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  1. D.R. James

    D.R. James New Member

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    Word Count for Self-Help Book?

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by D.R. James, Nov 22, 2008.

    I have been working on and writing a Self-help/Inspirational book and am curious, how many words does a book like this generally have?
    Am I making worry over nothing or should I meet a standard before considering putting my book in print?
    Is there a standard for a number of pages?
    I am planning to self publish but I like the idea of having a publisher; if it were something of the future, what are their standards?
    Anything???
    D.R. James
    :eek:
     
  2. de la vega

    de la vega New Member

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    The best answer to your question is on the shelves of most bookstores. If you are planning on writing a self-help book, a suggested avenue would be to first read other self-help books that have been successful. Then you will see what the "usual" is in terms of word count and length.
     
  3. Rei

    Rei Contributor Contributor

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    There may be a standard length. I'm not sure. But the way I see it, especially if you intend to self-publish, make it as long as you want. If you feel you have to add on stuff that you don't really need, or remove quality work, to fit a certain word count, it will take away from the quality of the book. That being said, books intended for adults of any genre are rarely shorter than 60,000 words.
     
  4. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    non-fiction is generally shorter than fiction... but you don't have to actually read any... just browse amazon, where you can get the page count for each book...

    and if you click on 'text stats' on the book's page [may only be in the 'look inside this book' ones], you'll get a word count if you scroll down to 'number of'...

    the two i checked were 80k and 85k...

    to get an idea of other 'standards' check the guidelines of a few publishers who put out the type book you have in mind...
     
  5. D.R. James

    D.R. James New Member

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    wow 60,000

    Thanks for the assistance; looks like I get to keep writing!
    D.R. James
     

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