning Center: 80 000 - 120 000
Self Publishing School: none supplied
Master Class: 10 0000
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: 80 000 - 100 000
Reedsy: none supplied
Historical Fiction Average Word Count: 90 000 - 100 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Contemporary Fiction?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: none supplied
Self Publishing School: 60 000 - 90 000
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: none supplied
Reedsy: none supplied
Contemporary Fiction Average Word Count: 60 000 - 90 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Dystopian?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: none supplied
Self Publishing School: 60 000 - 120 000
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: none supplied
Reedsy: none supplied
Dystopian Average Word Count: 60 000 - 120 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Literary and Commercial Fiction?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: 80 000 - 110 000
Self Publishing School: none supplied
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: none supplied
Reedsy: 80 000 - 110 000
Literary and Commercial Fiction Average Word Count: 80 000 - 110 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Standard Nonfiction?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: 50 000 - 80 000
Self Publishing School: none supplied
Master Class: 80 000 - 90 000
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: none supplied
Reedsy: none supplied
Standard Nonfiction Average Word Count: 65 000 - 85 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Self-help/How-to?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: 40 000 – 50 000
Self Publishing School: 30 000 – 70 000
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: 40 000 – 50 000
Reedsy: none supplied
Self-help/ How-to Average Word Count: 37 000 – 57 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Memoirs?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: 80 000 - 100 000
Self Publishing School: 45 000 - 80 000
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: 80 000 - 89 999
ProWritingAid: 80 000 – 100 000
Reedsy: 80 000 – 90 000
Memoir Average Book Word Count: 73 000 – 81 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Young Adult?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: 45 000 – 80 000
Self Publishing School: 60 000 – 90 000
Master Class: 40 000 – 80 000
Reader’s Digest: 55 000 -79 000
ProWritingAid: 50 000 – 80 000
Reedsy: 55 000 – 70 000
YA Average Book Word Count: 51 000 - 80 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Middle Grade?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: 20 000 - 50 000
Self Publishing School: 20 000 - 55 000
Master Class: 20 000 - 50 000
Reader’s Digest: 20 000 - 55 000
ProWritingAid: 25 000 – 40 000
Reedsy: 20 000 - 55 000
Middle Grade Average Word Count: 21 000 - 51 000 words
What’s The Word Count For Early Readers?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: 200 – 3500
Self Publishing School: none supplied
Master Class: none supplied
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: none supplied
Reedsy: none supplied
Early Readers Average Word Count: 200 - 3500 words
What’s The Word Count For Picture Books?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: 400 - 700
Self Publishing School: none supplied
Master Class: 500 - 600
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: none supplied
Reedsy: none supplied
Picture Books Average Word Count: 500 - 600 words
What’s The Word Count For Children’s Books?
Weekend Publisher: none supplied
Author Learning Center: none supplied
Self Publishing School: none supplied
Master Class: 1000 – 10 000
Reader’s Digest: none supplied
ProWritingAid: none supplied
Reedsy: none supplied
Children's Books Average Word Count: 1000 – 10 000 words
Summary Of Word Counts Per Genre
General Average: 70 000 - 100 000 words
Short Stories:* 2000 - 9200 words* Novelleta’s: 7 500 - 18 000 words
Novella's: 19 000 - 43 000
Romance: 67 000 - 97 000 words
Mystery, Thriller, Suspense: 65 000 - 98 000 words
Action, Adventure: 96 000 words
Science Fiction: 74 000 - 106 000 words
Horror: 71 000 - 91 000 words
Fantasy: 90 000 - 122 000 words
Historical Fiction: 90 000 - 100 000 words
Contemporary Fiction: 60 000 - 90 000 words
Dystopian: 60 000 - 120 000 words
Literary and Commercial Fiction: 80 000 - 110 000 words
Standard Nonfiction: 65 000 - 85 000 words
Self-help/How-to: 37 000 – 57 000 words
Memoirs: 73 000 – 81 000 words
Young Adult: 51 000 - 80 000 words
Middle Grade: 21 000 - 51 000 words
Early Reader’s: 200 - 3500 words
Picture Books: 500 - 600 words
Children’s Books: 1000 – 10 000 words
*Short Stories was a bit weird because of the 'under 7 500 words' from Reedsy. It made averaging difficult. I used a 0 to 7500 word count, which doesn’t make much sense.
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