Word Counts for Published Novels

Dear Becky…

Aw, that’s easy-peasy. You just count the number of words on an average text-only page from the book in question, multiply that by the number of pages in the book, then subtract from that the number of non-text pages in the book and multiply the result by pi and then divide that by your age on your last acknowledged birthday and…. Oh, heck, you’re a writer and I’m an editor, let’s skip the math and just use this shortcut: go to renlearn.com and click on their “Quiz Store” tab. Type in the book title, press GO, then click on the title in the search results and viola! Word count.

FYI, I’m not affiliated with Renaissance Learning. This lovely feature has been known and referenced by curious writers for years.

Happy writing!

The Editor

11 Comments

  1. Not all books are in renlearn, so I’ve used http://www.perma-bound.com/library/ as well.
    You don’t have to log in, just enter (part of) the book title in the Search box, click on book you want, and then click on the Reading Information tab.

    The following is posted for ‘Bud, Not Buddy’
    Word Count: 52,179
    Reading Level: 5.0
    Interest Level: 5-9
    Accelerated Reader: reading level: 5.0 / points: 8.0 / quiz: 29554 / grade: Middle Grades
    Reading Counts!: reading level:5.1 / points:12.0
    Lexile: 950L
    Guided Reading Level: U
    Fountas & Pinnell: U

    • As a matter of fact, Bill, that method very much resembles the the way I computed my tips at a restaurant before I got a cell phone with a handy-dandy tip calculator on it.

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