Rounding up wordcount

starrystorm · Apr 17, 2019

Super quick question:

If people want to know my word count and it's at like 68,148 would I say 60k or 70k? Or would I just say 68K? What if it was closer to 69K (68,876) but technically still 68, would I say 69 or 68?

(If you didn't know, K means a thousand. Not trying to sound smart, but I was one of those people who didn't know at first either and thought I would help)

ETA: This is not for querying or an agent (I would like to self-publish), I would just like to know in case anyone might need a number later on.

Maggie Maxwell · Apr 17, 2019

68k is the one you want. Usually round to the nearest thousand. So if it's over ##,500, round up. Under, round down.

Redspruce · Apr 17, 2019

I'm with Maggie on this. I don't see why you would round to the nearest 10 thousand instead of the nearest 1 thousand, so 60 thousand and 70 thousand are out. And the rule of rounding, as I learned it in math classes, is to use the 5 or the halfway mark as the cutoff. If you've got 68,500, call it 69,000. If you've got 68,499, call it 68,000. Hope this helps, and I also hope your potential readers aren't motivated or discouraged by a thousand word difference in your word count.

AW Admin · Apr 17, 2019

starrystorm said:
Super quick question:

If people want to know my word count and it's at like 68,148 would I say 60k or 70k? Or would I just say 68K? What if it was closer to 69K (68,876) but technically still 68, would I say 69 or 68?

You say 68K, or in more formal contexts, 68,000 words. The problem with saying 68K is that it could mean 68 Kilobytes, the file size.

neandermagnon · Apr 18, 2019

Mathematically, 68,876 would round up to 69k or 70k. You round up if the next digit is 5 or above, and round down if it's less than 5.

Which of the above is the best from a publishing point of view - I'll leave that to people with experience of publishing.

Sage · Apr 20, 2019

I would probably round to 70K. I have always felt that rounding to the nearest 5K is the easiest.

But seriously, the average person doesn't care about the difference between a 68K book and 70K book, so use whatever makes you feel best :greenie

soulrodeo · Apr 20, 2019

If I was talking to a reader or fellow writer, I would say 70k. It's pretty much 70k and no one cares about a small margin on either end. If I was talking to someone who needed a more accurate rounding up/down, like say an editor looking to give a pricing quote, I would say 68k.

AW Admin · Apr 20, 2019

If you're giving word count to an editor, round down; it's easier to cut words than to add, and word count is used to figure the casting off (page count) for printing.

jjdebenedictis · Apr 20, 2019

I've heard a literary agent say to round to the nearest 1000 words. Their logic was that 1000 words is only four pages, and that's negligible compared to the size of the average novel. If you're rounding up or down by more than that, you are starting to misrepresent how big the book actually is.

mccardey · Apr 20, 2019

AW Admin said:
If you're giving word count to an editor, round down; it's easier to cut words than to add, and word count is used to figure the casting off (page count) for printing.

+1
'Swhat I was told

screenscope · Apr 21, 2019

I would say approx. 70,000 words if over 68k. Unless you are paying for a service based on the word count, general terms are fine.

angeliz2k · Apr 22, 2019

Basic math: if it's 5 or above, you round up; if it's 4 or under, you round down. So 76,500 would round up to 77k, but 76,499 rounds down to 76k. I would round to the nearest thousand if querying. If discussing informally, it's probably fine to round to the nearest 5k or 10k.

GoSpeed · Apr 25, 2019

AW Admin said:
You say 68K, or in more formal contexts, 68,000 words. The problem with saying 68K is that it could mean 68 Kilobytes, the file size.

To be more clear one could say 68K words. But yeah, I'm old school too and I always associate "K" with computer RAM.

Rounding up wordcount

starrystorm

Maggie Maxwell

Making Einstein cry since 1994

Redspruce

AW Admin

neandermagnon

Nolite timere, consilium callidum habeo!

Sage

Supreme Guessinator

soulrodeo

AW Admin

jjdebenedictis

is watching you via her avatar

mccardey

screenscope

angeliz2k

never mind the shorty

GoSpeed