Average word count of a self help book

Aug 15, 2019 keep in mind, this book genre is one that encompasses many other genres as well. First of all, find your word count in word by opening your document and looking at the bottom left of your screen. They are all in the selfhelp niche and thats why the examples i include are for that field. If it is instructionalself help, etc with lots of subheadings, sections and bullets, id say 250page for a. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. But for print publishing, the physical cost of producing the book is an issue, and the market does generally know what it likes. They are all in the selfhelp niche and thats why the examples i. A nonfiction book attractive to publishers of bestsellers starts at around 75,000 words. We hope this post has helped you determine a good ebook word count for your book. You want 50,000 to 85,000 words for a fulllength selfhelp book, half that for a selfpublished ebook.

Use estimated page or word count as a writing guide. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Line count varies depending on page size, font size, etc. Top three selfhelp books by women with biggest share of male readers choosing and rating books. Generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. Was your middle grade book published with the help of an agent. The 1 thing you need to do to write a new york times best. 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. Jul 23, 2012 still unsure of how long to make your nonfiction book.

Calculate book page count using word count for book design. If you are writing a selfhelp book containing 10 steps to life improvement. If you try anything, if you try to lose weight, or to improve yourself, or to love, or to make the world a better place, you have already achieved something wonderful, before you even begin. Build your book format a paperback manuscript word for. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. For example, a selfhelp book for writers about writing can probably sustain 100,000 words, because the aud. I wrote this post more for the average newbie writer that wants to see what selfpublishing is all. However if youre curious to see what the average word count is for standard genres, check out the breakdown in the article. This is due in large part to the variety of subgenres within it and the trend for a book series with an ever greater word count. Oct 18, 2017 therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. Each page contains about 34 lines, with an average word count of 11 words per line, thus. So how do you write a self help book that indicates these qualities to your readers. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. If theres a business book you admire, why not count the pages, tot up the words on an average page, and see how long it is in total.

But if youre curious to see how your manuscript measures up to to the standard wordcount expectations for your genre, the following is a summary of an informative article by chuck sambuchino called word count. How to write and publish a selfhelp book in less than 30 days. Average word count in a book book editing services. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. A single novel can be longer, but once the length is above 110,000 words publishers may look at cutting it back, unless it is a particular kind of book books over the 110k word count are usually considered epics. An ebook could be 3,000 words or as long as a fulllength book. The surprising thing is that self help book readers know this, and hunt out books which look approachable, practical and useable. What is a good length for a selfpublished book on amazon. But the way i see it, especially if you intend to selfpublish, make it as long as you want.

Be sure to check out chucks full article for some of the reasoning behind these wordcount targets, and why youll be hurting your chances of getting an agent or book deal if you stray from the standard. Surely when writing the important thing is to get words on the page even if theyre in pink comic sans. Still unsure of how long to make your nonfiction book. Depends on the size of font,page size, formatting, etc.

Selfhelp books, which are nonfiction, are shorter, as expected, and more expensive. This article suggests that essentially, it should be as long as it needs to be, meaning dont look at the word count, just get the story out then edit. The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range. Writing middle grade a look at the numbers hannah holt. It contains 38 lines per page, with an average of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per book page. While freelance editing rates can vary, heres how much it costs to hire a book editor. Sketch out your outline, make sure your structure works, and then start coming up with more clever titles for the chapters and parts, if you use those. Most often, motivational books can be lumped in with other book genres like health, fitness, business, and selfhelp.

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. In itself, no measure is perfect but personally i find word count the most useful. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens books and even memoir. Jun 12, 2009 as a nonfiction writer myself, i know this is tough. If you are planning on writing a self help book, a suggested avenue would be to first read other self help books that have been successful. Word count, with a little help from amazon alexis grant. When an author writes a selfhelp book, theyre entering into a covenant with the reader. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Like everything in writing, you may write a work of genius that smashes all the rules. Of course, when youre writing the first draft of your story, you want to just get your words out on paper. An author who makes strong use of visuals is austin kleon, a selfprofessed writer who draws. Selfhelp books are typically in the 7590,000 word range, but the specific topic and intended audience has a lot to do with the specifics.

Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. Once you know your word count, follow one of our two methods below to estimate your page count. If this thread still going can someone tell me how many words is reasonable for a chapter im writing my first fantasy novel and worried if i have too short or to long of a chapter right now my first chapter word count is at 1,436 and in counting. If you have any questions or comments, let us know below. By using these three options to more accurately define your writing, the words per page calculator should provide a better estimate on how many words you need to write to fill a page. Using your current word count and the appropriate formula below, calculate the number of pages you can expect in your finished book. Established authors can get away with shorter word counts, but the average is 65,00090,000. Sep 20, 2019 oftentimes, professional editing will cut down the unnecessary information so your memoir is the appropriate word count. I have read hundreds of selfhelp books, and without fail the ones i. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book.

That being said, books intended for adults of any genre are rarely shorter than 60,000 words. Often a novellettelength work is difficult to sell to a publisher. The average adult novel runs approximately 100,000 words while those in other categories run 80120,000 words. Standard word counts for books publishing with kindle. Using the styles function in word can help you ensure your book s font and spacing is consistent.

Selfhelp books can take many forms, they give the reader the tools they need to improve some facet of their life. But that doesnt mean you dont have the experience and knowledge to. How to write and publish a book in less than 30 days. The average length of a nonfiction book is 50,000 words, with some books falling at around 3540,000 words, and. The total page count excluding appendices and index is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words.

Heres the general rule for any book published traditionally or self pubbed. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. Some are shorter than 30,000 words, and some are longer than 70,000. If you are writing a selfhelp book containing 10 steps to life. But for mainstream ya it is always best to stick to under 80k. For a book that contains a fair amount of research, statistics, endnotes, charts or graphs, a color interior, or other details that make it an extensive and unique book, its reasonable to price the book higher. Using styles also saves you time because you dont have to format the font and spacing for each part of your book. Sep 16, 2019 if theres a business book you admire, why not count the pages, tot up the words on an average page, and see how long it is in total. If you want to write a memoir, for example, look at four or five similar memoirs and determine their word count. There is no hard and fast rule for how long your manuscript should be when you selfpublish.

Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. On the spreadsheet, the editors total cost will be automatically calculated once you insert your total word count and the editors perword rate. This covenant is a promise that the writer has done everything in their power to produce something that will help, knowing that when readers pursue self help literature its the same as a person asking for support.

The average fantasy novel should have between 50,000 and 150,000 words. Calculate book page count using the word count from your word document. As with many publishing standards, word count guidelines exist for a number of reasons including marketing and sales but also to help create stories that are free from plot or pacing issues that can exhaust readers. After that, your agent will be able to help you more. The best answer to your question is on the shelves of most bookstores. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. You want 50,000 to 85,000 words for a fulllength selfhelp book, half that for a. Using the styles function in word can help you ensure your books font and spacing is consistent.

I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. Are you wondering what the word count for your book should be. Now, they dont offer word count or running time for books, but they do have a search api. Excluding endnotes and index, the book has about 200 pages of text, which means its total word count is about 74,000 words.

When talking about book length, its common to talk about word count. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Then you will see what the usual is in terms of word count and length. If you are planning on writing a selfhelp book, a suggested avenue would be to first read other selfhelp books that have been successful.

The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 to 75,000 words, but this can vary. In transformational selfhelp or spiritual books, even if the words are. The average mean word count was about 53,000 words. One way is through the titling of your work, with self help books tending to fall into three categories. If youre concerned about the final page count for your book, you should know that the average 6. The health book genre is vast and covers a wide variety of different topics. Word count for novels and books is something i dont think about too often until i travel to a writers conference, and then someone asks a simple, innocent question. We choose what to read according to recommendations from. The average word count for a selfhelp book is 30,000 to 70,000 words. Jun 27, 2019 well, if your goal is to publish and sell your novel, those rules are pretty darn important. Check out the best methods on how to write and publish a selfhelp book.

Well, i have to tell you that 10,000 25,000 words is the acceptable. Regarding the value of adhering to standard word counts, jackie bates, a former managing editor at aa publishing, adds. You can have a health selfhelp book in additional to a relationship selfhelp. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this is very rough run perhaps 150450 pages, and at about 350 wdpage that works out to something like 50150k words. If you want to write a memoir, for example, look at four or five similar memoirs and determine their wordcount.

Book editors for hire typically charge by word count or page count. Heres our word count guide for 18 different book genres. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Once you have a vision for your booksmall, standard, or wide formatyou can move on to the second step in deciding how many words you should write. 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. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. So, what is the average length of a nonfiction book. Jul 17, 2017 the 1 thing you need to do to write a new york times bestselling book. But a good general estimate for a novel size book 5x8. The 3 golden rules of writing a selfhelp book standout books.

We explain two easy methods to estimate your books page count. I kept that word count because i think any longer, and it becomes more like a dry technical book. The 1 thing you need to do to write a new york times bestselling book. To get an idea of what your book will look like you need to match the number of words per page on your word processing page to the finished printed page. Im curious about your advice compose the novel in the standard format from the start rather than changing it later why does this matter. Dont forget that while writing, or even editing and promoting your new book over the course of a month.

Now this doesnt mean there arent any guidelines in place. If you feel you have to add on stuff that you dont really need, or remove quality work, to fit a certain word count, it will take away from the quality of the book. Youll use the word count in your word document to calculate book page count. Sep, 2015 check out the best methods on how to write and publish a selfhelp book. The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 to 75,000 words, but this can vary depending upon category. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the book, and for ya novels the average is 50,00070,000 words. Nov 22, 2008 the best answer to your question is on the shelves of most bookstores. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year.

The 1 thing you need to do to write a new york times. A small print encyclopedia can have 200,000 words in just under 400 pages of course, so type size and. But the word count of a chapter matters if you want your story to flow right. Therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication. Having said all that, there are a number of conventions regarding word count. Not sure how to get started with your selfhelp book. In the opposite direction, it can give a more accurate estimate of how many pages you have created if you only know the word count. The reader trusts your judgement, so make sure you mean what you say. The average book on the planet is 65,000 words at 200 pages, which is pretty close to this method. Wanna write your first book in a month but dont know where to start.

Any selfhelp or motivational nonfiction book should be between 30,000 and 70,000 words. So as youre writing a book, a common question if often asked. You can use the preset styles in microsoft word or modify them for a custom look. Heres your beginner friendly guide to writing for the selfimprovement niche. If youre given a perpage rate, you can calculate a perword rate by assuming the industry standard of 250 words per page, e. Both rules of thumb are imperfect, but weve found the 250300 word per page rule works better more often than the 60 percent per page rule. Jan 08, 2018 calculate book page count using your word count. Heres your beginnerfriendly guide to writing for the selfimprovement niche. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages.

Most publishers like to see chapters that are in the 2,000 to 3,000word range. 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. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Self help books, which are nonfiction, are shorter, as expected, and more expensive. Feb 24, 2015 sketch out your outline, make sure your structure works, and then start coming up with more clever titles for the chapters and parts, if you use those. The best thing that you can do is look over comparable books and try to judge word count by their size, average wordspage, and illustration content. Aug 05, 2019 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. And dont forget to calculate what your word count will be. That will give you a good guide if you want to emulate it. As a nonfiction writer myself, i know this is tough. Check out the best methods on how to write and publish a self help book. Apr 05, 2015 generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. Estimate your page count book designer fiona raven.