Number of words famous books

If youre looking for word counts of your favorite books or series, then youve come to the right place. Of the 161 stories listed, 3081 is the median word count number in the middle and 4052 is the average word count. Everything you need to know about novel word counts. Both new and old, fiction and nonfictionthese books are packed with the best book quotes that provide thoughtprovoking bits of wisdom, wit, and universal truths. This post covers why word count matters for novels, the standard word count. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words. When it gets closer to 1,000, editors and agents may shy away. Compiling a list of longest novels yields different results depending on whether pages, words or characters are counted. The number of pages also doesnt help much, as publishers use different typefaces, page sizes, font sizes, etc. 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.

May 24, 2011 green eggs and ham went on to be geisels best selling work, so he made out on it anyways. My estimate could be entirely wrong though because i estimated 23 lines based on the first page of one of the books. This page provides lists of bestselling individual books and book series to date and in any language. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. If youre going to go over that, youd better have a really good reason for it. Famous book series and novel word counts number of words. According to amazons great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. I dont mind a publisher, agent or even a writer giving us his opinion of what word count makes a book, but to try to pass it off as definitive is more than arrogant. 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. Here are some word counts of famous novels, sorted from long to short.

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. Geisels first successful childrens book, cat in the hat, also was the result of a challenge to write a book in under a certain number of words. Picture books for children up to age eight average words though many are shorter. So i used one of logos bible softwares notso famous features. Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. Crusoes world famous novel is a complex literary confection, and it. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. This is a list of the novels over 500,000 words published through a mainstream publisher. The number at the time was actually that of dez dickerson, the guitarist in princes band the revolution. I thought the average for a midsized novel would be around 100200 pages.

Average sentence lengths of famous novels and authors. As you can imagine, i dont have the time nor originallanguage knowledge to tally all these words on my own. 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. Fantasy readers usually expect all their books to be epic. You can use word to count how many words you have written in a document. Harry potter and the sorcerers stone is about 77,500 words total. Apr 03, 2016 and i was surprisedand happy to learn that there really are no norms and patterns with the most famous novels. Three weeks later we sold the book to amy einhorn books. And children love them they can really pore over the pictures and create their own story in their own words. How many words would be in the average enid blyton famous. The popular novel, which is considered to be among kings best, prominently features a vast number of characters who live in the town salems lot in fact, he spends almost 34 the novel head jumping between various townsfolk.

Unfortunately, they dont offer word count so ive created an algorithm based on the number of pages, genre, and the dimensions of the book. For a few examples, lets start on the low end of word count where we have the great gatsby clocking in at approx. We are also going to look at how harry potter is comparable to other young adult novels in regards to word count. Trivia lovers, biography and history buffs, nerdfighters, academic and public library reference collections and library circulating collections. Use these numbers as a baseline for your writing goals.

Keep in mind that a few of these are translations of foreignlanguage novels, so the statistics will not be perfect for those. With books like twilight at 118,975 words and divergent at 105,143 words, this genre has been trending higher. Word counts of the most popular books in the world foster. By the way, if you want to know what i think of logos. However, i understand that the length of twilight is unusually long for a debut novel. The word count range for young adult is 55,000 to 90,000. The typical book s words perpage count tends to range between 225 and 275an average of 250. The harry potter books are popular, and once someone reads the first book in the series, they often end up reading the entire series. There are many other novels out there, just waiting for you to read them. School zone sight words flash cards ages 5 and up, kindergarten to 1st grade, phonics, beginning reading, sight reading, earlyreading words, and more school zone, joan hoffman. Generally a 50,000 word novel would be the minimum word count. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words.

Count up the total number of words on 10 random full lines from different places and divide by 10 to get the average words perline count the number of lines on each page to get the linesperpage check that the book actually starts on page 1 sometimes the stuff before it starts is counted then. Word counts of the most popular books in the world. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words. I used the lexham hebrew bible and the nestlealand novum testamentum graece for these word counts. I just popped into my office and pulled a few books off the shelf. Book page count calculator how many pages is my novel.

Four science board books for babies baby university board book sets chris ferrie. Although i wouldnt recommend pinning your whole novel around a magic number, it certainly helps to know how many words other authors used. For most publishers, a book is novellength when its between 50,000 and 110,000 words. How many words are there in the harry potter book series. Popular novel word count the worlds largest word count. Tom wolfe is an author that has written many popular books that. By the end of the 19th century, no book in english literary history had enjoyed more editions, spinoffs and translations. Salems lot is kings second novel, published just after carrie. Rowlings recordbreaking series began with two titles on the high end of that spectrum and finished with five that left the guidelines in the dust. Comics and textbooks are not included in this list. Identifying and collecting first editions shop for books. Shes probably most famous for her novel pride and prejudice, but others like mansfield park, are very popular. I was looking online and most of the sources i found said the average number of words per novel page is 250, and the average words per book were 60,000120,000.

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. Valentines chunky liftaflap board book holly berrybyrd. Wordless books can also be used in ell classrooms and with struggling readers. Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. 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 %. For that group, a novel is more than 40k words, a novella is 17. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. May 29, 2014 ive put together word counts for every book of the bible. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime. This is the soft cover book edition of the last words tome featured in john greens dying declarations video. According to amazon s great text stats feature, the median length for all books is about 64,000 words. As a publisher who has laid out dozens of books for printinga 50,000 word manuscript should end up somewhere between 180 and 220 pages. They are a onesizefitsall solution to the problem of what to buy for a loved one. Another common method of identification is the number line thats a line of numbers on the page.

