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How to Calculate a Manuscript Word Count

You've successfully typed your story. Thinking it'll make it big, you start looking into agents and publishers and you hear about a specific format to be submitted, including an accurate word count. You probably think the word count in Word is what they are looking for, but it's actually a precise calculation used in the publishing word to determine the space your manuscript needs.

Instructions

    • 1

      Select your entire manuscript. The standard format is an average of 250 words to a page for most publishers.

    • 2

      Change the font to Courier, which is a monospaced font. This ensures each letter has the same width as the others.

    • 3

      Set the font size to 12. This is the standard type size for manuscripts as well as most reports.

    • 4

      Check each page for double spaced lines. All of your pages should be double spaced.

    • 5

      Make all your margins 1 inch around. This includes your top and bottom margins as well.

    • 6

      Pick out a page and average the word count. If you are close to 250, multiply the number of pages in your story by 250 to get your word count.

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