Words in a book

[Markytop]

Does anyone know roughly how many words are in an average book?? Was having a conversation last night about the old phrase that "everyone has a book inside them to write", and we got thinking that if you started writing, how far do you have to go before it starts to resemble a book, rather than just a collection of pages, are we talking 50,000 words, 100,000, million etc??

I suppose to clarify what I mean by book, I am thinking of the average fiction novel, not a 15 volume thesis on the way a fruit-fly bends its knee or similar.

[blueyes]

About 320 words





HTH

[mechsympathy]

350ish words a page, 200 pages. Er....






70,000 words.

The problem comes with making them interesting

[Einion Yrth]

mechsympathy said:

350ish words a page, 200 pages. Er....






70,000 words.

Barely more than a novella that.

[Nobaccymaccy]

Publishers advice to first time writers is between 80,000 and 120,000 words .
The other view is ; 'enough to get the story told '

[mechsympathy]

Einion Yrth said:

Barely more than a novella that.

I didn't want to put him off

[Sim89]

blueyes said:

About 320 words





HTH

Ah Janet and John, the Terry Wogan readings are excellent!

Sim

[SleeperCell]

Nobaccymaccy said:

Publishers advice to first time writers is between 80,000 and 120,000 words .
The other view is ; 'enough to get the story told '

Or if a picture is worth 1000 words, then 100 odd pictures should get the job done