Smashwords gives a precise word count for each and every b. You will learn the most important things that you must know before 01. Set goals by the time indie authors get to the point where they are naming a books price, they. If you have an established group of people who will buy your book, you might be able to price your book higher within the range of similar titles. On occasion, we will charge an additional fee for text edits, should they become excessive usually requiring more than an hour or two to complete. In this case, they took that number from the paperback edition, but if the title is ebookonly, theyll estimate for you, based on the word count. Heres what you need to know about this often overlooked. In this case, the key number to figure out is the cost to manufacture your book. While it might be useful and fun to see these text stats and reading.
Experiment with different prices, a month at a time, to see what gives you a better result. I can look at the word count and know that a 2500 word file is a quick read while a 40k word file is going to take me a day or two. If you choose this royalty option for your digital book, it will apply to sales of your digital book to customers in any territory. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and. Why you need to know your word or page count my next traditionally published book, the author training manual writers digest books, february 2014, was supposed to be around 50,000 wordsthats what i agreed to in my contract and what my publisher planned on when determining page count, design, expenses, profitandloss statement, etc. If youd like to establish a readership, however, pricing your ebook lower to gain traffic and new readers through impulse buys might be a better option.
The 2020 guide to amazon fees and royalties for kindle. Nonetheless, readers are somewhat aware when you charge the same for a short story that you do for a novel. Enter width and height fields for your trim size with bleed added. People buy ebooks for knowledge and if you are giving them what you want then no matter if it is 500 words or 5000 words. Word count, on the other hand, doesnt change from one device to another by more than 25 to 50 words a variance i can live with. Word doc, pages, open office, rtf, txt files accepted. The actual word count for the hunger games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 94,743 words. A high price will return more profit, but a low price will deliver more readers, or at least that is the common logic. Amazon estimates a page count in an ebook to be around 187 words. But if you wind up making some errors in publishing on amazonlets just say your results as an author will be less than satisfactory. But ebooks dont have printing costs, and you cant tell at a glance how long they are. How to set the retail price of your book mill city press.
Pencilthin books on narrow topics that are under 50,000 words are quite common. However, it is worth seeing if this is true for your own ebook. How to find out the number of words in a book pen and. Paperback book pricing for kdp print is a little more straightforward. Build your book format a paperback manuscript word for. Novels, there are no rules when it comes to word count on ebooks.
Whether youre a selfpublished author with titles on amazon or selling a nonfiction book on your website, product pricing is a major component of your marketing plan and income projections. Its nice to whip out a short story or a novella here and there, both because it makes you feel. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length klytics. The book will be part of a trilogy, and although ive only written little over half of the entire thing, the estimated word count is looking to be nearly 300 000 words. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. Theyre very short in terms of manuscript length 1,500 words max but are broken up into either chapters or vignettes that will give the reader the feeling of reading a book with real chapters in it. This ebook will make everything clear to you and you will no longer need to spend hours searching for the right information. The official rate card below works like building blocks. But depending on the ereading device and the font size setting, it varies significantly between a phone, a tablet, or a kindle.
You can choose between two royalty options for each of your digital books, the 35% royalty option and the 70% royalty option, described below. Nonfiction and poetry layout fees vary according to structure and style, please contact me for a quote. While word count will certainly play a factor in value, it also wont be a makeorbreak factor when pricing your ebook. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. After all, the selfpublishing industry is pretty sensitive to those making mistakes. Im guessing youve spent a lot of time considering price point tactics. Ive looked at articles that say literary agents wont consider a book with a word count of over 100 000, so you can see why im a little concerned. How to price an ebook and which factors affect price mill city press. I enjoy writing novellength fiction, but those 100,000 word beasts do take a while to pen. Ebook word count should also be accounted for when setting the price of an ebook. Of course, if you just want to get your book out there, you can always format it for free and selfpublish. As weve talked about before how well does short fiction sell in ebook form. The cost of your book is computed based on several factors, including.
If a page is 500 words on an ipad, and 250 words on a kindle, it might be only 120 words on a phone. The word generally is important here because some retailers, like amazon. For a thorough report on ebook aggregators distributors, see my ebook distribution roundup for 2019, complete with faqs and a comparison of 9 services. Pricing is based on word count and relative complexity, and each package assumes youre sending us your final manuscript, as close to perfect as you can get it.
Literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. Especially if your book is nonfiction and educates the reader such a book would be of higher value already, based on the return the reader would get from having read your book in. From, click on store, then quiz search, then search for a particular title or author. Committing to a word count may 18, 2015 by corey burke leave a comment you should never aim to write by thinking only of the word count you need to fulfill, but its still important to have an idea of how many words youre aiming for. Ive experimented with my ebook prices at lot over the past couple of. However, there is a wide range of acceptable word counts for nonfiction books. Your target audience for these is kids ages 4 to 8. What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book. Search for word count totals in books word counters. How does your word count coordinate with the price of your book.
If youre looking to publish only in digital, youll have access to the same highquality design and editorial expertise as you would with a physical book, and a beautiful finished product that most authors who go it alone cant. Now, theres less of a doorstop effect with ebooks than print books. As far as ive ever seen, amazon has never posted a minimum word count requirement. Ebook pricing, however, can often feel like a maze without exits. A word count tool to help you estimate your word count. In fact, some freelance writers dont know they should be charging per word in the first place. On the spreadsheet, the editors total cost will be automatically calculated once you insert your total word count and the editors perword rate. It shouldnt be a surprise that a longer ebook is likely to cost more.
I need editing, copy editing, proofreading, a critique of my work, or a query package. Ebook pricing guide for different markets how to do it right. Pricing newlyreleased titles higher for a limited period after their initial launch can work well for authors with a loyal readership. The cost to publish a book depends on a the length of the book and b the level of quality you want. On average, one doublespaced page has 250300 words. Heres how pavita singh of pavedita in palo alto, california, breaks down costs for editing services based on word count and type of editing copy editing or. A clear hierarchy and readable typeface help create a layout that is inviting to your reader. Hey, im writing a book and im a bit worried about the word count. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. The perfect word count for your ebook ghost ebook writers. Amazon ebook page length by genre kindle page length.
Writing an ebook is hard and figuring out the pricing for it should not be harder. This became evident when i first started hiring freelance bloggers to work with me. Work your way down the rates and select all that apply. As more ebooks move into circulation, readers have come to expect them to cost less than print books hence shorter books and more book series. Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Have you ever wondered how the average ebook page length or word count differs by book genre. As an indie publisher, these are important issues to consider since its your money you need to earn back. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Yet, a larger book justifies a larger retail price as either an ebook or print book. On the layout tab, in the page setup group, click size, and then select more paper sizes. Interior book design manuscript formatting professionally formatted text is an important part of book design. As for nonfiction books, the standard bestsellers have word counts similar to adult novels.
How to price an ebook and which factors affect price. The average across a sample of 50 books in august 2015 showed 172 words per kindle edition normalized page. Once the price is set, authors should make use of promotions to boost revenue. Learn how to price an ebook by understanding what affects ebook prices like. Cost of publishing a book book selfpublishing services.
Use estimated page or word count as a writing guide. Here is what 187 words looks like in microsoft word. There have been rumors over the years that amazon has one, usually because some authors short book was removed after complaints. Just today i spoke to a man who said hed been writing his book forever. Early readers are the earliest chapter stories that a kid can get.
Fill your ebook with real knowledge you have and words will automatically come out. You might be surprised at the result of this pricing method. What is the minimum word count for kindle direct publishing. He used the 270,000word memoir as an example because 1 memoirs are close to impossible to traditionally publish, so a word count that long wont get past the agent, and 2 its very, very hard to sell a memoir even through selfpublishing, let alone at that word count. That being said, this range is true for most booksalways do the research into comparable books and price your book accordingly. Pricing information for book publishing this screen will allow you to configure a self publishing cost. Learn everything you need to know about ebook pricing in different markets. Word count ebook or print 1 format ebook and print bundle under 80k. If youre given a perpage rate, you can calculate a perword rate by assuming the industry standard of 250 words per page, e.
During the introductory month of the new system, the conversion of kenpc into the actual number of words in the book actual word count showed significant differences from one book to the other. How many words are in your script and where will the audio be used. I publish my books first on smashwords and then, after they pass vetting for the smashwords premium catalog, i publish them on amazon as well. Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Every section you include in your manuscript foreword, dedication, chapters, etc. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors.
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