Naverage word count for a book of short stories

The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. As a general guideline, chapters should be between 3,000 to 5,000 words. Every word counts in a short story, and for some writers that is one of the challenges of writing in this shorter form. Alternatively, this is an acceptable length for a short work of nonfiction. Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. His book a man in full is 370,000 words and it took him eleven years to finish. Online shopping for kindle store from a great selection of two hours or more 65100 pages, 90 minutes 4464 pages, 45 minutes 2232 pages, 30 minutes 1221. The majority of short stories fall under this general definition, and may or may not include flash and even microflash. That said, this figure differs from book to book and organization to.

The old man and the sea was about 25 to 30,000 words, tops. Now im seeing a lot more mg books with up to 60,000 words, so i think the water has become a bit murky here. Many attendees myself included were surprised to learn that some editors even refuse to read picture book manuscripts that exceed 500 words. I know a lot of it is dependent upon the story itself, but. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. How many short stories are generally in a short story. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime. Short stories are generally shorter than 10,000 words, while poems can range from 3 words to novelsized.

Wellwritten short stories are not inferior to longer works of prose. This question about average word count was on my mind as well, when i started writing my book. Theres an even narrower story optionthe novelettethat has a word count between 7,500 and 17,000 words. I enjoy writing novellength fiction, but those 100,000 word beasts do take a while to pen. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Also remember because there are a bunch of new novel imprints opening their doors, a novella is 40k or less. A single word page is 500 words, going up to as much as 800 or as low as 400. Its good to have a general theme for the collection. Its not the number of short stories, its the wordcount. The result is often while reading a book finding the pages obviously padded with unnecessary verbiage to complete the word count requirement.

Its nice to whip out a short story or a novella here and there, both because it makes you feel. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. Flash fiction 500 5,000 words short stories are between 5,0007,000 words. Please keep us posted on which route you take, and how it goes.

For fiction, i recommend 5,000 words or more for short stories. 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. I was just wondering how many short stories were generally in one of those. Ive written a few short stories, but i havent had any published online. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. These are growing in popularity for selfpublishing with the growing ebook industry. If you have a wide array of stories to send, you might have to be selective. Once you go beyond that length you are entering novella length. The complete stories average around 1500 words, with the longest at around 2500 and the shortest at 311 yeah, not really a short story, but the next shortest one is 1,100. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. The following are average wordcount ranges by genre.

At an average of 2500 words per story, that makes 16 stories. For website visitors or to subscribe to content 3,0006,000 words. If the average length is 300 pages, youre looking at a 75,000 word manuscript approximately one reason its harder for a new author to sell a 140,000 word manuscript is the size of the book. Between and 8000 words is a short story also, most short story competitions will stipulate their required word length for entry between 5000 and 10,000 words is a long short story. I am currently at 20k words between 16 stories, complete and 3 incomplete. And as youve probably guessed it is sitting pretty right in between middle grade and adult.

On the macro level in any type of edit, but especially a wordtrimming one, you always want to start with the big picture. My personal recommendation is for a writer to stay within 15,000 words since most periodicals and magazines may not want to publish anything longer. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story. I wrote this book over 2 years ago and have been spending the last few years editing and researching agents etc. An average short story usually has at least 3,500 words and no more than 7,500.

Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. Bookend the 7,000 word story with two flash fictions, perhaps. For a printed book, 37,000 words is definitely on the short side less than 150 pages so publishers may not be interested as pricing will be low and volumes needing to be correspondingly high. Jun 03, 20 mix up the long stories and the short stories. May 22, 2017 in this video josh gives a brief explanation on the different word counts for books. How to increase your novels word count noveldoctor.

Its so great i cant help but get emotional at last chapter when alex and conner are separated. The actual word count for the hunger games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 94,743 words. There are general guidelines for each literary category. 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. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Its for the ages 710, would i need to stretch it up to 8,000. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. Do not say to yourself, well, ive got a lot of stories now, so i guess its time to shove them all into a manuscript and send it around. But depending on the ereading device and the font size setting, it varies significantly between a phone, a tablet, or a kindle. After doing some research a few years ago i found that people are reading more 150 page books these days and my published cozies now have a lower word count. In this post, id like to share some thoughts on word count considerations. They average about 20,000 words, are characterdriven and fairly plotintensive.

