Average length non fiction book

Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this. So if you write a 35,000 word manuscript, your formatted book will likely be around 140 pages. A fulllength nonfiction book usually contains 9 to 15 chapters of average length. So, what is the average length of a non fiction book. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. One of my biggest problems as a publisher is having authors deliver more than was agreed to.

Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing stack. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. 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. This is about the length readers want for general non fiction, and it keeps publishers happy given the high cost of paper. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and non fiction. With upper middle grade, you can aim for 40,000 55,000 words. So the length of these affects the pacing of your story, and the way the reader experiences it. The length of your book should be determined by the content, whether it is a work of fiction or non fiction. These are books that resemble young adult in matter and storytelling. Mar 17, 2010 i am working on a book about my experience with losing a 9 year old cat to lymphoma.

I dont know if the question is meant as a mentalstatistical exorcise. Smiley lists novels as typically being between 100,000 and 175,000 words, while national novel writing month requires its novels to be at least 50,000. Nevertheless, you would be wise to come close to these suggested manuscript lengths. Non fiction readers, in particular, want value fast.

Writing a first novel that doesnt represent too much of an economic gamble for a publisher makes it so much easier for the publisher to say yes. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for non fiction books. There are beats between sentences, between paragraphs, and between chapters or sections. The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 to 75,000 words, but this can vary depending upon category. The average fiction book is about 80,000 to 100,000 words, which is about 246 to 307 ebook pages. Be aware that the word average means that for every book that sells 15,000, there is one that sells 5,000. The 1 thing you need to do to write a new york times best.

Although science fiction and some other kinds were now invasive and can exceed 400 pages 200,000 words. Available in ebook, print, audiobook and workbook formats. Average nonfiction word counts biographies and memoirs. Aug 05, 2019 before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. I dont know what i can say to add to what has already been said. The 1 thing you need to do to write a new york times. In todays market, this is the goto paperback size range for many novels, memoirs, and non fiction books. The length can vary greatly between genres, though.

If so, you might give yourself a goal of writing a 96 to 128page book in the 6 x 9 format, thus only about 30,000 to 40,000 words. Easygoing, fairly light, userfriendly, nonfiction book for the masses. The length of your book will depend on a number of considerations. The average income from a published book bizfluent. The range is wide open when it comes to nonfiction books in the christian world. I heard 10,000 words can be accepted as an ebook at a short length at least for non fiction. I have therefore made some averages, based on what ive heard from publishers and agents at childrens book events, and from research and reading. Someone wrote me to ask, what does an average first book deal pay. Not a very satisfying answer, i know, but i say it for a reason. Typically, fiction makes use of 250 words each web page, although 300 is additionally an usual worth.

I appreciated your information on word count and novel length, particularly since you broke it down by genre. When talking about book length, its common to talk about word count rather than page count. I noticed way too many non fiction kindle books around 3040 pages. Indeed, most traditional publishers limit non fiction authors to 80,000 words for standard 6 x 9 books, between 240 and 280 pages. How to finally write your nonfiction book the new york times. By the standards of fiction that is considered very short size news, actually. Though the average word count of a chapter is around 2,000 5,000 words, it all depends on your story.

And can you explain how money is paid on a traditional publishing. How to set the retail price for your nonfiction book. The retail price you set for your book impacts your profit margin. That means your manuscript must be at least 3540,000 words long.

Recently i got asked this question, what is the ideal length word count wise for my first book. At the other end of the spectrum a book of 80,000 to 100,000 words has significant heft, 320400 pages. Sep, 2010 of course, foundation posts work best for this, and ive started with a blog post dating from 2010, and one of the more popular destinations for search traffic, selfpublishing basics. Generally speaking, traditional publishers expect completed nonfiction book. If yes, then most publishers still work on specific word count lengths for books so youll probably be aiming for around 60,00080,000 words for nonfiction. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. The average length of a nonfiction book is 50,000 words, with some books falling at around 3540,000 words, and others running as long as 70,000. Jul 23, 2012 so 50,000 words is the minimum for a non fiction book. Kindle finally updated the page count to 276 from 114. If your story is a melody, its sections make up the underlying beat or rhythm. With digital as well as print books available, the length of books varies. A word count guide for 18 book genres, including fiction and. It makes quite a difference whether you want to publish a childrens picture book, a 50recipe smoothie book, a science fiction novel or a technical encyclopedia. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words.

