Word counts long books famous

Childrens chapter books word count age 69 word count. Since opinions vary greatly, i did some research to verify the numbers in my head. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words or characters are counted. Tolkiens the lord of the rings trilogy has an enormous word count, with the longest clocking in at over 175,000 words. This specific genre has a lot of flexibility with word and page count due to the variety of plot types and story arcs. This is a list of the novels over 500,000 words published through a. Shamelessly cribbed from classic short stories and reorganized by word count from shortest to longest for comparison purposes. Word counts of the most popular books in the world foster grant uk. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. Word count estimates are not guaranteed to be accurate. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. Once upon a time amazon offered text stats for a majority of their books, which included word count. Read on to see how many words these famous novels have.

Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. Even writers of traditional or epic fantasy are advised to keep their word counts below 120,000 words, and the closer to 100,000 the better. May 15, 2011 if it does need to be this long, it is not a middle grade, or it should be divided into 20 books, not 6. Famous books and their word counts freelance writing gigs. Awards, too, often categorize a book by how long it is.

Apr 05, 2015 generally a 50,000word novel would be the minimum word count. This is a list of the novels over 500,000 words published through a mainstream publisher. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. Finally, for older children, you can go as long as words. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. You have just discovered the wonderful world of bibliographic metadata. Everything you need to know about novel word counts. The average chapter word count of these novels falls within the 2,0005,000 range. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length.

To aid you in your worthwhile endeavor, ive sought out the shortest novels written by a selection of difficult writers. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a. 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 books 50% of books have fewer words and 50% of books have more words. We have compiled a list of the daily word counts of famous authors and what they had to say about writing every day what is a word count. However, there are averages and rough word counts expected by publishers. Sep 20, 2019 science fiction books typically have between 50,000 and 150,000 words, like fantasy novels. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers ernest hemingway. For more information on word counts for childrens book, check out this post. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. If you liked electric literatures game of books infographic that compared the length of a song of ice and fire to classic novels, you might enjoy this infographic created for cartridge discount.

Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. Word count is a direct way to measure the length of a novel in a manner. The second answer, because its way too long the word count equivalent of two novels, not one and books that are too long are hard to sell in a 140character world. Despite their ongoing success, those epic sagas are the rare exception to general word count rules.

The word count range for young adult is 55,000 to 90,000. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. As a writing coach and copyeditor, i see a lot of manuscripts come across my desk. In the era of ereaders, short stories are becoming more popular, and their writers are being recognized with major literature awards, including the nobel prize for literature and the man booker international prize. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Wikipedia list article this is a list of the novels over 500,000 words published through a mainstream publisher. Below are approximate word counts for kings published books. Word count separates short stories from novelettes and. Aug 05, 2019 a novel should be as long as it needs to be same with nonfiction and no longer and no shorter. Its good because writers can write more books and consumers can read more books. Jun 08, 2014 most writers have word count on the brain. Sep 30, 2015 the best word counts for each genre are the same for both traditional publishing and selfpublishing.

Probably the best very long novel of the last century, its a great american one, too, and a pure distillation of. Just like the days of courier font and typewriters have passed, so too have the days of ink on paper. Even if you dont have a word count yet, prompts are an excellent way to exercise the writing muscle. On the longer word count side, the frog and toad books are a good example. Anything over 110,000 words is considered too long for a fiction novel. If you want to learn how to write a book, sign up for our online course.

The graphic looks at the length of some famous novels, poems, and plays from literary history. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Most incredibly long and incredibly short books are not debuts. Yes, if you are hugely successful with your first book, your publisher will want lots more books from you. Perkins agency in new york says its much easier to market a firsttime novelists book if the word count falls between 80,000 and 100,000 words, or roughly 300 doublespaced, typed pagesthe average novel length. Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. A suitable boy by vikram seth 591,554 words source atlas shrugged by ayn rand 561,996 words source war and peace by leo tolstoy 561,304 words source infinite jest by david foster wallace 543,709 words source a storm of swords by george r. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. There are early picture books for infants and toddlers that could have as few as 200 words.