It includes the problem of thor bridge, a tale about a love so fierce that one committed crimes because of it, and the adventure of the sussex vampire, a story about a mother and has no vampires at all. Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. Ive always been fond of edgar allen poes description of the short story as a work of fiction that can be read in a single sitting. Put simply, the sweet spot for a novel s word count is generally said to be around 8090k. If a page is 500 words on an ipad, and 250 words on a kindle, it might be only 120 words on a phone. But the word count you gave, if complete, is not out of bounds. Some genres like science fiction can be much longer and spend 1,000s of words on worldbuilding. Sep 04, 2010 i am a writer currently writing a short story collection for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of my friends, so im not worrying about publishing at this time. Short stories range from lower word counts of or 1500 words up to around 7,500 words or occasionally as high as 10,000. Then i understood that he literally sees every short story as a single book, as long as it has more than 49 pages.

Personally, i think 40,000 words is way to small for a novel and have read some publishers wont accept anything under 80,000ish. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. Jun 27, 2019 put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. You can use word to count how many words you have written in a document. For a collection of short stories and poems, you have a lot of flexibility. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Im not looking for a technical answer,such as a short story is to 7500 words, im looking for a practical answer, such as most online publishers look for. Content that is less than 2,500 words is often disappointing to our customers and does not provide an enjoyable reading experience. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text. Ive rechecked my word count of my childrens fiction book and i have just under 7500.

What is the average word count for short story submissions. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. May 21, 2006 it is impossible to know if your book is too long or too short without having seen the actual writing to gauge whether or not there is a lot of extra in there or not enough. However, he never seemed to be in a rush to finish his books. 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. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Heres how the wordcount of your book will decide what category your masterpiece falls in. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words.

You need enough short stories to make between 80k and 120k, although you can go over that. Mind you that great classic, the little prince, was such a work. Creating a short story collection celebrating independent. This is a story that is between 10,000 and 40,000 words. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. If you are looking to submit a manuscript, i got the impression that many lit agentspublishers prefer picture book submissions in the 300500 word count range. The length can vary greatly between genres, though. I am a writer currently writing a short story collection for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of my friends, so im not worrying about publishing at this time.

Picture books for children up to age eight average words though many are shorter. For a compilation of short stories, i would shoot for at least 30,000 words. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. The length of a short story, novella, novelette or novel is measured by word count, not pages. She wrote 12 novels for adults between 1945 and 1976, another one for children mossy totter1967 and innumerable short stories, many of which were published in the. I try not to put two really long stories back to back. Within short stories, there is a further breakdown to define supershort stories as flash and microflash.

At the kboards site for kindle readers and writers, one author shared a letter from amazon that explained. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. 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. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. The average short story should run anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 words, but they can be anything above 1,000 words. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Many of these books are written in rhyme or in a simple singsong meter that is catchy and fun. Im pretty new here and just trying to get an idea of about how many words you all aim for when writing novels and short stories. Short stories range anywhere from 1,500 to 30,000 words. What is the proper word count for a collection of short. As a general rule of thumb, a novel falls somewhere between word count ranges of 50,000 words and 100,000 words.

Most genre zines will features works at this length. Theres no point in obsessing about word choice if your story has whole scenes and whole subplots you can axe. A good way to gauge appropriate length is to check out similar books for comparison. It all depends on the content anyway, and if youve really got something good then youll get exceptions. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. Precise word count definitions will vary, but as a general rule of thumb, a short story is anything up to about 7500 words sometimes 10,000, with higher word counts typically called novelettes, and short novels called novellas.

Jun 23, 2014 a short story collection is a great way to release some shorts with a word count that makes the price reasonable. Tom wolfe is an author that has written many popular books that were later made into films. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. Usually, short stories are measured by word count, not the number of pages. Youll usually find a novella is in the 40,000word range, with a maximum of 50,000 words by most generalized definitions. Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words. Creating a short story collection is a little different from creating a traditional novel, so here are a few things to consider. Upper middle grade can hit in the 50k word count range possibly longer, if its something really special. Average word count in a book book editing services. Your word processing program should have a wordcounter in it, probably under the tools tab. While average word length is 50,000 to 80,000 words, this genre has so much variety that word count depends on the book and its intended audience.

Some will tell you 2,500 words is the average, while others will say that 3,000 to 5,000 word chapters are more likely to be the norm. Word count separates short stories from novelettes and. Childrens book writers must adhere to strict industry standards for word counts. The most important difference between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel is the word count. Some will say that a short story can be between 1,500 words to 30,000 words. Aug 05, 2019 for most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. Jan 07, 2017 word count separates short stories from novelettes and novellas. Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the book. The complete stories average around 1500 words, with the longest at around 2500 and the shortest at 311 yeah, not really a short story. The reader who buys your collection will feel heshe has got hisher moneys worth if there are at least 40,000 words to read. As weve talked about before how well does short fiction sell in ebook form. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k.

