Deciding the Word Count for Your Book: Important Factors to Note
Imagine bumping into a self-help book that looks like an encyclopedia. Unless you're under an oath, reading such book length becomes highly discouraging. Many self-publishers today do not consider certain factors in a book's word count before publishing their book which affects their sales, and in some cases, scares their audience away. Here are important factors to consider when deciding the word count for your book on Amazon KDP.
Reader's expectation:
Readers anticipate a certain length of book in different categories. When a book exceeds its average expected word count, it becomes too difficult for them to buy, especially when they're many other books on Amazon kdp that will take less time to read. However, a too-low word count also gives a poor impression of the book's richness. So before selecting a word count you must understand the reader's expectation. Is he looking for a short book or a long book?
Tip: Check out best-sellers to know their readers and their book length.
Genre criteria:
Each genre of book has its estimated word count range readers expect to read. To stay relevant with Amazon readers, you must write within the word count of these genres.
Word count for book genres includes:
80,000 - 125,000 words for Sci-fi,
70,000 - 90, 000 words for thriller/ mystery novel book,
below or above 100,000 words for historical fiction
60,000 - 120,000 for memoirs
60,000 - 100,000 for romance novels
1,000 - 60,000 for children's books depending on their age.
Printing cost:
For paperbacks, Amazon charges a 40% fee per sale plus printing cost which increases by page length. If as an author, your pricing becomes poor, you'll only earn a stipend from your book. And if your pricing becomes too high due to printing costs, your readers will go for cheaper books instead. So it is important to ensure that you stay within an average book word count for the genre you're writing on, to avoid too many unnecessary pages.
Amazon book calculation:
If you click on ‘Product details’ of your book, you will find the book's page count displayed. It is important to know that the page count on Kindle is different from your manuscript page count. Amazon calculates the number of pages according to the size of a physical book. If you are using a Microsoft Word document, the default paper size may not be similar to a physical book size due to the nature of wide space Word document offers. So your estimated page count in MS Word will be higher when Amazon calculates in the Kindle version.
To solve this:
Format your Word using 1-inch margin and font size of 12
Go to page setup and adjust the paper size to A5 or B5, which is similar to a 6 x 9’ book on Kindle or you leave at default if your interior trim size is 8.5 x 11 when creating a book on your account to publish.
N/B: If it doesn't reflect the same estimated number of pages when the book goes live, report to Amazon via their contact support.
Conclusion
As a discipline for a great piece of writing, the use of word count restrains you from unnecessary wording and it helps you to effectively refine your book for publishing. From deciding a minimum word count for your Kindle ebook or paperback, to deciding an average word count for chapters in your book, word count per page will help you to determine the exact book length for your KDP audience.