How Long Is A Book?

Authors often think of the length of their book in terms of pages. Writers think in terms of words.

If you work in publishing, you soon learn that the number of pages in a book reflects the layout just as much as the number of words.

For some years, the average business book was between 50k and 60k words long.

With a relatively standard format, that would work out at about 250 pages (though one designer might fit it into 200 pages while another might use 280 pages).

The latest data suggest the average length of a business book has fallen to between 40k to 50k words.

That matches my experience. I recently wrote a book that was only 25k words long. It came out at 104 pages. The audiobook lasts just under two-and-a-quarter hours.

The author is a surgeon whose book tells his patients what would happen during their procedures, how best to prepare, and how best to recover.

The was short because it didn't need to be any longer.

Once you've given the reader the information they need, you can stop.

There’s no minimum word count.

One tip: beware of a book that is much shorter than 80 pages long. It's difficult to fit the title on the spine – so no-one will be able to find it on a bookshelf.