Generally, there are 300 words per typed doublespaced page, using a 12 point font. I once wrote 10,000 words in a day, but it was a true story about my life. The books are listed according to the highest sales estimate as reported in reliable, independent sources. A novelist of my acquaintance insists that the only way to estimate the number of words in a book is to multiply the number of pages by 250. Last words of notable people was an amazon top 100 bestseller in december 2011. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales, but also cause fewer 5star. That often dreaded, while at the same time appreciated, element of freelance writing. All books of a religious, ideological, philosophical or political nature have thus been excluded from the below lists of bestselling books for these reasons. 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. Deconstructing five spooky picture books with spoilers and word counts. Harry potter and the philosophers stone 76,944 words harry potter and the chamber of secrets 85,141 words. The daily word counts of 39 famous authors writers write. Famous novels have been extremely long, like 530,000 words for victor. The harry potter books are young adult titles, and ya publishers generally look for manuscripts in the 50,000 to 80,000 word range.

Best selling refers to the estimated number of copies sold of each book, rather than the number of books printed or currently owned. Below is a short list of some famous novels and authors with their respective writing statistics. What isnt often considered is the sheer number of words a person who reads the entire series consumes. I do it all the time we had to right a 500 word story and mine was 8,000 words. Ben mears arguably the main single character of the novel only takes up 20% of. The publisher may actually state the words first edition or first printing on the page. 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. 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. Nonfiction books tend to be shorter, around 45,000 words on average, and novels ten. This article how to write a bestselling business book has a good, concise, logical answer on the ideal length today for a business book less than 100 pages. Sep 23, 20 the pilgrims progress, from this world, to that which is to come was first published in holborn, london by nathaniel ponder, a nonconformist, at the beginning of 1678 in an edition of 191 pages.

Sharing wordless books is a terrific way to build important literacy skills, including listening skills, vocabulary, comprehension and an increased awareness of how stories are structured. Her books largely dealt with themes of love and a womans role in the home. 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. For others, making sure that they dont go over the word count can be a chore especially if their editor is strict about not going over that number. Having sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, harry potter by j. The king james version, for instance, has 783,7 words. Many of these books are written in rhyme or in a simple singsong meter that is catchy and fun.

We want to give authors an easy way to show how long their book or novel is. Morris day sings the lead and asks a beautiful girl what her phone number is. Sep 20, 2019 how many words in a novel vary depending on genre, audience, and the story itself but in general, the average words in a novel is between 60,000 and 90,000 words for most genres. And i believe pams book is good enough to one day be in that category. Dont be daunted by the thickness of the book, the number of pages, or the word count theyll fly by and the next thing you know, youll want to read another novel. Length of a book is typically associated with its sizespecifically page countleading many to assume the largest and thickest book equates to its length. Jane austen is recognized as one of the most important english writers of her time. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels. I think the daily totals, what you put out in work for a single day are important, what the length of the story is, in total, in unimportant, as a number. That was the formula in the good old days when courier was the only typeface and typewriters were king.

They are items that provide hours of enjoyment for the recipient. Select your word print size select the book genre enter your book s word count press calculate number of pages just 4 easy steps and youre done. Seuss wrote green eggs and ham on a bet that he couldn. Word counts of the most popular books in the world foster grant uk. The answer depends on what version and translation of the bible you are using. In this article, were going to look at how many words are in the harry potter series. 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. Feb 09, 2015 word counts although flexible are a useful guide, especially when plotting the number of chapters and drafting your work. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. Famous books and their word counts freelance writing gigs. Bookbrowse is a selective website featuring some of the best books published in the past 15 years.

Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Roughly how many pages would 50,000 words produce in a. Apr 23, 2018 as you can see, in general, 120,000 words for me is kind of the upper limit for the genres that allow some leeway in length. We have compiled a list of the daily word counts of famous authors and what they had to say about writing every day. Rejected by publishers, ruth saberton leaves her 400 page manuscript katy carter wants a hero on the holiday home doormat of richard and judy in cornwall. A book is also a considerate option when giving to an acquaintance such as a coworker. Wordcounter will help to make sure its word count reaches a specific requirement or stays within a certain limit. We all know of outliers within each genre that have been published well under, or well over, these word counts. To emphasize this, look at how many words are in the bible how many words are in the bible. Well, calculating it out, that would mean the average book was 240480 pages. Childrens book writers must adhere to strict industry standards for word counts.

Our favorite wordless picture books reading rockets. Martins a song of ice and fire series, is the lengthiest of the five currently released books, with a word count of almost 415. Harry potter and the philosophers stone 77,325 words harry potter and the chamber of secrets 84,799 words harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban 106,821 words harry potter and the goblet of fire 190,858 words. The graphic looks at the length of some famous novels, poems, and plays from literary history. On another note, have you ever thought about just how many words there are in your favorite books. Aug 03, 2017 one hundred years of solitude, gabriel garcia marquez 144,523 words. 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. Word counts although flexible are a useful guide, especially when plotting the number of chapters and drafting your work.

For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Now we have computers and word processing software. If you dont find the book or author youre looking for in the first page of results the chances are its because it is not one that we have featured. 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. For those who like to keep track of their reading word count or those who want to encourage their kids to read more the harry potter books series is an. There are hundreds of different translations of the bible, and each one has a different number of words. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing.

The eight harry potter books have an impressive combined word count of over 1 million words. 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. The most ive ever been able to churn out in a day writing fiction was about 3,500. Some 6090k ya books get classified as hilo, but i dont think they were specifically written for the category.