What’s the Ideal Word Count for a Nonfiction Book?
Word count is an important consideration (and a source of confusion) for authors of nonfiction books.
If you have too many words, you’ll intimidate publishers and readers. Your book will be more expensive to produce and ship. It will have a higher price.
If you have too few words, people might perceive the book as thin on information. A short book won’t stand out on a bookstore or library shelf. If a book is shorter than 96 pages, it may be impossible to print the title on the spine.
A book with the right word count falls within the typical range for its genre or category. A book that’s just right has as many words as it needs to get the job done—no more, no less. It feels substantial enough in a reader’s hands. And it offers value to the reader.
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“How many words in a nonfiction book? What is that ideal or typical word count?”
It’s tough to get a straight answer from publishers or agents. Nonfiction books in the same category vary more in word count than fiction books in the same category. And it’s difficult to calculate word count from books on the bookshelf, because trim sizes, font sizes, images, white space, and design elements vary from publisher to publisher and book to book.
What we do know is that word counts have been shrinking over the past decade. A study done in 2017 showed that the average length of a nonfiction bestseller had dropped 42 percent in the previous seven years.
That trend continues. Readers have less time and shorter attention spans. Production costs and shipping costs have risen.
Use this data and graph to discover the typical / average word count range for your nonfiction book manuscript.
“How many words should my nonfiction book manuscript be?”
For most nonfiction books, 50,000 to 80,000 words is your best bet.
Here’s the ideal word count for nonfiction books, by genre:
Biography word count: 80,000 to 110,000 words. Established authors often write longer biographies. Whatever similar books are doing or whatever your publisher requests is often the ideal answer.
Memoir word count: 60,000 to 90,000 words. You can write more than one memoir; a memoir can cover a certain aspect or certain phase of your life.
Business and Money book word count: 40,000 to 80,000 words.
History book word count: 60,000 to 100,000 words (ideally 70,000 to 85,000 words).
A local history book should be shorter. Books by The History Press, for example, are often 30,000 to 40,000 words, with many historical photos.
A historical fiction book word count may be 80,000 to 115,000 words.
Self-help and how-to book word count: 20,000 to 70,000 words (ideally 40,000 to 70,000 words). This includes parenting and relationship books and health and fitness books. Self-published ebooks and books with a narrow focus may be on the shorter end of the range (20,000 to 50,000 words).
Big Idea book word count (in the style of Malcolm Gladwell’s bestsellers): 60,000 to 80,000 words. Gladwell’s Blink is about 70,000 words.
To calculate a published book’s estimated word count, find a standard page of text, count the number of words per line, then count the number of lines per page, and multiply by the number of pages. Every book has blank pages. Traditionally-published print books will typically be in multiples of 8, 16, or 32 because of how books are produced.
We’re focused on nonfiction here, but if you’re interested in word counts for fiction books, this link may be helpful.
Scroll down to find out what to do if your book manuscript is too short or too long.
“Uh oh! My book manuscript word count is too low. What do I do?”
Self publish—but price the book appropriately. A 30,000-word self-published ebook should be no more than $4.99. If your book offers value, both in terms of content and price, word count won’t matter as much.
Consider making this book one of a series of short books.
Add more words (use more descriptive language) in more pivotal scenes. Ask yourself if your book spends enough time capturing emotions you felt or the reader will resonate, telling stories, and make sure your conclusion is several pages or more.
Expand on one major thing in each chapter. Or slow down the more significant moments in the book. Get more descriptive in a way that conveys or elicits an emotional response.
If it’s a self-help book, add a chapter, or add exercises and further resources.
Get a manuscript assessment (also known as a manuscript evaluation) to figure out where you’re lacking. Your organization or structure may be problematic. (Click here for “What Is a Manuscript Evaluation? And How Much Does It Cost?”)
“Uh oh! My book manuscript word count is too high. What do I do?”
Narrow the book’s focus. Make sure the book is not trying to do too much and that it is written with one ideal reader profile in mind. The book may simply be making too many arguments simultaneously.
Get a manuscript assessment for advice or hire a copy editor to parse the text for repetition, wordiness, and other issues.
Split the book in two or spin off a part of it that can be an article.
Cut details and re-purpose that material for blog posts or bonus content.
Read my article entitled “Shorten Your Manuscript with These 12 Tips.”
Are you a looking to improve your book manuscript?
Here’s some more useful advice on word count:
Always ensure that your chapters are roughly the same length: within 10 percent of the average chapter length. For a research-driven book, parse your footnotes. They shouldn’t be more than 15 or 20 percent of the total word count.
Follow these tips and guidelines and you’ll improve your chances of a warm reception by publishers and readers.
If you have a great concept, a vast following on social media, are self-publishing, or are an established author, word count matters a little less. There will always be a demand for well-written, useful nonfiction books.
In sum,
For most nonfiction books, 50,000 to 80,000 words will match readers’ and publishers’ expectations and fall within the typical norm.
A book over 100,000 words is too long for most readers and publishers.
You might also like
The Best Books on Writing Nonfiction (my top 5)
What’s the word count of your last nonfiction book or your latest manuscript in progress?
Thanks for reading,