Did you know Amazon.com has a new function that gives a word count for each book?
(I did not discover this myself. Props to Suzanne for pointing it out.)
This is awesome enough for me to get excited over. Why? Because it allows me to check out length for published books in my genre. To be picked up by a traditional publisher, my manuscript needs to fall in a similar word-count window.
How to find a book’s word count: Go to that book’s page and scroll down to “Inside This Book.” Under that heading, click “Text Stats.” (It’ll be a blue link.) A new window will pop up. Under “Number of,” you’ll see “words.” That’s your number!
I did a little reconnaissance for a few books in the Competitive Books section of my proposal. Here’s what I found:
- Eat, Pray, Love: 130,000 words (Could this be right? If it is, it just goes to show that books with more than 100,000 words — which most agents say is too many — can do fabulously well. If it’s not accurate, well, then this Amazon function isn’t as cool as I think it is.) 352 pages.
- Somebody’s Heart is Burning: 85,000 words. 336 pages. (This author actually told me her book came in at 85,000 words, which makes me think the feature is accurate.)
- Tales of a Female Nomad: 119,000 words. 320 pages.
- East Toward Dawn: 75,000 words. 224 pages.
- Around the Bloc: 100,000 words. 416 pages.
- First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria: No word-count statistic. (I’m leaving this in the list to show that word count isn’t offered for every book.) 320 pages. Update: Author Eve tells me her book came in at 95,000 words.
* For full titles, authors and descriptions of these books, see What’s on my travel memoir bookshelf?
What did I learn from this? That my word-count goal of 85,000 – 90,000 is right on target.
What other Amazon tricks do you use?
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This is a great tip, thanks for sharing Alexis! I can’t stop looking up books!
I tried it on one book, but couldn’t find “Text Stats.” I’ll keep looking. Because you’re right, this would be a very helpful tool for writers as we’re doing comparisons, etc.
Looks like not ALL books have it. Try another? “Text Stats” is under the Inside This Book heading. It’ll be a blue link.
Wow, this is cool. Thanks for posting about it.
You find the coolest stuff, Alexis. Thanks for sharing this one!
Great point, Alexis!
I’m tweeting this one…
Elizabeth
Mystery Writing is Murder
Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen
neat! That does seem high for eat, pray, love
Great to know! Thanks for sharing.
Oh wow! Alexis, this is the COOLEST. I can’t tell you how many times I wish I knew the word count of a book! Thank you!
Do you have to be signed in? Because I’m not finding this anywhere on the page.
No, you don’t have to be signed in. (Just tried it after signing out.) Scroll down the page a bit, though — It’s kind of hidden! Not ALL books offer it, so maybe the one you’re looking for doesn’t?
Alexis, thank you for this! I’m writing an YA urban fantasy novel, and was starting to feel that mine was running a bit long. I haven’t found a book yet that lists the word count, but I’m going to keep trying. This is VERY useful. Thanks!!!
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