📚 Book Word Count Calculator
Estimate manuscript length, page count, reading time & genre fit for any book project
| Genre | Min Words | Max Words | Typical Avg | Est. Pages (250 wpp) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adult Literary Fiction | 70,000 | 100,000 | 80,000 | 320 |
| Young Adult (YA) | 50,000 | 80,000 | 65,000 | 260 |
| Middle Grade | 20,000 | 55,000 | 35,000 | 140 |
| Sci-Fi / Fantasy | 90,000 | 120,000 | 100,000 | 400 |
| Mystery / Thriller | 70,000 | 90,000 | 80,000 | 320 |
| Romance | 50,000 | 100,000 | 90,000 | 360 |
| Memoir / Biography | 60,000 | 90,000 | 75,000 | 300 |
| General Nonfiction | 50,000 | 80,000 | 70,000 | 280 |
| Self-Help / How-To | 40,000 | 70,000 | 55,000 | 220 |
| Children's Picture Book | 500 | 1,000 | 800 | 32 |
| Short Story | 1,000 | 7,500 | 4,000 | 16 |
| Novella | 20,000 | 40,000 | 30,000 | 120 |
| Academic / Textbook | 80,000 | 150,000 | 100,000 | 400 |
| Word Count | Reading Time | Pages (250 wpp) | Typical For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | ~42 min | 40 | Short novella / essay |
| 30,000 | ~2.1 hrs | 120 | Novella |
| 50,000 | ~3.5 hrs | 200 | Short novel / NaNoWriMo |
| 70,000 | ~4.9 hrs | 280 | Standard nonfiction |
| 80,000 | ~5.6 hrs | 320 | Standard adult novel |
| 100,000 | ~7.0 hrs | 400 | Sci-Fi / Fantasy novel |
| 120,000 | ~8.4 hrs | 480 | Epic fantasy |
| 150,000 | ~10.5 hrs | 600 | Very long novel |
| Target Words | 500 wds/day | 1,000 wds/day | 2,000 wds/day | NaNoWriMo (1,667/day) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30,000 | 60 days | 30 days | 15 days | 18 days |
| 50,000 | 100 days | 50 days | 25 days | 30 days |
| 70,000 | 140 days | 70 days | 35 days | 42 days |
| 80,000 | 160 days | 80 days | 40 days | 48 days |
| 100,000 | 200 days | 100 days | 50 days | 60 days |
| 120,000 | 240 days | 120 days | 60 days | 72 days |
| Format | Dimensions (in) | Dimensions (cm) | Words/Page | Common Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Novel | 6 x 9 | 15.2 x 22.9 | 250 | Literary, nonfiction |
| Trade Paperback | 5.5 x 8.5 | 14 x 21.6 | 225 | General fiction |
| Mass Market PB | 4.2 x 6.9 | 10.7 x 17.5 | 275 | Genre fiction |
| Picture Book | 8.5 x 11 | 21.6 x 27.9 | 30–50 | Children's 0–5 |
| Large Print | 7 x 10 | 17.8 x 25.4 | 200 | Accessibility |
| Hardcover Standard | 6.1 x 9.2 | 15.5 x 23.4 | 250 | First editions |
| Digest | 5.5 x 8.5 | 14 x 21.6 | 260 | Magazines, self-pub |
| E-Book | Variable | Variable | User-set | Digital readers |
The number of words in a book is a big question when one writes it. It affects the cost of the book, the viewpoint of publishers and the expectations of readers. Short novels that usually have less than 40 000 words, commonly sell for lower cost than a full novel.
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The Book Word Count shapes the judgement of publishers and readers.
How Many Words Should a Book Have
Typical Book Word Count for novel books turn around 85 000 words, although they range between 50 000 and 120 000. In adult fiction the average sits between 70 000 and 120 000 words. Children’s books follow a simple rule: the younger the public, the shorter the text.
Novels for youngsters average around 50 000 to 70 000 words. Texts above 110 000 words commonly count as epic or drama, while typical mystery novels or litarary novels do not reach that size.
Widely 40 000 words mark the minimum so that a book counts as a novel. Even so it stays very short. Around 30 000 words count for a medium story.
The best amount for novels is approximately 75 000 words. Some books succeed with 25 000 to 40 000 words and work as tiny books. Science fiction and fantasy can reach huge Book Word Count numbers, but the most agents advise to not pass 100 000 words for a first book.
The range of 80 000 to 120 000 fits well with the standards of the publishing industry. The big publishers, especially the “big five”, usually refuse novels under 80 000 words.
The right Book Word Count for a chapter in a book varies, but common are 2 000 too 5 000 words. The chapters matter more than the whole Book Word Count, and this often beats the page count. Page count simply results from the words, the font and the format of the book.
Finding the real Book Word Count of a book can be hard. There is no official base where authors point their precise numbers. The easiest way is to search in Google phrases like “number of words in Infinite Jest”.
Wolfram Alpha offers another option. For famous books checking Goodreads, Wikipedia or pages of publishers helps well. Old or free books find themselves in Project Gutenberg or Google Books, with a word counter for accuracy.
The data of Accelerated Reader are quite reliable for the titles that it includes.
In printed books each page stores around 250 words. A common rating comes from 33 lines of 10 words, which gives around 330 words each page. Some tools for Book Word Count take data from Amazon, mixed with size of book and pages, to estimate the numbers.
Even so those tools do not always match, because the layout and font change according to publications. In audiobooks one hour matches to around 9 000 words, depending on the speaker. The best advice stays to check the Book Word Count of areal copy and use it as a base, but mainly focus on a good story.
