How many words do you need to have a book.

1. 72

   frugalfamilyposted 12 years ago

   How many words do you need to have a book.
   
   i know there is no right answer, but if you bought a book on Kindle, how many words would you expect it to have before you thought you were ripped off?

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2. 64

   LoriSoardposted 12 years ago

   It depends on the type of book and what the publisher's guidelines are. For example, a short contemporary romance might be 60K words, while a long historical or science fiction novel would be 100K. Also, non-ficton varies in the same way. My advice is to find a publisher who produces books similar to yours, read their guidelines and see what range they usually ask for. Hope that helps.

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3. 74

   ThoughtSandwichesposted 12 years ago

   Hi frugal...
   
   In terms of no right answer...yeah.  Depending on genre, media, yada, and yada...the factors would be numerous.  Industry standards for a "first time" actual novel vary. 
   
   I have seen a low of 65,000 and a high of 100,000.  I believe 75,000-85,000 is optimum.
   
   To answer your question...when would I feel ripped off?  Probably after getting the Kindle and realizing I didn't know how to make it work.  That's me, though.
   
   Thomas

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4. 86

   Jackie Lynnleyposted 12 years ago

   75 to 80 thousand words is what I was told when writing mine but this is if you are going through a publisher with these requirements, and that is the requirement of many. I would not personally think it necessary if self publishing. Although you naturally want to give someone enough content as you say to not feel cheated, who wants to fill a book with meaningless boring chatter just to meet a criteria? Naturally some books would not be this long, depending on the subject and children's books can be many lengths but I would  guess never any this long.

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5. 60

   duffsmomposted 12 years ago

   A short book is about 75,000 words and translates to about 150 or so pages.

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6. 73

   inaniLoquenceposted 12 years ago

   If it's a children's book, probably more or less than 1000 words...

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7. 0

   Old Empresarioposted 12 years ago

   The shortest best-selling novel in the US was only four pages long. It was called A Message to Garcia and was one of the most widely-distributed books in the world around the turn of the last century.

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8. 59

   mriaskiableposted 12 years ago

   I know that to make an e book you don't need words you just need to share what's in your mind and a few bucks to printed. Never bought a book on Kindle. Would like the experience.

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9. 59

   WinglessGuardian6posted 12 years ago

   Depends entirely on how big the book is going to me...

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