length

[pebhorses]

With normal margins and size 12 font, about how many pages in Word should a novel be?

[Majyk]

You should focus on word count, not page count. I don't remember where I got this, but...

Word count: based on 25 lines per page in Courier New 12 pt. averages
approximately 250 words per page. 20 pages, an average chapter,
=25,000; 200 pages=50,000; 400 pages=100,000; 600 pages=150,000;
800=200,000 words. Most books are between 50 and 100,000 words long.
Publishers estimate by pages, including the white space. A computer
count of 50,000 words may be 65,000 in publishers' terms. If you use a
computer word count note it on the front of the ms.


160 pages = 40,000 words
180 pages = 45,000 words
200 pages = 50,000 words
220 pages = 55,000 words
240 pages = 60,000 words
260 pages = 65,000 words
280 pages = 70,000 words
300 pages = 75,000 words
320 pages = 80,000 words
340 pages = 85,000 words
360 pages = 90,000 words
380 pages = 95,000 words
400 pages = 100,000 words
420 pages = 105,000 words
440 pages = 110,000 words
460 pages = 115,000 words
480 pages = 120,000 words
500 pages = 125,000 words

So those page numbers and word counts are if you are using Courier 12 with one inch margins. Even if you want to still write in a different font (I like Times New Roman better), then you can just select all and momentarily change it to see what your length is in that formatting.

[thecollector]

Majyk's right, but remember that quality has a lot to do with it. You could have a hundred pages of pure genius, yet think it needs to be five hundred, so you add and add poorly until it's five hundred pages of crap. So, all I'm saying is to make sure you have the quality. That provides an EXCELLENT small base that's stable to build off of. Then you can go back and edit, adding more, changing things around, and just improving it. That, in turn, adds length. And it does pretty much help, or at least I find it does... *shrugs*

[DarkRaven]

I use Times New Roman, and I normally hit 50k words (the target length of a nanowrimo novel at circa 100 pages. Usually about 110. Like the others said though, it's all about quality - not quantity.