Thread: Word Count vs Page Count

I'm still struggling to learn word count and still think in terms of total number of pages. Does anyone have a rule of thumb to convert word count to page count, assuming standard sized page, margins, font, and point size? I mean pages in the finished and printed book, not typed pages in a manuscript. Thanks. C.M.

Rule of thumb is 400 to 500 words per page for a 15.26cm x 22.86cm (6x9 inch) novel with standard half-inch margins all around. So a 400-page manuscript will theoretically have between 160,000 to 200,000 words in it. Of course, this varies due to sentence length, where your chapters end (top of page, bottom of page, etcetera), and other extraneous details.

Page count really doesn't mean much, though. It varies with font size and font choice. It's word count you need to worry about.

Thanks for the conversion chart. I know writers, editors, agents, and publishers all think in terms of word count. But when I meet non-writers they eventually ask me, How pages long is your book? Word count means nothing to them.

That will probably change in the near future as more people switch to reading e-books where different e-readers with different levels of zoom put different amounts of words on the screen at any one time. So human readers will eventually switch to word count vs page count.

So when I see people in this community talk of novels of 60 or 70K words that converts to less than 200 pages by your formula. Is that really what the market wants? I still think of a novel as a minimum of 300 pages (130K words), and if it is less than 275 pgs, I feel cheated.

Amazon requires a 5X8 inch format for paperbacks as well as the Kindle versions. This increases the page count as not as much will fit as on a letter size. a search resulted in this...

Estimates for "average" novel length vary, but I suspect that 90% of novels on the market fall within the range of 70,000 (around 150 pp) to 150,000 (around 300 pp). A very rough rule of thumb would be 200 words per printed page, though this will vary dramatically depending on the format and length of the book, typeface used and marketing. The upper limit these days is around 200,000 words, which is where the longer Potter books probably fall (i.e., the doorstops of 800+ pages, though with a lower word-per-page count, most likely, than the latest biography of Winston Churchill).

For me, when I'm writing I'll use single spaced, Courier New, 12 Font on 81/2 by 11 sized paper. With that format, 40,000 words equals about one hundred pages. That's all I know!!!

I've always used 350 words as a rule of thumb for a page - I'm fairly certain that this is the average count for a 5"x8" book - what is now fast becoming the 'old' paperback/mass market paperback size.