Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

Hello, authors! I have just a quick question for you all. How many words are there in an average novel, 300-350 pages (or somewhere around there)? I know it varies depending on font size and book size, etc., I just want to get a general feel for this. Thanks for your help!

I would say 90,000-120,000. It varies depending on the size of the page, how many words are on each page, line breaks, indentions, formatting, etc.

You get between 250 to 400 words per page, depending.

It depends on what you mean by "average novel" as well. Fantasy novels tend to be longer than most other novels. Some people consider 50K or more to be novel length, while others consider that to be a novella up to the 75K word count. As far as page count goes with consideration to word count, that depends on what others have already mentioned as well as how much dialogue is contained within the text. Dialogue tends to take up more space with less words because of the conversation going back and forth.

I've heard a rule of thumb is 11 words per line, times that by the number of lines per page, and then times that by pages.

300 pages would probably be 60k - 80k words, with formatting breaks.

I normally use about 300wpp to estimate page printed page counts. I believe Amazon starts with an estimate in the 325wpp range, but then maps numbers of page turns in ebooks to generate an approximate page count.

For instance, my novel runs about 101,000 words, which I would estimate at 101,000 / 300 = 336 pages; Amazon's initial estimate would run 101,000 / 325 = 310 pages. However, based on "number of page turns" it's now estimated at 296 pages, which is close to 340 wpp.

I'm slowly working through CreateSpace to make it available in paperback, so it will be interesting to see what the page count ends up in actual print. I suspect factors like line spacing, size of paragraphs (shorter paragraphs = more new lines = fewer wpp = larger page counts), and obviously the size of the printed page and font used have an impact.

All of your comments have been very helpful. Thanks so much!

Harper-Voyager, which is currently open for digital submissions, is asking for novels of 80,000 to 120,000 words, which is an average-sized book.

I've also heard that the current "Industry standard" is 80K for entry-level novels.