How Many Words In A Fiction Novel

"How many words in a novel?" is a question many writers ask.

"My memoir is 270,000 words long." I heard these words during a breakout session I led at a local writers' conference.

An editor friend of mine, Shayla Eaton with Curiouser Editing, was sitting in on the breakout. Nosotros gave each other knowing glances, and because I didn't want to break this poor memoirist'south literary heart, I nodded at Shayla to take the lead. Soon later I heard someone mention the words in a novel, I held my breathe and allow the moment laissez passer.

As nicely but as directly as she could, she explained to the memoirist that a 270,000-word memoir was excessive. Fifty-fifty if she self-publishes, the cost per copy would be loftier, and few readers would slog through such a tome — peculiarly for someone who'due south non famous.

And no agents or publishers would fifty-fifty wait by that number.

The prose could be equally fleet-footed as Fitzgerald's. The life story could exist every bit compelling as Lincoln's. The platform could be as wide as Oprah'due south. But no agent would get to know that because they'd see "Memoir: 270,000 words" and striking delete earlier reading any further.

And then, what word count should a memoir be?

For that thing, how long should any book be? How many words are in a typical novel? What's the ideal book word count?

If you're writing your starting time novel or any book, you're probably request these questions.

The short respond is: long enough to tell the story but brusk plenty to consistently hold the reader'south interest.

The long answer is, well, longer.

Why does novel words count affair?

Word count matters because every book, regardless of genre, has an inherent contract with the reader. Merely that contract is dependent upon the book's genre.

For instance, when a reader picks up a thriller, they accept certain expectations of what they're about to read. That includes scenes like "the hero at the mercy of the villain," but it as well includes volume length. Because thrillers are about pulse-pounding activeness and perchance some character development (especially if information technology's part of a series), the word count isn't massive. Thrillers tend to be lxx,000 to 90,000 words.

If you're not a thriller author, I won't keep you in suspense. At the end of this article, you're going to find a guide to suggested word count length for near every popular genre.

My bespeak is that your genre will likely dictate your word count. There are exceptions, similar YA books that exceed 250,000 words , just those tend to be outliers, and commencement-time authors rarely, if ever, get to be an outlier.

Additionally, knowing your word count before you beginning writing can assistance you better programme your narrative arc likewise equally your writing schedule.

How many words in a novel?

And what'southward the average length of other types of books?

Before diving into the specifics of genre-based word counts, let'southward look at the broader picture of average book length.

For most publishers, a book is "novel-length" when it's between l,000 and 110,000 words.

At a writers briefing I recently attended, publishing veteran Jane Friedman said 80,000 words is practiced for most fiction, beneath 60,000 isn't novel length territory, and above 120,000 is likely also much.

Writer's Digest recommends 80,000 to 89,999 words as a "100% prophylactic range for literary, mainstream, women'southward, romance, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror." That'south approximately 300 pages of double-spaced type.

In " Outlining Your Volume in 3 Like shooting fish in a barrel Steps ," editor Shawn Coyne says, "The boilerplate novel today is virtually 90,000 words. Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words." But, he too mentions that " The Wizard of Oz was 40,000 words. The One-time Man and the Sea was nigh 25 to 30,000 words, tops."

Coyne uses the Nanowrimo word-count length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon.

So what does that hateful for you, author?

If you lot're working on a novel-length book, aim for l,000 words at the very least — but it's better to aim for 90,000. Editorial trimming is inevitable.

However, yous'll likewise want to accept your genre into account.

What should my book discussion count exist?

The following are average give-and-take-count ranges by genre.

General Fiction Give-and-take Counts

Flash Fiction : 300–1500 words
Short Story : 1500–30,000 words
Novellas : 30,000–l,000 words
Novels: fifty,000–110,000 words

Fiction Genres Discussion Counts

Mainstream Romance: lxx,000–100,000 words
Subgenre Romance: twoscore,000–100,000 words
Science Fiction / Fantasy: 90,000–120,000 (and sometimes 150,000) words
Historical Fiction: fourscore,000–100,000
Thrillers / Horror / Mysteries / Crime: seventy,000–90,000 words
Young Adult: 50,000–eighty,000

For a swell give-and-take on the fundamentals of fiction, and how to write a great story, check out this podcast interview.

Children's Books Word Counts

Motion picture Books: 300–800 words
Early on Readers: 200–3500 words
Chapter Books: 4000–10,000 words
Middle Class: 25,000–xl,000 words

Nonfiction Discussion Counts

Standard Nonfiction (Business, Political Science, Psychology, History, etc.): 70,000–80,000 words
Memoir: 80,000–100,000 words
Biography: eighty,000–200,000 words
How-to / Cocky-Help: 40,000–l,000 words

All of these are average book word count ranges and should non be taken equally the definitive word count you must reach in your book. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these give-and-take counts.

Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals.

Know what readers await in terms of your genre'due south give-and-take count (even if the reader isn't enlightened of their expectations when information technology comes to how long a book is).

How many words per page can you expect in a book?

This is another common question, and for most writers information technology should be piece of cake to reply by using a "word count" feature in your writing tool.

If you're writing in Microsoft Give-and-take,"word count" is an option under "Tools." Prefer something different? Here's how to find give-and-take count in Google Docs. You lot tin can also track discussion count in Scrivener.

The average unmarried-spaced document typed in 12-point font contains about 500 words per page, but that can vary pretty drastically depending on your formatting.

So, if you have an hr to write and aim to get down 300 words, you might wonder, how many pages is 300 words — and the answer is less than one! Doable, right?

If you're thinking bigger and wondering, for example, how many pages is 50,000 words, simply divide your target word count (l,000) by 500 (since that's the average words per folio). Your answer here is 100 pages.

Don't let those commas instill fearfulness. Fifty m words isn't that much divided into five days a week for a yr. That's only 193 words per writing day!

To learn more than nigh how to become from manuscript to published book, fill up out the form below and you'll receive a free copy of Published.: The Proven Path From Bare Page to ten,000 Copies Sold.

This is an updated version of a story that was previously published. We update our posts every bit often equally possible to ensure they're useful for our readers.

Source: https://thewritelife.com/how-many-words-in-a-novel/

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