Is 40000 words enough for a book

Commercial fiction including womens fiction, crime fiction, fantasy etc 90120,000 words. If you know how long the book is, you can divide it into eighths to find the perfect timing for all your major turning points. Most editors wouldnt recommend going over 80,000, as it will inspire bad taste among readers. The number of pages it translates to depends on the formatting. If they typed 300 double spaced pages, is that enough to match their. If you were to participate in national novel writing month, then you are expected to write at least 50,000 words in order to have a book. In terms of adult mainstream fiction, that length would be considered a novella. 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. Are 46,000 words enough for a very efficient novel. How long should a book on kindle be based on words. Each manuscript should be long enough to adequately tell its story. You might find your story strengthening as the excess words drop off. The other part of the equation is 40,000 words means youre going to have a lot of white space on the page or a 48 point font to use enough pages for a book. A good example is the wonderful little personalspiritual guide, the four agreements, by don miguel ruiz, which averages about 10 words per line x 20 lines per page 200 words per page.

Is a story of 50,000 words sufficient to be published. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Or theyre hoping ill tell them that 40,000 is plenty long enough for a novel. Liquid glass by zathyn priest, the night caller by clancy nacht, the ghost on my couch by l. Mar 17, 2010 the length of novellas is said to range between 10,000 and 70,000 words.

You can easily calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. Youll discover if you end up printing your book print on demand the way of the future that a single book is expensive. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. But, he also mentions that the wizard of oz was 40,000 words. For much of the 20th century, novels averaged 75,000 to 80,000 words, making a book of fewer than 250 pages and sometimes barely 200. Horror is much like mystery in the sense that you dont want to drag these novels on too long. If you look at the national novel writing month, the specification for a book is that its at least 50,000 words, and the idea there is that youre going to write enough during the month of november to have a 50,000plus word manuscript at the end of the month. Apr 07, 2012 story length has come up a lot recently, both with readers of the editors blog and with clients so, lets look a bit at story length. They further break down a short story less than 7,500 words, novelette 7,50017,500 words and novella 17,50040,000 words to describe their nebula award categories. When talking about book length, its common to talk about word count. A 40,000 to 80,000word memoir is around 150265 pages, a standard booklength for the genre. On excellent editorial advice, i cut my novel lycopolis down from 5,000 words to 85,000 it was a much better novel for it. That means your manuscript must be at least 3540,000 words long. The rule of thumb for length of a novel is 60,000 words, approximately, so youre right there.

Perhaps you dont have enough content to create the standard nonfiction book at 80,000 words. I dont mind a publisher, agent or even a writer giving us his opinion of what word count makes a book, but to try to pass it off as definitive is more than arrogant. What it should cause is that you write a novellike story rather than a novellastory. In theory, your book should be as long or short as it needs to be in order for you to tell your story. However, i suggest you ask yourself a few questions, which might affect the length going forward. Think 7,000 20,000 words per book that all focus on different aspects of a unique story world that you create.

Rich olsonchildrens book illustrator this is a good breakdown of the childrens book categories. If so, you might give yourself a goal of writing a 96 to 128page book in the 6 x 9 format, thus only about 30,000 to 40,000 words. Why modern novelists need to watch their weight books. Aug 11, 2014 youve just finished writing your book. We explain two easy methods to estimate your books page count. Longer than 40,000 is generally considered a short novel. Even if you do not need for medical reason it is a gem to find tens of thousands of words to recite and learn. Fantasy novels are usually on the longer side think harry potter and eragon etc. This is a story that is between 10,000 and 40,000 words. I currently have a 26,000 would book definitely need an editor i was told i only needed 40,000 words and now that has changed a need about 55,000 i had the whole ending planned out drawn out and now i need to add an extra 15,000 words to that might just go into self publishing that way i can have it published either way.

Last year a twitter follower brought to my attention a post called how i went from writing 2000 words to 10,000 words a day by the fiction writer rachel aaron. The length of novellas is said to range between 10,000 and 70,000 words. They want books that look thick enough to be worth reading but thin enough that. It has been prepared for communication disorder specialists, speechlanguage pathologists, teachers in special education and esl, regular classroom teachers, students, parents, and professionals dedicated to the task of improving communication skills. 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. Novellas are stories about a single event and its immediate outcomes. I dont mind buying a short story or a novella if i know thats what im getting, but a book shouldnt be less than 100 pages or 40,000 words. Your debut novel is 20,000 words long how not to self. Sep 20, 2019 for example, agatha christie, one of the bestselling mystery writers of all time, write between 40,000 and 60,000 words per book. 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 46,333 words. Its the perfect reference to reach for when i need to come up with words targeting certain sounds in specific positions of words as well as number of syllables.

The shortest that routinely gets contracted is the category romance, which runs about 55,000 words. And now were seeing some publishers produce book that run from 100,000 to 120,000 words. If you picked up a scifi or historical novel from a bookshelf, you wouldnt be surprised if it was pretty hefty and probably had a dragon on the cover. If the novel is in the 5060kword 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. One of the better novels, or novellas, is john steinbecks the pearl, and also of mice and men are both short and flirting around. A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words. Your tiredness levels suggest that youve written an epic trilogy.

Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category. Theres an author who is doing well on kindle by writing a series of short stories, which is a great idea. With digital as well as print books available, the length of books varies. Take time to develop a good story with some meat on its bones. Every once in a while, i get to do both at the same time. So, do this for some books in your field, find one that matches the same depth and detail that you want to attain for your book, and give yourself an estimate based on that. I had given the requisite notes and used a book they had read as a master text. How to calculate your books length before writing helping. All of these are average book word count ranges and should not be taken as the definitive word count you must reach in your book. An approximate word count round numbers based on what your wp tells you enables them to estimate costs and other factors involved in printing a book. A books word count does matter and if you get it wrong, this.

A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Well explain two easy methods to calculate book page count. Im sorry to be the one to tell you this, but 20,000 words is not a novel. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel. This is useful for all writers to make sure they are hitting their appropriate market. Jan 08, 2018 wondering how many word pages equal a book page. For the larger, 6 x 9 trim size, would be about 300 words per page.

A manuscript over 40,000 words is considered to be a novel. Jun 07, 2017 in my opinion, if your nonfiction book is fewer than about 30,000 words 120 pages, it does not feel substantial enough to be real book. This type of book should not go more than 200 pages, so 40,000 words is probably your max. At the other end of the spectrum a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words has significant heft, 320400 pages. When it dips below 80k, it might be perceived as too shortnot giving the reader enough. Heres our word count guide for 18 different book genres. You might be more surprised if a ya novel required olympianlevel arm strength to lift. Likely fixed in this edition, the only word i routinely not included in the 1965 edition was penicillin. A 2,000 word book doesnt bring enough story value to the table. I find a nice book length is somewhere in the 40,000 to 70,000word. If you have a 400page book, youre cutting into your profits to keep your price point low. Its about setting expectations and delivering value for money, and too many people are charging book prices for short fiction. Feb 18, 2012 why modern novelists need to watch their weight. Childrens books, however, are allowed a lower word count than comparable books for adults.

Writing too many words in your novel is just as embarrassing as not writing enough. This is still respectable, if your content feels new and your writing is impressive. Publishers want to know the overall length of your book. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words.

Dont compose your novel with skinny margins, singlespacing and some offthewall font and then make formatting changes when youre ready to market the completed manuscript. Jul 04, 2019 or theyre hoping ill tell them that 40,000 is plenty long enough for a novel. Why modern novelists need to watch their weight books the. Short stories are generally 8000 words anything under words is generally considered flash fiction novella 10,00040,000 words. This shouldnt keep you from presenting queries to agents. Price is up to you, and youll find out fast enough if youre over or underpricing, but as a reader if i bought something labeled a novel and got 40,000 words, id be angry and feel cheated. I have repeatedly used this book for the 5 years and intend to use it for the rest of my life. Historical romances at harlequin will run to 75,000 words, but everywhere else theyre longer. Meanwhile picking the book next to it on the shelf, clash of the sky galleons has roughly 250 words a page, which would bring your total up to around 160 pages. However, when you check the word count, it says 20,000 words. These books are generally heftier in general, so for a 150page book you can target 45,000 words and 60,000 words for a 200page book. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. For a typical paperback format, it might be around or 140 pages.

The most common rule for a memoir is that it should not go more than 80,000 words. Would 40,000 words be considered a full novel worth 2. 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. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. How to write 10,000 words a day the thesis whisperer. Oct 10, 2016 the right answer to how long should my book be. The typical books words perpage count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. You havent shared any details, so i dont know the ge.

This book has 144 pages, so it contains about 28,800 words. Sep 26, 2016 novels that top 100,000 words often have more words than they need. Easygoing, fairly light, userfriendly, nonfiction book for the masses. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words.

Jan 16, 2015 one of the most popular posts on the thesis whisperer is how to write words a day and not go bat shit crazy. This type of book should not go more than 200 pages, so 40,000 words is probably. As a reader youd also only fool me once with something that wasnt a complete story on its own. And yet you want to keep the price point competitive to, well, compete.

If you dont know how to find your documents word count, this article shows you how. I was teaching summary skills to one of my classes. This book is a staple to my practice as a speechlanguage pathologist slp. Quickly flip open the 20,000 words book, however, and the quick division of words into syllables syllable has you scanning quickly within sections of the book. Its not about how many words are in your novel or novella. One of the most popular posts on the thesis whisperer is how to write words a day and not go bat shit crazy. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. The amount of pages depends on what word font your using.

Most standalone novels run between 80,000 and 95,000 words. There are good word count guidelines online and usually id recommend 610,000 words for a chapter book, 4060,000 words for middle grade and 5070,000 words for ya. This is not an uncommon length in traditional publishing, especially in my observation for nonfiction books that are heavy on research. For that group, a novel is more than 40k words, a novella is 17. It is an industry standard that books are measured in word count rather than the. A young adult novel will run between 20,000 and 40,000 words.

Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. The giver by lois lowry 43,617 words speak by laurie halse anderson 46,591 words a separate peace by john knowles 56,787 words fahrenheit 451 by ray bradbury 46,118 words interestingly, brave new world, the novel famed to be the one chris baty used to choose the 50,000word goal in no plot. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. The short answer to the question about the length of a story is to say every story should be as long as it needs to be.

Story length has come up a lot recently, both with readers of the editors blog and with clients so, lets look a bit at story length. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. Last year a twitter follower brought to my attention a post called how i went from writing 2000 words to 10,000 words a day by the fiction writer rachel aaron i did a double take. It is a corner stone for speech language pathologist or stutterer in professional or home stuttering therapy. 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. Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words.