How Long Does It Take to Read 375 Pages
1 of the vexing questions many authors confront is how long their book should exist. They know they have to produce more than words than a higher essay, but exactly how long is a volume? Many authors will, of grade, lookout man out the books they consider their competitors, and then try to imitate their page counts. However, even doing this, they may still be dislocated about how to interpret the
folio count in their Microsoft Word document into printed book pages. If they typed 300 double spaced pages, is that enough to match their competition? Is 120 MS Word pages also short?
Here are some useful guidelines to help you assess how long your book should be. These are not difficult and fast rules, but you will observe they probably go a long way to clarify your questions.
Stride 1 is to begin by asking yourself what vision y'all have for your book? What prototype appears in your mind when you see yourself as an author? This is because the physical appearance of your book—its design and trim size—impacts your discussion count. What nigh authors don't realize is that your blueprint and trim size play key roles in determining your ideal book length, so you need to decide what look and feel your book volition have. Ask yourself the following:
- Do you want a minor, intimate book? If you lot are writing personal reflection, spiritual or life coaching, or perennial wisdom, and you want your readers to have a very personal, intimate reading feel with you, the most appropriate trim size is v" X viii". This means that yous cannot fit many words on a printed page and keep it readable. You lot don't want to overwrite and exist forced to use a teeny font. This trim size is good for but 200 to 250 words per printed volume page. This translates into just xx,000 to 25,000 words for a 100 page volume, 30,000 to 42,500 words for a 150-page volume, perhaps but 40,000 words for a 200-folio volume.
A skilful instance is the wonderful little personal/spiritual guide, The Four Agreements, by Don Miguel Ruiz, which averages about 10 words per line X 20 lines per page = 200 words per page. This book has 144 pages, so it contains virtually 28,800 words. This blazon of volume should non go more than 200 pages, and then 40,000 words is probably your max. This is a fairly short volume, but it packs a spiritual punch—and the five" X eight" trim size is perfect to read this book sitting on the beach or on park bench.
- Exercise you want to write a standard non-fiction book? This includes business, self-help, political science, history, scientific discipline, psychology, and so on. If then, the common trim size for these books is 6" X ix". This format more often than not averages most 300 words per page, thus about 30,000 words per 100 pages. And then let's say y'all desire your book to lucifer your competitors at 240 pages; you'd therefore aim for well-nigh 70,000 words. Indeed, most traditional publishers limit not-fiction authors to 80,000 words for standard 6" X 9" books, betwixt 240 and 280 pages. This is most the length readers desire for full general non-fiction, and information technology keeps publishers happy given the high toll of paper.
A adept example of this is The Click Moment, by Frans Johansson, an splendid book on the influence of randomness in determining success. Each page contains virtually 34 lines, with an boilerplate word count of 11 words per line, thus 375 words per page. Excluding endnotes and alphabetize, the book has well-nigh 200 pages of text, which means its total give-and-take count is near 74,000 words.
- Do you desire to publish a wide format volume—with inspiring quotes down the side margins? If so, these books need to be the 7" X 9" trim size, and the slightly larger pages tin can agree 400 to 450 words per page. Thus, 100 pages = forty,000 to 45,000 words and 200 pages yields 80,000 to ninety,000 words for the main body of the text (this excludes the words used in the quotations down the sides of the volume'southward margins).
The bestselling inventiveness guide which I edited, The Artist'south Way, is one of the shining examples of this wide format volume. It contains 38 lines per page, with an boilerplate of 12 words per line, thus 456 words per volume page. The full page count (excluding Appendices and Index) is 204 pages, thus about 93,000 words.
Once you have a vision for your book—small, standard, or wide format—you can movement on to the second step in deciding how many words you should write.
Stride ii is to compare your volume vision to your content and be sure they are compatible. If you are writing a self-help volume containing x steps to life improvement (and each step = 1 chapter), and you recollect you manuscript is going to be 10 to 15 pages per affiliate, just yous desire to create an intimate reading feel, your book might exist style too long for the 5" 10 8" trim size. You either demand to scale back your content with shorter chapters or making your concept include but vii steps to a better life, or you need to change your trim size. Perhaps the wide format is skillful for y'all, allowing yous to go upward to 80,000 or 90,000 words.
Step 3 is to enquire yourself how much exercise yous really have to say? For many new authors, your goal may be to publish your volume to utilise a "calling carte" to boost your marketplace credibility and enhance your reputation as a idea leader, executive, coach, or entrepreneur. Perchance you don't have enough content to create the standard not-fiction volume at 80,000 words. If and then, you might give yourself a goal of writing a 96- to 128-page book in the half-dozen" X 9" format, thus simply about xxx,000 to 40,000 words. This is nevertheless respectable, if your content feels new and your writing is impressive.
Step 4 is measure out your manuscript in discussion count, non pages. Every bit you tin see, y'all need to know your word count, not the number of pages your word processor produces. If I were to inquire you how long your book is, and you answer that it is 225 manuscript pages, I am still not clear. I don't know what type font you used, nor if yous used single, 1.5, or double spacing. Use your discussion processor to figure out your average discussion count per manuscript folio and your full word count.
Step five is to target your writing so you will be on rail for your book'southward vision. If y'all can decide on the correct vision for your book, and y'all therefore know your trim size, you can tailor your writing to your target. If y'all know you need to write 40,000 words and your content calls for 10 chapters, then you should exist aiming for 4,000 words per affiliate. Don't overwrite. I've had authors transport me 25 page chapters containing 12,000 words, making it clear that their 10 chapter book is going to cease up at 120,000 words—way too long for about publishing houses and even for self-publishing. But I've also had authors transport me 8 pages with simply 2400 words, without realizing that, at this rate, their 7 chapters will amount to less than 20,000 words. If they desire a 6 X 9 book, this is just about 66 pages—almost not a book.
I hope this information has helped yous gain clarity about your volume. If you lot have any questions about how long your volume should exist, experience free to contact me and we can figure out your book vision and word count together. Meanwhile, stay tuned for my side by side web log, "What's the Difference between a Foreword, a Preface, a Prologue, and an Introduction—and Which One Exercise I Want?"
Source: https://www.publishtogetclients.com/how-long-should-my-book-be/
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