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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:
* 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?
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!!!
Thanks for this quick answer to my question. You are the kind of person that makes the internet valuable.
I’m in the final stages of my memoir manuscript. It’s 117K words and I will probably try to cut about 20K words. Your blog post was illuminating. Thank you!
Hi Alexis – my question is regarding the Amazon word count “Text Stats” you mentioned. I looked up all the books you referenced above so that I could get an idea of what I was looking for, but I didn’t find “Text Stats” for them. Could you give me the name of a book that offeres this and where exactly this “Text Stats” link is on the page? Thanks for your help!
Hey Jo — I wrote that post ages ago, so it’s possible Amazon has changed their format! Also, I do remember that not ALL books offer that stat. Sorry I can’t be of more help!
Amazon removed that feature in 2013. Publishers can now include it in the look inside, but a good rule of thumb is 10 words per line x 33 lines per page times number of pages. The average book on the planet is 65,000 words at 200 pages, which is pretty close to this method! A small print encyclopedia CAN have 200,000 words in just under 400 pages of course, so type size and format matter but this is a rule of thumb given Amazon’s removal.
You can also find word counts on the Accelerated Reading website. It\’s a really useful tool. http://www.arbookfind.com
I can’t seem to find the “Inside This Book” link. Where is it once I get to the book’s page on Amazon?
Thanks!