Siglark

My recent novel seems to be too short: 30,000 words when I use the formula (possible characters per page (60) divided by 6 (10) times number of lines) Is this the correct way to do this? When I print it out in manuscript format (courier, double spaced) it is 150 pages. THis seems like an apropriate novel length. Am I missing something? Perhaps I'm just in denial...

mwd

Umm, why don't you use the actual word count in your word processor?

I'm not sure about this formula you're talking about, but if it's 150 standard manuscript pages, at ~250 words per page, that would put your novel at 37500 words. So yes, it sounds like it's too short.

MSTK

You probably already know this, but all basic word processors have a Word Count feature, usually under Tools -> Word Count. If you know this and there's a reason you're not using it, please forgive me

And, yes, it's a bit short. I think I'd call it a novella. Usually the lower limit for novels is 40k-50k words. There's no upper limit, obviously, but those are just guidelines. The rules aren't set in stone.

For a quick comparism, the average Goosebumps book by RL Stine is about 22k words. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, which is widely considered a children's book, is about 97k words.

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safari invasion

Do you know where to find another word counts for well known books? I'm just curious.

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MSTK

I just thought, "hey, Harry Potter books are a good benchmark, because everyone knows how long they are." So I googled "harry potter word count" and got this as the first result.

Scroll down the page and you'll get the word counts I listed there, including some more. If you want more, I guess you could spend some time googling "famous books word counts" or something.

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lisajane

JK Rowling has got kids reading books that have word counts of 200,000+... we're got people on this forum insulting her writing, but I think anyone who can get kids to read that much due not to be insulted for her writing.

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aspiring

Yes http://www.renlearn.com/store/quiz_home.asp but only for children's books.

safari invasion

I saw in another thread about amazon.com's Text Stats thing for all, or at least most, of the books on their site. It will tell you word counts as well as lots of other useful or not so useful information.

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mswietek

Another way to estimate the word count is to simply multiply the number of pages by 250 (which in this case would give you 37500 words). This works if you are using 12pt. Courier font, double spaced with 1 inch margins all around. There is a thread (I think in the Writing 101 forum) that talks more about it.

What you have is more a novella, then a novel. The more important question you should ask yourself is "Is it as long as it needs to be to tell everything that needs to be told". If so, then it's at the right length, although novellas are harder to get published. At the same time, however, a well written 37,000 word novella padded out to make an 80,000 word novel will also have trouble getting published!

Michael

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