On Word Counts for First-Time Authors

For some time now in coaching sessions with brand-new authors, I’ve noticed a good majority of them telling me that they are writing a small book – many times less than five thousand words – because they believe that people do not want to read full-length books. They don’t want to burden the reader with too many words.

My first thought toward this is, I wonder if new authors are aware that the most common word count for a nonfiction book is about fifty thousand words. People read these books at these lengths – like 76 percent of those who purchase these books. (See Pew Research article, “Who Doesn’t Read Books in America?”

From “So They Say You Should Write A Book” by Jevon Bolden