Non-fiction book length words

Generally speaking, traditional publishers expect completed nonfiction book manuscripts to be between 50,000 to 75,000 words. This means your book will be between 100 and 230 pages in total. If yes, then most publishers still work on specific word count lengths for books so youll probably be aiming for around 60,00080,000 words for nonfiction. That includes scenes like the hero at the mercy of the villain, but it also includes book length.

Look at the books that sell well, and are in competition with yours. 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. Oct 27, 2018 chapter length matters more than you think. Writing for children age categories determine the guidelines for your childrens book at suite 101. So, if you dont have to follow protocol, why would you put restrictions on yourself and make it harder than it already is. For fiction, i recommend 5,000 words or more for short stories. I guess 50,000 is a short novel and some early novels before goes as low as 40,000 which can be considered to be a novella.

This is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. By 2017, however, that number has dropped to 273 pages. When youre pitching a nonfiction book to a publisher, just about everything is different. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. In 2011, the average length of a bestselling nonfiction book was 467 pages, but that dropped to 273 pages in 2017.

I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. That means your manuscript must be at least 3540,000 words long. When talking about book length, its common to talk about word count rather than page count. I heard 10,000 words can be accepted as an ebook at a short length at least for nonfiction. The figure was found through looking at a number of books text stats, until brave new worlds 64,531 word count landed in the exact center of all books50% of books have fewer words and 50% of books have more words. I noticed way too many non fiction kindle books around 3040 pages. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a non fiction book. Harry potter and the deathly hallows 198,000 words. T he indie author chris fox coined the term potato chip chapters for easilydigestible book chapters of a certain size.

In the publishing industry, 250 words is considered a printed page of text. So supposing that the average nonfiction probably nonbiography book length is 50,000 words, and the average narrator reads at 9,300 words per hour, the average nonfiction audiobook is 5. The reason for this is related to the pricing of a print run. Long book length at the other end of the spectrum a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words has significant heft, 320400 pages. The length of your book will depend on a number of considerations. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. That means 75,000 words equals 300 pages, which is just about perfect for a first novel. He said that would be a long shot because its too short. Available in ebook, print, audiobook and workbook formats. 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. The graph shows the average length of the top 100 bestsellers in each of the 30 main amazon kindle categories, measured in terms of the number of.

If you analyse the contents of a typical bookshelf in an academic library, you will notice that many of the books are between 272 and 320 pages in length. Yet any piece of fiction climbing over the 110,000 word mark also tends to give editors. May 11, 2009 i was am in similar situation for my book, its like to end up between 40k and 60k words, depending on what i include in the first book non fiction mindset and awareness for salespeople i hadnt really considered approaching a publisher, given the popularity of self publishing, do you think it short sighted not to even consider a. T he indie author chris fox coined the term potato chip chapters for easilydigestible book chapters of. A typical popular business book runs 25,000 to 75,000 words.

The book length on kindle is rather useless since you dont get a real book length. Nonfiction novel definition is a booklength factual narrative written in the style of a novel. In non fiction the acceptable length of an academic dissertation varies greatly, dependent predominantly on the subject. As a fulltime nonfiction author of 14 books, im always interested in reading other writers take on the process itself. For nonfiction mgya i looked at 2009 nonfiction mgya. That number actually lines up pretty well with the data we have on this, but again, that number should neither be a goal, nor a constraint. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. 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. Books with really long titles add your favorite books that have titles that have at least six words, not counting what comes after the colon. It makes quite a difference whether you want to publish a childrens picture book, a 50recipe smoothie book, a science fiction novel or a technical encyclopedia.

Oct 10, 2016 genre has more influence on book length than you might think. For nonfiction mgya i looked at 2009 nonfiction mgya nominations for yalsa and the cybils. As for non fiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. But, most non fiction publishers want to be sold the concept, and therefore be able to discuss the direction of the project, before you write the book.

Alternatively, this is an acceptable length for a short work of non fiction. An ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a full length book. You would be wise to come close to these suggested manuscript lengths. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. An ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a fulllength book. Nonfiction book 25,000 150,000 words fiction novella 18,00040,000. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Harry potter and the halfblood prince 168,000 words. And, keeping your chapters short creates a good balance between content and action, and fits with this model of short actionable content. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near. Your guide to publishing a nonfiction book ny book editors. Novel 50,000 110,000 most print publishers prefer a minimum word count of around 70,000 words for a first novel, and some even hesitate for any work shorter than 80,000. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively.