If youre new to selfpublishing on amazon and wondering, just how much should i write for my kindle book. As for non fiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. Perhaps you dont have enough content to create the standard nonfiction book at 80,000 words. Rick warrens first big publishing success, the purpose driven church 1995 was composed of 103,208 words. Obviously, my point is not that you should submit a first book of anywhere near 200,000 words. Although science fiction and some other genres have been creeping up and can now exceed 400 pages 200,000 words. If you choose to selfpublish, you have a choice to go long or short. T he indie author chris fox coined the term potato chip chapters for easilydigestible book chapters of a certain size. In 2011, the average length of a bestselling nonfiction book was 467 pages, but that dropped to 273 pages in 2017. The figure was found through looking at a number of books text stats. May 11, 2009 32 responses to word count and book length. And conversely, a longer book of over 60k words or 200 pages can command a higher price. However part why the new writers, the answer is difficult to identify because the answer is so difficult. Im going to write about my experience and not worry too much about the word count.

Make it actionable, helpful, and great value and the length wont matter. Only 62 of 1,000 business books released in 2009 sold more than 5,000 copies, according to an analysis by the codex group new york times, march 31, 2010. However, many authors, frustrated with the low price of ebooks, have taken to writing ebooks that are between 40,000 and 50,000. How many words should be in an adult nonfiction book. In fiction, a short book is between 50,000 to 80,000 words roughly 200 300 pages in paperback. Book length average length of a non fiction booki youtube. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length. Although science fiction and some other kinds were now invasive and. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid. But rules are made to be broken, and the most successful publishing phenomenon in history did just that.

My current historical fiction novel of the sea ended up at 85,000 words after nine revisions. What is a reasonable estimate for the minimum length, in word count, for a nonfiction book. Book length average length of a non fiction book a 10 minute training video from video discusses how to determine the av. One of the questions that new writers always ask is how long should my non fiction book be. Several years ago, my son wrote a short story that i found to be very good, as did many of his teachers. If you have provided all the information that you feel is needed or is relevant, then you are done.

And this ebook page length differs significantly depending on the book genre. I was curious to the public reaction to shorter novels as they are not physically picking up a printed book in a bookstore and can assess the length of it before they part with cash. If you have an idea for a nonfiction book, its better to write a couple of chapters and then pitch a book proposal. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. Jun 07, 2017 to answer the immediate question, lets look at some numbers. When writing a longer book that is aimed at 12yearolds and could maybe be considered tween, using the term upper middle grade is advisable. By 2017, however, that number has dropped to 273 pages.

Nov 07, 2016 generally speaking, a shorter book of 150 finished pages or 40k words or less typically commands a lower price. Average fiction word counts flash fiction word count. I know fiction works on average come in at 60,000 but i really had no idea about non fiction. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000word range. The book length on kindle is rather useless since you dont get a real book length. There are plenty of books that purposefully play with the word counts of their chapters. Id guesstimate that nonfiction books generally yes, this is very rough run perhaps 150450 pages. For nonfiction, the people who say a book should be however long it needs to be are absolutely right. The graph shows the average length of the top 100 bestsellers in each of the 30 main amazon kindle categories, measured in terms of the number of pages. Nonfiction requires more thinking time from your reader, so you need to consider the role of your book. Want to download this infographic to share and reference whenever you like.

Were doing ask the agent this month your chance to ask that question youve always wanted to discuss with a literary agent. In this article youll discover the average number of pages for four different types of book. Ive just published a non fiction book at 44,000 words and am now. Although science fiction and some other genres have been creeping up. Oct 27, 2018 chapter length matters more than you think. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. Jun 15, 2017 this is a general list of age categories and word counts for childrens books. Minimum realistic word count of nonfiction book writing. Make sure you have enough material and time to fulfill this obligation before you propose it. 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. Before diving into the specifics of genrebased word counts, lets look at the broader picture of average book length. Ive decided since i dont have an agent to do the bulk of the research and interviews first, then seek help, armed and ready.

