How long should a nonfiction book be?

The convention, and where it comes from

The Scribe Method, Scribe's free book on writing nonfiction, puts it this way: a common convention is that a nonfiction book is around 50,000 words, with 12 chapters averaging 4,000 words each (Everything you need to know about book chapters). It also notes that some books have 500-word chapters and others run to 10,000.

Treat the convention as a planning number. It tells you roughly how much material a "normal" book holds, so you can judge whether your outline is thin or overstuffed before you write.

Let the promise decide the length

Go back to the job you gave the book in module 1: who the reader is and what they will be able to do after reading. Then ask how many words it takes to deliver that, and no more.

• A focused how-to book that solves one problem can be well under the convention and still be complete.
• A book that teaches a whole method usually needs room for each step plus examples, which pushes toward or past the convention.
• A memoir needs enough scenes to make the reader feel the change at its center. Length follows the story, not a target.
• A book meant to be handed out (to clients, at talks) often works best short, because people finish it.

Plan the length from your outline

The most reliable way to set a target is chapter by chapter:

1. List your chapters from your outline (see module 3).
2. For each, write the one point the reader must leave with and the stories or examples it needs.
3. Give each chapter a rough word budget. A short idea with one example might need 1,500 words; a complex step with several cases might need 5,000.
4. Add them up. That total is your target, and it is more honest than a number picked in advance.

Budgets also make the writing easier to schedule. The Scribe Method gives the example that 250 words a day adds up to a 30,000-word draft in about four months, and 500 words a day to about 60,000 (How to create your book writing plan). The writing plan worksheet turns that into dates.

Signs a draft is too long

• Two chapters make the same point with different stories.
• You explain background the reader already knows.
• There are several examples where one strong one would do.
• A chapter is long because you love the material, not because the reader needs it.

A developmental edit (see module 4) is where these get cut. Cutting almost always makes a nonfiction book better.

Signs a draft is too short

• Steps are stated but not shown: no examples, cases or stories.
• A beta reader asks "but how?" more than once in a chapter.
• You skipped the objections a skeptical reader would raise.

Fix short books by adding depth to existing chapters, not by adding new chapters of filler.

Length, price and production

Length affects more than reading time. A longer book usually costs more to edit, lay out and print, and printing cost shapes the cover price and what you earn per copy. That is one more reason not to pad: every page you cut costs less to produce and is one less page a reader has to get through. Module 5 covers formats, printing and pricing.

Questions