1 page in Word = 1 page in a novel?

[Michael Dracon]

How do I set up Word so that (roughly) 1 page in there is also about one page in a novel?

[Jamesaritchie]

How do I set up Word so that (roughly) 1 page in there is also about one page in a novel?

The closest you can probably come is to space 1.5. There really is no exact method that will work because novels are all different. Why do you want to do this?

[Andre_Laurent]

If you want to know how many book pages you would have, take your word count and divide by 250, that's close, or so I have been told.

[Jamesaritchie]

If you want to know how many book pages you would have, take your word count and divide by 250, that's close, or so I have been told.

This doesn't give you a page in a published book. The 250 rule is actually for counting how many words you have. You multiply the number of pages you have by 250.

Actual word count in a published book varies widely, and can anywhere from a few words up to 500 words, all in the same book.

[farfromfearless]

How do I set up Word so that (roughly) 1 page in there is also about one page in a novel?

See the Manuscript Formatting threads on this site, it'll give you a pretty good idea of how to do that, but I personally don't reccomend you write in that format - for me, it's difficult to read a whole line that is monospaced on screen - much easier on paper though.

[Andre_Laurent]

This doesn't give you a page in a published book. The 250 rule is actually for counting how many words you have. You multiply the number of pages you have by 250.

Actual word count in a published book varies widely, and can anywhere from a few words up to 500 words, all in the same book.
Well crap!

[Maryn]

Silence of the Lambs has 94,788 or 94,887 words, depending on which stats you believe. Of the editions readily available, I see hardcovers at 352 and 367 pages and paperbacks at 384 and 421 pages. So if you wanted to set yourself up for a page of a printed novel to the page of your manuscript, you'd range anywhere from 225 to 270 words per ms. page. By the end of a novel, that amounts to a substantial difference.

Maryn, calculating woman

[scribbler1382]

It would be easier to write your book, count the average number of words per page you have and then go to a bookstore and find some novels that match that than trying to do it the other way.

It's all meaningless ever since Communism fell and publishers were free to use whatever spacing and font they wanted for their disinformation journals. Bah!

[PeeDee]

I did this once, when I was thirteen. I know a writer who can't write without. Very, very silly business.

You can change your page size to 6x9 (trade) or 5x8 (mmbp, roughly) but it's a mug's game anyway. It doesn't take into account font size, spacing, line spacing, margins, and all that stuff that'll change when the publisehr gets your book.

[Marlys]

I did this once, when I was thirteen. I know a writer who can't write without. Very, very silly business.

You can change your page size to 6x9 (trade) or 5x8 (mmbp, roughly) but it's a mug's game anyway. It doesn't take into account font size, spacing, line spacing, margins, and all that stuff that'll change when the publisehr gets your book.
My latest book was going to be about 270 pages originally, then the publisher changed the font and layout to cut printing costs. It ended up at 194 pp., without a word of the story being changed.

[PeeDee]

Exactly. It can be a fun thing to do in ten minutes of spare time ("golly, I've written 300 mass market pages! wow!") but it's not useful for anything beyond that.

[maestrowork]

It depends on the print size. Is it trade paperback? Mass paperback? Hard back? And why should you care? You'd be better off thinking about word counts instead of page counts. It's more accurate that way.

[PeeDee]

Even BETTER, just worry about the story and let even the word count mostly sort itself out.

[ORION]

Listen to PeeDee and Maestrowork

[PeeDee]

Listen to PeeDee and Maestrowork

(which is normally not a good life philosophy...)

[Michael Dracon]

Another lesson learned. I'll just stick with couting words.

Thanks all!

[Lynn Sholes]

If you are preparing a manuscript for submission, use traditional formatting. If you want to check word count in Word, look under the tools menu.

[KiraOnWhite]

I agree, just write depending on the flow of the story, not caring about the length. But if you are really curious about it, simply find out about the average length of the novels you have and compare it with your own.

[Jamesaritchie]

The idea is to listen to publishers. They all have guidelines telling you how long a novel written for them should be. It's a good thing to know this before you start writing a novel.

Most publishers want novels between 80,000-120,000 words, but whatever the length is, you need to know, and you need to fall somewhere within the guidelines.

Just let the story find its own length might be a good idea for a first draft, though I don't believe it for a second, but it's a rotten idea for a final draft.

If you really want a good shot at being published, you need to write books that fall within length guidelines. Look them up before you start writing, and hand in a book of the right length.

[Carmy]

Just let the story find its own length might be a good idea for a first draft, though I don't believe it for a second, but it's a rotten idea for a final draft.

Excellent advice. Word count changes drastically during editing.