This is one of two page estimators. The other page estimator [1]
Also helpful is Cost estimating [2]
To get an idea of what your book will look like you need to match the number of words per page on your word processing page to the finished printed page. This is an art rather than a science but here are a few tips.
Lines per page
For paperbacks you get 25-50 lines per page, with 35 being a good average. This line count includes blank lines between paragraphs as well as lines with just a single word.
Words per page
At one extreme you get large print books with 250 words on the page. Academic books might put 600 words on a page with works of reference squeezing in 1000 words. A good working average is 400.
These figures represent continuous words with no blank lines or breaks. In practice you need to subtract 15-20% from the page word total once the white space is taken into account. This gives you 200 (large print), 500 for an academic book with 350 words per paperback page as a working average.
To put these numbers in perspective, if you type with a font size of 10, you could be packing nearly 1000 words on each A4 page - which would make nearly 3 paperback pages.
All this relates to the standard paperback size book. Pages come in many sizes [3] and it often makes sense to opt for a larger page format to reduce the print costs.
These are some examples of page count [4] from books we publish.
How to match the page sizes
There are 2 ways:
Times Roman font size |
10 |
12 |
14 |
16 |
20 |
Target words per page |
1112 |
815 |
582 |
435 |
320 |
Lines per page (you can adjust the margins to achieve this) |
60 |
50 |
43 |
37 |
33 |
Practicalities
If you 'select all' then adjust the font size using the chart, you will discover the number of pages your book requires.
If you are planning to make an index [5], and plan to use your word processor, you will need to layout your document with page breaks to match the print layout.
Alternatively, having made the font size bigger or smaller to get the look and feel of the book, you may be able to use the your printer software to print two or more pages on a single A4 sheet. The output will be very close to the finished size but you may still need a guillotine to cut the pages to size.
By adjusting the margins, it is possible to set the aspect ratio (height to width) to a print page format you want.
The chart below lists the common book page size aspect ratios. (More about book sizes [6])
Known as | Height | Width | Aspect ratio |
B | 203 | 127 | 1.59 |
Demy | 216 | 140 | 1.54 |
Pinched Crown Royal | 224 | 172 | 1.30 |
special | 229 | 152 | 1.51 |
Royal | 234 | 156 | 1.50 |
Crown Royal | 246 | 186 | 1.32 |
special | 280 | 210 | 1.33 |
A4 | 297 | 210 | 1.41 |
Back to Getting ready [7] Page size [4] Preparing a mock-up [8] Size matters but... [9] making an index [5] make a table of contents [10]
Links:
[1] https://www.writersservices.com/writersservices-self-publishing/page-estimator
[2] https://www.writersservices.com/writersservices-self-publishing/self-publishers-estimator
[3] https://www.writersservices.com/writersservices-self-publishing/print-parameters
[4] https://www.writersservices.com/writersservices-self-publishing/paper-sizes
[5] https://www.writersservices.com/writersservices-self-publishing/making-index-using-word
[6] https://www.writersservices.com/writersservices-self-publishing/book-sizes
[7] https://www.writersservices.com/writersservices-self-publishing/getting-ready
[8] https://www.writersservices.com/writersservices-self-publishing/book-mock
[9] https://www.writersservices.com/writersservices-self-publishing/page-sizes
[10] https://www.writersservices.com/writersservices-self-publishing/table-contents