How Long Should a Book Be? Word Counts by Page Count

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOaFdSmIVaA

Quick answer: The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 words. At roughly 200 words per printed page, that is about 250 pages. For most nonfiction authors, 20,000 to 40,000 words (100 to 199 pages) is the sweet spot: in Scribe’s data, books in that range sell the best.

How Many Words Are in a Book?

A useful rule of thumb for a printed nonfiction book is about 200 words per page. Words per page vary with trim size, font, and layout, but this gets you close:

So a 200-page book is about 40,000 words, and the average 50,000-word nonfiction book runs about 250 pages. Most nonfiction books have about 12 chapters, which puts an average chapter around 4,000 words (see our guide to how long a chapter should be).

How Long Should Your Nonfiction Book Be?

Shorter is usually better. The sales data we have on nonfiction books is clear:

• Books under 100 pages don’t sell very well (lower perceived value).
• Books between 100 and 199 pages sell the best.
• Books between 200 and 299 pages sell almost as well.
• Books over 300 pages sell the least (that length is a big investment of a reader’s time).

Keep your book as short and focused as possible without leaving anything out. Our step-by-step guide on how to write a book covers how to plan the length, and if you would rather have a team help you get there, see Scribe’s book writing services.

What #1 Bestsellers Show: Our 2011 to 2017 Study

A lot has been written in recent years about the average readers’ shrinking attention span. 

We all know that the non-stop news cycle and round-the-clock social media have sped up our consumption habits. But do these same habits translate to books?

We decided to find out.

To get straight to the point — As recently as 2011, the average book length of the #1 non-fiction bestseller was 467 pages. By 2017, however, that number has dropped to 273 pages.

We gathered a list of every New York Times #1 Non-Fiction Bestseller for the past 7 years and analyzed how the average length has evolved.

The answer was clear: our collective cultural ADD is impacting our reading habits.

The Average Bestseller Length Is Falling Fast

The average #1 bestselling book length has fallen by 42% in just 7 years.

And this doesn’t seem to be an anomaly. The drop comes as part of a larger downward trend:

• In 2011, the list’s average length peaked at 467 pages.
• In 2012, that average fell to 410.
• In 2013, it fell further to 367.
• In 2014, it recovered slightly to 382 on the back of three 600+ page books.
• In 2015, the drop resumed as the average fell to 345.
• In 2016, the drop lessened, falling only to 342.
• In 2017, the downward trend has continued, with an average book length of 273 pages.

However, the drop in the overall average length of bestsellers over the last 7 years points to a marked trend in the overall preferences of the average reader.

#1 Bestsellers Have A Wide Range, But A Narrow Average

The shortest book to hit the #1 spot was Harry Frankfurt’s 80-page On Bullshit.

The longest? Robert Caro’s 1232-page tome, Master of the Senate.

Looking at this, a hopeful author might believe that length plays no role in the likelihood of a book becoming a bestseller. But while books of all sizes have cracked the list at one point or another, the vast majority of #1 bestsellers fall into a much smaller range.

Over 64% of the #1 bestsellers since the list began have fallen in the 200 to 400 page range.

Shockingly, the 450+ page length that held the average book length just 7 short years ago, now makes up just 13% of the books in the top spot.

How to explain this dramatic shift, and whether the trend will continue, remains to be seen.