How Long Should Your Book Be?

This is a common question that I get from aspiring authors often. If you are self-publishing, you are in control. My answer is it depends on the genre. Your final page count in the final book can vary greatly depending on formatting choices: margins, fonts, linespacing, graphics, white space, and so on. Here is a guideline that you can use:

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A typical manuscript page is considered to be 250 words. This is based on is an 8.5×11 paper, with 1-inch margins, standard 11- or 12-point font, double spaced. So, a 25,000-word manuscript is about 100 pages. A 50,000-word manuscript is 200 pages.
Non-fiction books tend to be shorter and written in a way that they can be read in chunks; with good section structure and use of bullets and numbers.
 
Books can be as little as 20,000 words, if you’ve said what you need to say. But if you leave your readers confused or with critical questions due to gaps in content, it’s not enough. Most of my clients are non-fiction writers: Christian living, business, autobiographies, self-help, or professional-development books. For my clients, which includes experienced consultants, coaches, and speakers a nice book length is somewhere in the 40,000- to 70,000-word range, which is 160-280 pages.
 
I suggest people target 50,000 words to start. Long enough to feel substantial, short enough not to intimidate potential readers. If your book is shorter than 20,000 words, strategic formatting can stretch your print book to reach 100 pages.

​When you are ready to publish contact me. I am happy to assist you in self-publishing your book.