Novels for adult readers fall between 80,000 and 120,000 words. Oct 18, 2017 as with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. Make it actionable, helpful, and great value and the length wont matter. The first alone has sold more than 120 million copies, and the rest have sold at least 65 million each. Then consider writing a manuscript of similar length. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000 word range. If you take the advice on book length, then a 50,000 word book might break nicely into ten chapters about 5,000 words per chapter. Nonfiction meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. The golden extent for many publishers is 288 pages about 90100,000 words without tables or figures. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Alternatively, this is an acceptable length for a short work of nonfiction. 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. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. Less than 100 pages and it becomes difficult for a printer to print the title of the book on the spine.

You 50,000 word manuscript may be half the page length of another authors 50,000 word manuscript. Heres a guide to the recommended lengths for genre books. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing stack.

Personally, i recommend at least 10,000 words for nonfiction, unless you can do it justice in less. The problem is that once someone removes duplicates, it can change which edition is listed to the most popular edition, and which is often a shortened version of the title. 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. Specifically, an accessible nonfiction book might be anything between about 30,000 words and 50,000 words. When i shared my nonfiction book idea with nick harrison, i told him my goal was 4045,000 words. Word count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a manner unaffected by variations of format and page size. Forget what youve heard about crafting a synopsis for a fiction book. Kindle finally updated the page count to 276 from 114.

Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. How long will it take to write your nonfiction book. The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 words. Sep 06, 2016 some of the other answers are idiosyncratic.

The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. In fact, the majority of printed books are turned into ebooks. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. With digital as well as print books available, the length of books varies. I noticed way too many nonfiction kindle books around 3040 pages. That was the formula in the good old days when courier. 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. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. The perennial favorite by gary chapman, the five love languages 1995, comes in at only 46,145 words. The trade paperback is 314 which is at least 350 on a standard paper book. That doesnt change no matter how the book is formatted.

The commercial range is 6080k, so you are not far off. Publishing a nonfiction book takes you on a totally different path than publishing a fiction project. Hilo books for upper elementary grades at ala example titles ranging from 1090k words. Rowlings recordbreaking series began with two titles on the high end of that spectrum and finished with five that left the guidelines in the dust. Publishers want to know the overall length of your book. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. So 50,000 words is the minimum for a nonfiction book. Any selfhelp or motivational nonfiction book should be between 30,000 and 70,000 words. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Nonfiction readers, in particular, want value fast. Aug 05, 2019 for most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. In other words no pun intended, tell your story in as many words as.

Mar 20, 2020 an ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a full length book. Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this is very. Over that size is the territory of the academic or technical business book. A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for non fiction books. If that subtitle is key, a shorter main title may qualify. A magnum opus of 100,000 words will take a lot longer than a selfhelp book of just 25,000 words. I have just finished revising a novel where the first draft was 50 and change, we did 4 rounds with our editor and ended up at 61k expanding. Technically, in fiction, most publishers and awards consider anything over 40,000 words to be a novel, but many publishers wont look at anything under 60,000.

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. Publishers ultimately decide what length is proper for a particular book. However, here are some guidelines you will find helpful. Non fiction, unlike fiction, does not have the same rigorous requirements for structures, pages, sizes and words that you will want to follow to be accepted into a particular category. Mar 17, 2010 the perennial favorite by gary chapman, the five love languages 1995, comes in at only 46,145 words. Most print publishers prefer a minimum word count of around 70,000 words for a first novel, and some even hesitate for any work shorter than 80,000. I heard 10,000 words can be accepted as an e book at a short length at least for non fiction. For a novel, i would recommend at least 50,000 words in length. For a compilation of short stories, i would shoot for at least 30,000 words. That said, each manuscript should be long enough to adequately tell its story or. As an interesting side note, amazons text stats show that the average length of all books on amazon is about 64,000 words. Synonyms for nonfiction include factbased, factual, reference, truelife, realistic, authentic, true, historical, real and biographical. In fiction, a short book is between 50,000 to 80,000 words roughly 200 300 pages in paperback.

This translates into just 20,000 to 25,000 words for a 100 page book, 30,000 to 42,500 words for a 150page book, perhaps just 40,000 words for a 200page book. Jul 23, 2012 so 50,000 words is the minimum for a non fiction book. Know your content, know your mainline pitch and some. How many words should be in an adult nonfiction book. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Your chapter structure needs to be in proportion to the overall length of the book. Because thrillers are about pulsepounding action and maybe some character development especially if its part of a series, the word count isnt massive.

If youd like some guidelines, you can assume that the average nonfiction book is 50k words, and that they have 12 chapters, so around 4k words would be an average chapter length. Typically you will find that books groups naturally after about 100 pages. A non fiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words. Even the complexity of the words you use affects how many words are on a page. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Nonfiction novel definition of nonfiction novel by.