Aug 28, 2010 word count is the devil you have to love, or at the very least, respect. In contrast, word count is finite and usually i can calculate book length with about 99% accuracy in part because also included in any calculation is a count of figures, tables, etc. If youve got a short word count for those who prefer short word counts, then its great. Dont worry, though, many writers have been published in a wide array of magazines, and this is very attractive for novel publishing companies and literary agents. Try not to completely tether yourself to word counts. Some publishers issue guidelines as to word length usually between 2,000 and 5,000 words and other requirements. Most popular fiction books range from 60,000 100,000 words. While the stories of other peoples lives are fascinating, readers dont want to slog through anything that drags on and on. And youll find disagreement within these guidelines as well. Average word count ranges from 70,000 to 100,000 words, although biographies of major celebrities or public figures can support a higher number.

A single novel page runs from 200400 words, heavily influenced by the size of font, book, etc. The case book of sherlock holmes 1927 the last sherlock holmes story collection has 82,141 words and 12 stories. If there is an average, 60,000 words to 80,000 words are probably the sweet spot. Novellette 7,500 20,000 words often a novellettelength work is difficult to sell to a publisher. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Im reading a book with short stories at the moment and he said sonething along the lines that ill be able to finish a book everyday with so many short stories. This question came in as a reader comment on one of the earlier blog posts. Of the 161 stories listed, 3081 is the median word count number in the middle and 4052 is the average word count. For a novel, i would recommend at least 50,000 words in length. But those requests are extremely rare, as the majority will set a limit of 8k. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic. A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words. So what i can tell you, judging by my own experience only, is how not to put together a short story collection at least, if you want it to be published.

Personally, i recommend at least 10,000 words for nonfiction, unless you can do it justice in less. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. I use amazons data feeds to come up with the calculation. Jun 20, 2011 go to any magazine that accepts fiction, and see the word count limit. Amazon kindle direct publishing is reportedly planning to remove kindle books that have fewer than 2,500 words. The virago green covers of her books were the best. I would aim for novella size or bigger, since youve created a collection that should give readers more value than a single short story or poem. Amazon estimates a page count in an ebook to be around 187 words. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Those of you who dont care about traditional publishing can leave the room now. Same thing if youve got a long word count for those who prefer them. This is a true statement if your goal is to be published through traditional methods someday. Try to fill in the blanks around the 1, 7, 14 and 21 with a variety of lengths.

Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. See my articles on word count and mansucript format, too, since you asked about print size. Flash fictionwhatever the editor says it is, but usually under 1,000 words. Most blogs and writer websites had the moreorless the same advice forget the length and the average word count of your novel. So, i made up my own word count list that suits me and all that i do. Duotrope a free writers resource listing over 3950 current fiction and poetry publications caps their search for short story publishers at 7,500 words, which means most publishers are looking for stories of less than that length. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Short story 1,000 7,500 words the regular short story, usually found in periodicals or anthology collections.

Others may say that a short story should be around 5,000. In terms of competitions, short story length is usually between 1,000 and 5,000 words, although i have seen short story competitions with a 17,000 word. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Sep 25, 2008 most are humorous, pacy stories written in short chapters.

How not to put together a short story collection htmlgiant. But those books consist of one story, as opposed to a compilation of several short stories. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. And when you go back to find them you remember why the book isnt just a thrilling. A collection of any four would be about the length of a novel. I like that poe defines the short story form largely by focusing on the readers interaction with the text, and i like that he places a time limit on this interactiona. Most agree that under 1,000 words would be rather short and that over 5,000 might be rather too long.

A manuscript over 40,000 words is considered to be a novel. The right stuff and the bonfire of the vanities are just a couple. This is because font size, type of font, spacing etc. May 11, 2012 these were to do with whether the book would be categorised as a novel or a novella or an epic or something else. The science fiction and fantasy writers of america specifies word lengths for each category of its nebula award. We need to count words if we are writing for a publication that asks us to stay within a set number of words. Young adult fiction allows for a lot of flexibility in word count. Yet some in the industry consider novelettes and novellas to also be short stories, which are up to 17,000 words or up to 40,000 words respectively. If the average length is 300 pages, youre looking at a 75,000 word. However, some arent very accurate, so be wary of that. Traditionally, short stories were meant to be read in a single sitting. How long is the typical short story supposed to be.

But, he also mentions that the wizard of oz was 40,000 words. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words. Know your content, know your mainline pitch and some. If we were to do it again next year, or even in three or five years, wed probably be including many of the same people. In this case, word count doesnt matter it really is an aside. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Here is what 187 words looks like in microsoft word.