Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing stack. Nonfiction meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. If youre trying to figure out how many pages your book will end up being, a page in a six by nine book which is a pretty standard size for a nonfiction book is about 250 words equals one page. New word count guidelines for contemporary fiction and nonfiction. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and non. Estimate your page count fiona raven book designer. Another rule of thumb is you can get 250 to 300 words on a typeset page. At the other end of the spectrum a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words has significant heft, 320400 pages. 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. This is a list of the novels over 500,000 words published through a mainstream publisher.
Book size is often based on how thick the spine will be and how it will stand out in a bookstore although things are changing. And, keeping your chapters short creates a good balance between content and action, and fits with this model of short actionable content. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Word count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a manner. Ive started this list to make it easier for people to find x titles if theyre doing the az challenge. Nonfiction novel definition of nonfiction novel by.
As you can see, a smaller trim size will produce more pages for the same word count, and a larger trim. Under length books are often regarded with suspicion by scholars. 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. Sixteen spreads x 100 plus intro translates into just under 1700 words. Specifically, an accessible nonfiction book might be anything between about 30,000 words and 50,000 words. Books falling outside the standard range of 272320 pages can be problematic. Your chapter structure needs to be in proportion to the overall length of the book. Easygoing, fairly light, userfriendly, nonfiction book for the masses. Nonfiction novel definition is a booklength factual narrative written in the style of a novel. The trim size of your book dictates approximately how many words fit on. 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. See more ideas about people, famous faces and 40th president. Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different.
The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000 word range. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. 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. Synonyms for book at with free online thesaurus, antonyms, and definitions. There are a few book word count guidelines for each genre, but these arent hard. I have 42 years of experience writing magazine nonfiction for adult. A book s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book. Generally i consider any novel that is less than 300 pages to be a short one, 500 page a medium sized novel and anything more than 750 a lengthy novel. Estimate your page count book designer linda parke. Calculate book page count using word count for book design. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his.