How many words on a page generally?

[zeprosnepsid]

Out of curiosity, about how many words are usually on a book page? I'm writing in weird word processing software and I think I may have more book pages that it says I do.

[Galoot]

Whatever your word processor shows, it's unlikely to reflect what'll show up in a printed book. I'm not sure I understand the question, but in standard manuscript format you can usually guesstimate 10 words per line, 25 lines per page (using double-spaced 12-point Courier).

[Jaws]

Out of curiosity, about how many words are usually on a book page? I'm writing in weird word processing software and I think I may have more book pages that it says I do.

There is a very complicated formula used to estimate the number of words that appear on a printed page. Just ask someone in the industry how to do a castoff, then actually pay attention. It's not as easy as "X words per page"; a great deal depends upon design characteristics, and upon characteristics of the text (e.g., is there a log of dialog? footnotes? diagrams? short or long chapters? short or long paragraphs?). It's a black art. Or, perhaps, a black-and-white art.

[zeprosnepsid]

ack, so complicated! Thanks for the help though. I'm just trying to figure out how many pages I'm actually writing. Because I think my word processor pages will be more book pages and my book is going to be like 800 pages long.

[CaptDave]

My philosophy is to worry more about completing the book and less about big the book is. My job is to write. The publisher's in charge of making it fit.

Hiwever, here's how I ballpark the page count.

This particulalr publisher wants 75,000 words +/- for my final manuscript. Reviewing their catalog, that's a 250 page book. That means I need about 300 words per page to roughly match the page count.

So, I use 12 pt, Times New Roman, double-spaced text. It's not exact, but it's close enough to keep a mental tally of progress.

Your mileage may vary.

[zeprosnepsid]

thank you. i just wanted a ballpark. while it is the publisher's responsibility, i want to book to be vaguely affordable. i just don't want the length to get out of hand.

[terryewalker]

No more then 80,000 too 120,000 words per book 30 to 35 lines per page. Anything over this is like two books.

[Sassenach]

My philosophy is to worry more about completing the book and less about big the book is. My job is to write. The publisher's in charge of making it fit.



Kinda...but if you deliver something much longer than contracted, it can be a one-way ticket to Palookaville!

[DeePower]

As many as you can catch.

Dee