How many words per page? Turning your word count into book pages

The rule of thumb

Scribe Media gives two figures, and they bracket the real answer:

• Scribe's guide to how long a book should be says a useful rule of thumb for a printed nonfiction book is about 200 words a page.
• The Scribe Method's writing plan chapter treats 250 words as about one book page, which is why it uses 250 words an hour as a writing target.

Use 200 when you want a safe estimate of how long the finished book will be, and 250 when you are planning your writing. Either is close enough to plan with.

Words to pages, 1,000 to 100,000

To go the other way, multiply pages by words a page. A 200-page book is about 40,000 words at 200 a page, the same figure Scribe's book length guide gives.

What changes the number

Scribe's book length guide says words per page vary with trim size, font and layout. In practice:

• Trim size. A larger page holds more words than a smaller one.
• Font and size. Some typefaces set wider than others, and a point up or down changes every line.
• Margins and line spacing. Generous margins and open spacing are easier to read and hold fewer words.
• What is on the page. Headings, lists, short paragraphs, pull quotes, tables and images all take space that words would fill.
• Chapter openings. Many books start each chapter partway down a fresh page, so books with many short chapters run longer.

Your document is not your book

The page count in Word or Google Docs is a manuscript page: a letter-size sheet with its own margins, font and spacing. It is not the size or layout of the printed book, so it tells you little about the finished page count. The printed count is only known once the book is designed.

That is why the 30-day challenge tracks words, not pages. Words are what you produce each day; pages depend on a design you will not see until much later. If you want a rough page count while you draft, take your word count and divide by 200 to 250.

How long a nonfiction book should be

Scribe's guide to book length says the average nonfiction book is about 50,000 words, and that for most nonfiction authors 20,000 to 40,000 words, about 100 to 199 pages, is the sweet spot. It also says books between 100 and 199 pages sell the best, books under 100 pages do not sell very well, and books over 300 pages sell the least.

To turn a target length into a plan, divide it into chapters with how long a chapter should be, then into days with a daily word count goal. How long it takes to write a book adds up the whole draft.