Word Count

[Suzie Parker]

Why is the word count of a book relevant? I'm in "Bookshelves" and have no idea how to determine the word count of a book.

[bookowlie]

I just leave that section blank.

[Suzie Parker]

Thank you. I'm new to this and am still climbing the learning curve.

[ALynnPowers]

I like to know the word count so that I can judge how long it takes to read a book. Page count can be a bit misleading, because font and margins vary from book to book...

Usually Amazon will tell the word count for you

Or you can calculate that there are about 250 words per page times the number of pages. But this way is not so reliable because some pages, like at the beginning or end of a chapter, don't have the full 250 words. Or if it's a book of poetry. And maybe other pages have lots of little words. Haha. I usually just cheat and look it up.

[Scott]

I think the length of the book is very relevant, right?

Bookshelves lists books by book not edition. So 'page count' doesn't work for length because different printed copies of the book and different ebook versions will have different pages, depending on font size, paper size, margin size, etc.

With that said, the info is optional. All that is really needed to have a book on Bookshelves is a title and author.

Unfortunately, OnlineBookClub.org appears to be on the cutting edge in this department. There appears to be no resource for looking up the word count of books or for reliably checking and comparing the actual length of books. Ours may be or may soon become the best resource of this on the internet. This is unfortunate because it means we cannot look it up easily to get this information.

However, we already have author-confirmed or publisher-confirmed word counts on thousands of books on Bookshelves given to OnlineBookClub.org directly from the author or publisher.

[bookowlie]

I think the length of the book is very relevant, right?

Bookshelves lists books by book not edition. So 'page count' doesn't work for length because different printed copies of the book and different ebook versions will have different pages, depending on font size, paper size, margin size, etc.

With that said, the info is optional. All that is really needed to have a book on Bookshelves is a title and author.

Unfortunately, OnlineBookClub.org appears to be on the cutting edge in this department. There appears to be no resource for looking up the word count of books or for reliably checking and comparing the actual length of books. Ours may be or may soon become the best resource of this on the internet. This is unfortunate because it means we cannot look it up easily to get this information.

However, we already have author-confirmed or publisher-confirmed word counts on thousands of books on Bookshelves given to OnlineBookClub.org directly from the author or publisher.

I completely agree that the length of a book is relevant. The problem is basically what you mentioned - there appears to be no resource for looking up the word count. I generally find that Amazon lists the number of pages, not the word count. As A Lynn stated, you can calculate the word count by multipling the number of pages by 250 pages per page. I haven't done that in the past, since the number would be only an estimate. Maybe I should.

[ALynnPowers]

I realized about twenty minutes after my previous comment that I am a complete idiot and had no clue what I was talking about.... apparently I made it all up in my head. Sorry for being such a big dummyhead. Ugh. I'm so totally useless sometimes!

[bookowlie]

I realized about twenty minutes after my previous comment that I am a complete idiot and had no clue what I was talking about.... apparently I made it all up in my head. Sorry for being such a big dummyhead. Ugh. I'm so totally useless sometimes!

Not a dummyhead or useless at all. Actually, the word count vs. page count issue is interesting, due to the point you brought up about fonts. I have read Kindle books where the page count listed on Amazon is misleading. Since the font is sometimes very small or very large, the book will sometimes be much longer or shorter than I expected. Still, I think authors relate to word count more than most readers do.

[Scott]

Considering a word processor like Microsoft Word can calculate the word count of any document in seconds, it is then interesting that this information is lacking in ereaders as far as I can tell or on websites with access to the raw files such as Amazon.

Hopefully we can find a way to obtain the word count for even more books than we already have them, namely those that have not been reviewed.

[TIGER999]

How about being able to post both or either word count and/or page count? For ex.: that section could be written
"page count/word count", and one could enter 100p.c. (PC=Page Count), or 25,000w.c. (WC=Word Count) or both? Then one could have 1 or 2 pieces of information to more accurately determine reading time. I've found most book entries that I've looked at where that section remains blank.

-- 10 Jul 2017, 14:45 --

I ran across a site that may be helpful re word/page count: http://www.readinglength.com. Just enter the title or ISBN in the search box, and it will bring up the page & word count, along with the estimated reading time, based on 250WPM. You can change the WPM, and also take a test to determine your individual reading rate. It will also show you the publishing date to help determine which edition the stats are based on. Maybe this will help?

-- 10 Jul 2017, 14:55 --

- 10 Jul 2017, 14:45 --

I ran across a site that may be helpful re word/page count: www.readinglength.com. Just enter the title or ISBN in the search box, and it will bring up the page & word count, along with the estimated reading time, based on 250WPM. You can change the WPM, and also take a test to determine your individual reading rate. It will also show you the publishing date to help determine which edition the stats are based on. Maybe this will help?