Apr 23, 2018 but what about famous book that is insert insanely long or short word count yes. The word count range for each age level is only a guideline. Microfiction and flash fiction are the tweets of the fiction world. Weve put together a list of the daily word counts of 20 famous authors, which you can check out here below. 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. Reading length is a participant in the amazon services llc associates program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to and affiliated sites. There are bestselling books like infinite jest that are incredibly long, and books like the great gatsby that are pretty short. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. And as you can see, it varies, depending on the story.

Although amazon stopped offering this for new books several years ago, the feature still remained for older books. Try not to completely tether yourself to word counts. We know how long their books are the infographic also includes epic novels such as. 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. Find out how long your favourite books are and how they compare to their contemporaries and books in other genres. The shortest novels written by 20 authors you shouldve. Oct 18, 2017 to find out how long should a chapter be, we examined books from a wide variety of genres and eras. Anyway, heres the figures and facts i have so far looks like big debut novels are anything but unusual in epic fantasy now. Fantasies are known for their long word counts and tendency to stretch into series of epic proportions if you want examples, this post over at bookwraiths lists some of the longest fantasy series out there. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. I think a lot of publishers look for those long word counts because they a too focused on epic fantasy. How long does a book have to be at writing for children and teens.

Average fiction word counts flash fiction word count. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. This makes sense, because its expensive to edit, print, bind and distribute a longer book, and those fat fantasy books that fans love take up a lot of room in warehouses and on bookstore shelves. I have found the website dogobooks to be the most useful place to check the word count of popular books for kids. Childrens book types and suggested word counts go teen writers.

And, in case youre wondering, here are the average word counts for other popular genres. While page counts are a common but not universal feature of bibliographic metadata, word counts are much less frequently provided and are not at all mandatory. Books of smaller word counts were more common in the 1800s and early 1900s, but the trend for books became longer with the rise of modern printing techniques. Here are some popular scifi novels and their word counts. Stephen king seems to be one of the most prolific writers of all time. Of course, theres a problem with just taking a writers word counts and trying to deduce too much insight from them. If you look at the discworld books, they are short. Counting chickens a few words about word counts at hope vestergaards site. 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. Aug 03, 2017 word counts of the most popular books in the world date august 3, 2017 if youre a big reader then youve probably read a mixture of very short and very long books in your lifetime. Nowadays, adult novels generally tend to range from 80k to 120k depending on genre, however, young adult is often closer to the range of a nanowrimo winner, with 6070k being desirable. 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. The word count range for each genre can vary quite siginificantly. More recently the fault in our stars comes in at 67,000.

You can learn many things, feel emotions youve never felt before, and understand how other people can see the world more. And if youre only looking for a few examples from a particular genre, the word counts for other books listed on this site have also been verified. Lets start with some of the most famous series in the world. From picture books to ya information to get you started at. Jack londons most well known novel, the call of the wild. For example, if an author has to write a minimum or maximum amount of words for an article, essay, report, story, book, paper, you name it. The eight harry potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words. To emphasize this, look at how many words are in the bible how many words are in the bible. Here are some word counts of famous novels, sorted from long to short.

Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. The longest novel is artamene ou le grand cyrus, originally published 164954 in ten parts, each part in three volumes. With books like twilight at 118,975 words and divergent at 105,143 words, this genre has been trending higher. Word count of famous novels reading novels is one of lifes pleasures you can get immersed in a whole different world. In this post, we talk about word counts and answer the question. Jun 27, 2019 chapter books will come in at the lower end of the spectrum, while middlegrade books meant for older readers may even slightly exceed 55,000 words. Also remember because there are a bunch of new novel imprints opening their doors, a novella is 40k or less. Word count ranges by genre is a good place to start. Jul 18, 2014 if you liked electric literatures game of books infographic that compared the length of a song of ice and fire to classic novels, you might enjoy this infographic created for cartridge discount. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book.

Before i get into the numbers in this post, i want to make it clear that you can write a book of any length. This post was written in 2008, and revised in 2010. Im curious about your advice compose the novel in the standard format from the start rather than changing it later why does this matter. There are plenty of examples of very long books in just about every genre. 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. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. List of popular ya novels word counts if youre like me, you obsess over the word count of your novel. And i believe pams book is good enough to one day be in that category. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words.