If the topic really justifies length and especially if your credentials are highly impressive you can go longer, but check that you remain interesting, even at length. Less than 100 pages and it becomes difficult for a printer to print the title of the book on the spine. Thanks morriss003, thats the kind of information i needed to know. Lets take a look at some generally accepted rules for fiction and nonfiction lengths and how they might fit into your overall writing career. Im writing a non fiction book, detailing the unprecedented rise of the boise state broncos football program a reallife david, slaying reallife goliaths. A writers average income from a particular book depends upon whether the book is fiction or nonfiction as well as whether the author has gone through the traditional publishing route or published the book himself.

I get asked this a lot, and my answer is always the same. Jun 24, 2019 be aware that the word average means that for every book that sells 15,000, there is one that sells 5,000. The question of fiction and non fiction was not introduced into the story so that brings another question as to the length of non fiction v fiction and whether there should be a separate category for non fiction ebooks so that we can remove these ebooks from the general population for data assessment purposes or simply provide another set. Since 2011, the average length of a bestseller has dropped steadily from year to year. In these cases, the overall design of the book determines the publishing costs more than word count. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. A good way to gauge appropriate length is to check out similar books for comparison. And for every book that sells 20,000, there is one that is a disaster. Microfiction and flash fiction are the tweets of the fiction world.

The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000. And publishers are looking for more nonfiction authors to write e book singles, which run anywhere from 20 to 100 pages in length. This is not an uncommon length in traditional publishing, especially in my observation for nonfiction books that are heavy on research. Thats reason for nonfiction writers to pausebut not for too long. If you want to get a target for your non fiction book, the best thing may be to look at a dozen or so bestselling books in the genreniche youre aiming at and see what their word counts are. Im just saying that some things are more important than word counts. Jul 17, 2017 not necessarily, according to a new study by book in a box of 272 non fiction books that hit the new york times best sellers list between 2011 and 2017.

In this report im going to exertion to sass that question. Oct 18, 2017 knowing this, why does chapter length matter. For most publishers, a book is novel length when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. The trade paperback is 314 which is at least 350 on a standard paper book. Book length average length of a non fiction book one of the questions that new writers always ask is how long should my non fiction book be. My experience is that a book reaches its right length when the story follows the beats in save the cat writes a novel, the characters come alive and become memorable, their development is believable, and the plot develops and wraps up properly. The average nonfiction book, if such a thing exists, runs about 50,000 words. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction.

I guess 50,000 is a short novel and some early novels before goes as low as 40,000 which can be considered to be a novella. Do you want the pace to be brisk to the reader and skip in a staccato. However sometimes, like today, the reverse happens. Book length average length of a non fiction book book n. That doesnt mean you can submit a manuscript twice the length a publisher recommends. It is not the final outcome that the real about white pages. Length of non fiction article and what to do about it. Non fiction usually has longer sentences and also much less white room since it does not have discussion. The art of the nonfiction book proposal writers relief. Book length average length of four types of non fiction book. When planning your non fiction book it helps to have an idea of how long a book needs to be to be marketable. As with everything else when it comes to writing a book, these are only guidelinesnot rules. The length of your book should be determined by the content, whether it is a work. By fiction standards that is considered very short novella size in fact.

Although the length of fiction is genredependent to an extent fantasy novels, for example, tend to be on the thicker side, sticking to the ideal novel length is still the best advice. Dont submit an outline for a book that contains less than 9 chapters. At a writers conference i recently attended, publishing veteran jane friedman said 80,000 words is good for most fiction, below. Then, more importantly, lets talk strategy and consider some case studies. Youll probably be familiar with these premium formats. In fiction, a book about between 50,000 and 80,000 words about 200 to 300 pages in paperback. 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. The ten awful truths and the ten wonderful truths about. Jul 14, 2011 book length average length of a non fiction book a 10 minute training video from video discusses how to determine the av.

Loves abiding joy 2003 by janette oke, aimed at a younger audience perhaps, is half that length at 65,668 words. I have often looked this up and got different results, which makes it very confusing. 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. This is still respectable, if your content feels new and your writing is impressive. Awards, too, often categorize a book by how long it is. If you are planning to write a 200page book, then at 250words per page you are aiming for 50,000 words total.