Your Novel's Page Length

I think the number they tell you to go with (when it comes to sending it to publishers and such) is 250 words per page (12 Courier New, 1" Margins, double spaced).

When I typed a few random pages out of books I'd read onto my computer, I got on average 330 words per page, 340 for some books, and A Game of Thrones would have been more than that, but that book was printed on considerably bigger pages, the verson I had.

If you're looking for how much it'd actually be printed, check other books of your genre and the publisher you're considering. Longer works will have the tendency to have more words per page, I'm pretty sure. The Invisible Man had more words per page than a fantasy book I read, both of which had more words per page than a short realistic fiction book I read.

As a side note, for kicks and giggles I typed up a random page from Twilight. Took up the same amount of lines and space as all those other books, but only took up 250 words. Can I use that as proof that sections of that book have WAY too much useless dialogue. I mean, I enjoyed reading it, but really.... >.< I know it's YA, but I wasn't going by font size or anything, it was in porportional size to the way the other books were set up.

I don't really think pages or word count matter for a novel, so long as the content's good. For my first novel, I only had 220 odd pages, because I wanted to keep it short and make the reader want more (which is the effect I got). But I guess it depends on the novel really.

Panda Dragon said:

I don't really think pages or word count matter for a novel, so long as the content's good. For my first novel, I only had 220 odd pages, because I wanted to keep it short and make the reader want more (which is the effect I got). But I guess it depends on the novel really.

Click to expand...

Ms page count is pretty unimportant, yes, but word count is very important for a novel. If an adult novel is much less than 75k or much more than 110k, you're going to have a harder time finding a home for it. It's not impossible, of course, but it is harder.

For mass market paperbacks I've counted around 280 words/page. So much depends on the way the publisher sets the page though.

DecemberQuinn said:

Ms page count is pretty unimportant, yes, but word count is very important for a novel. If an adult novel is much less than 75k or much more than 110k, you're going to have a harder time finding a home for it. It's not impossible, of course, but it is harder.

Click to expand...

Regarding that, it depends on so many factors. The best thing to do is to look at each publisher's guidelines. Baen (major science fiction publisher) wants a minimum of 100,000 words, for instance! (They suggest 100k-130k).

Page count is extremely important. No one is interested in publishing debuts that are long. Yes, it does happen. But so does the lottery, and shark attacks. Keep it short.

As regards your formula, it would be a little easier if you'd just take the page count of your novel and multiply it by 1.2 to get the number of pages in a paperback (given the numbers you cite.)

Word count is probably more important. For a debut keep it under 90 if you can or you will be wasting your time. And I've wasted A LOT of time.

I made some count with line and type of an hardbound novel that i liked. Then i formatted my word document with similar type, size 10 and B5 page. I make a document per chapter.

The blank space around the A4 sheet gives me space to edit and write notes.
On screen, i just magnifice to 180%.

I also noticed that word count is not directly related to the actual page count, especially if i have more or less dialogue in a certain chapter, so my system is really helpful for me.

When I have finished, i will know about how many real pages my novel will be (i'm aiming for around 350). Then I'll put everything in a single document with standard manuscript fonts and format.

MelancholyMan said:

For a debut keep it under 90 if you can or you will be wasting your time.

Click to expand...

This is very true. Except when it's not.