Lewis sevenbook chronicles of narnia series is 345,535. Word count for novels and childrens books at the guide to literary agents blog. Obviously, the examples under each category are above and below what is generally accepted. Word counts for childrens books i received a request awhile ago to do a post on word counts for different age categories in childrens lit. For kids 2 5, you will often see writers aim for the 300500 range such as maple and willow together, by lori nichols. Keep the word count in mind, but more importantlytell your story in the best way possible. Lets take a look at some generally accepted rules for fiction and nonfiction lengths and how they might fit into your overall writing career. If youre looking for word counts of your favorite books or series, then youve come to the right place. Sure thing and some king to read whilst you recover. In any case, to see how authors use this tactic to set their pacing, we also mapped out the word count of every chapter in four famous books. Unfortunately, amazon recently removed that feature as well. Word counts of famous book series harry potter by jk rowling. Yes, the more successful your books, the longer they will get to be without anyone batting an eyelash see.

Those that are written well see success, regardless of length. The best word count for your selfpublished novel self. The word count of 175 favorite novels broke by books. Which is totally understandable, since length can be an important factor that agents and publishers look at when they receive your query letter. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. The publishing industry has changed drastically in that time, and word counts arent nearly as rigid nor as important as they once were, especially for writers who are now producing e. Jan 18, 2012 list of popular ya novels word counts if youre like me, you obsess over the word count of your novel. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Where can i find a database of all published books word. Were discussing short stories with the indy nanowrimo group this afternoon, and i thought it might help to have a word count chart similar to the one i did for.

Apr 09, 2014 the books have simple plots and some pictures, but the story needs to carry the book, rather than the pictures. There are no hardandfast rules when it comes to what word count a novel in a particular genre should be. Of course, hiring a professional editor does come with a price tag, and most freelancers calculate their costs based on the number of words. Sure, you could start with their most famous book, but if your real, secret goal is to only say youve read soandso at your next party and not be lying, why not start with their shortest. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. The bible is more than 600,000 words long in its original languagesbut how are those words distributed across the 66 books of the bible. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by. Most of the time, an overly long word count is a symptom of major plot or pacing problems in a novel issues that need to be solved during the revision process. Not easy to keep the pacing up over such an extended narrative, and the worry is that the authorespecially a debut authoris not up to the challenge. We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. There are numerous genres of nonfiction, including biographies, folklore, creative nonfiction, journals, history, essays, and religious text. Whether youre just curious about how many words are in these books or youre writing a book and want to compare the length of your novel to these famous tomes, then read on to find the word counts of famous books and series.

Apr 03, 2016 and i was surprisedand happy to learn that there really are no norms and patterns with the most famous novels. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. How many words do they or did they, in some cases write each day. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words.

Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Well, as publishers matter less and less, in some respects, word counts matter less and less. Surely when writing the important thing is to get words on the page even if theyre in pink comic sans. Word count picture book, middle grade, ya lisa lewis tyre.

Jan 19, 20 ive been doing some research into epic fantasy word counts recently, especially to get an idea of debut novel figures over recent years. Nov 12, 2018 every word counts in a short story, and for some writers that is one of the challenges of writing in this shorter form. The average word count for a typical novel ranges anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words, with the average hanging. Word counts of the most popular books in the world. Word counts of famous short stories organized by hawthorn mineart, under writing.

I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. For a few examples, lets start on the low end of word count where we have the great gatsby clocking in at approx. Listed below are some famous series and novels and their word counts. However, havent you ever wondered exactly how long your favourite novels are. If you are an author of a book or know of a book s accurate wordcount, contact me.

However, that isnt to say that a shorter or longer book cant be a bestseller too. Of course, hemingway is no longer alive, but when he was he would stick around writing about 500 words a day. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Ive read individual stories from some of the collections, but bazaar is the only one ive read cover to cover. This is probably due to the serial nature of such works, which seemed to be better money makers. From these numbers, we can establish some guidelines. With that in mind, ive tried to put together the definitive post on word count for fiction novels, young adult, middle grade, childrens. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction.