Number of Pages

[Taniwha]

Hi Folks,
Do you have a number of words and pages in your mind when you start to write a book.
I looked at a few books in the same genre as the one I'm writing (Young Adult: Historic Fantasy - Dystopian World) and found they varied;
240 words per page - 300 pages
330 words per page - 340 pages
300 words per page - 184 pages
290 words per page 229 pages
I get that different font size will have an impact but it still interests me - do you plan it? and if so on what basis?

 

[Insolent Lad]

I generally have a pretty accurate idea how many words overall a book is likely to end up. As for the number of pages, that's part of the book design and nothing I would think about at the writing stage.

 

[Taniwha]

I generally have a pretty accurate idea how many words overall a book is likely to end up. As for the number of pages, that's part of the book design and nothing I would think about at the writing stage.

I need to look into that - book design.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

If you’re gunning for traditional publication, aim for under 120k words, page count isn’t the measure. The prejudice against 120k+ novels from unknown writers is very real, right down to contests. But if you’re going indie author, it just doesn’t matter. The only time page count is going to matter for the indie is if for some reason you don’t want to go beyond a certain price point for the product... not sure why, but who knows. With a big book, a point or two in font can make staggering differences to the page count and price of on demand printing.

I’m shooting for the 150k area, but I’m not going to sweat going over the mark.

 

[Devor]

In manuscript format, 1 page is about 250 words. Most editors prefer to work in that format.

As Demes mentioned, over about 120k is too long for a new book to traditional publishers. They used to say 80-100k, but I think that changed a little with Harry Potter. I would even suggest there's a bias with indie/online books of that length, but then again, the market there is what you make it.

 

[Northern]

What's an average amount of words per chapter to aim for? Does around 4,000 seem ok?

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Don't aim for word counts, whether its for chapters or books. Unless you're aiming to be traditionally published and have some absolute guidelines to write to, it's a mistake. Write the story the way you want to. The time to worry about word counts is when it's done and you're editing.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[K.S. Crooks]

I initially write with an average chapter of 5000 words or more. This is to force myself to be more descriptive of the characters, the scene and events. To allow the reader to envision most of what I see in my head. If I routinely write less it means I'm leaving things out. I never worry about the overall story length. The story size takes care of itself. The book is done when nothing more needs to be said.

 

[skip.knox]

I don't even think in terms of chapters, to begin with. I think in terms of scenes. My character gets off a train. She's late. She has to find her connection and convince them to agree to the terms she has brought. They do, but there's a complication.

That's a scene. I don't care how long it is at this point, I just need to write the dang thing. I write other scenes. Eventually, I figure out where chapters fall. Maybe there's a scene where she's on the train, planning what she'll say. Maybe there's a scene after where they're walking away from the station and the train blows up. I dunno. At this point, it's just write the scene.

Later, I start collecting scenes into what might be chapters. By the third draft or so, I'm making some decisions. Where are the good breaks? I'm looking to stop in places where the reader doesn't want to stop. I make provisional chapters. I even think up names for them.

When the work comes back from the editor, then I look again at pacing (the breaks) and only then do I consider length of chapter. I don't want anything that is grotesquely out of balance. The easiest way to assess that is to look at the average length of the chapters, as I've written them without regard to length. Is there a chapter that is much too short or or too long? Then I'll consider editing with regard to length.

But I never, ever write with regard to word count.