How much is too much to write?

This is a question I am often asked by business owners, consultants and board directors when they’re starting out on their book writing and publishing journey.

Like most elements of business book writing the answer varies.

The most important element to understand is that it’s not how much you write but the quality of what you write. And, it’s actually harder to write less than more.

There’s no point writing simply to full up the page/a book.

Write what you need to write, in a way that’s concise, clear and coherent.

The MOST IMPORTANT question to ask yourself (and research) is what does your target audience want/need? The answers to this question should drive ALL your decisions about your content length, style and type.

So how much should you write?

Most print business books range in word length from anywhere between 30,000 words and 60,000 words. That’s a pretty big range. Again, it’s about the quality of what you are writing NOT the quantity.

Given there’s so much competition for attention from various sources, you’ll find most business books are around the 30,000-40,000 word mark.

Readers are seeking knowledge and actionable insights to their challenges not long dissertations about everything you know about a specific topic.

And then there’s the qualifying question of what type of book are you talking about.

Books written as an eBook only are shorter, around the 10,000-15,000 word mark as the reader can’t ‘see’ the whole book. Separately, you need to think differently about how someone will be reading your eBook and structure the contents, chapters, sub headings to make it easier for them to navigate their way through the book.

Then there’s Free Books, yes, you read this right. Some eBooks are written to be ‘sold’ for free or at a very low price (anywhere from 99 cents to $5.99) on Amazon or an author’s own website. In reality they’re not really a book but a marketing tool to entice readers to your website and sig up for a special offer for your main book/books, a newsletter etc. They are lead magnet really.

These ‘free books’ are typically around 5,000 – 7,000 words.

I’ll discuss what book version is best for you in my upcoming post. In the meantime you might be interested to read the article I wrote about Amazon and why it may or may not be a right platform for you.

What’s the link between word length and book length?

Writers often come to me and say ‘I want to write a 200-page book, how many words is that?’

I explain that there’s not a direct correlation between the two as the size of the page (A5, A4 or some other format), layout of the pages, the typeface used and the spacing between the lines and between paragraphs means the number of words on each page varies.

On average an A5 book could have between 250 and 350 words on a page. With a 40,000 word manuscript the page count would vary from between 160 and 114 pages.

Of course, if you include tables, graphs, action/checklists, images, quotes and other design elements these all add pages.

Know your target audience

As with all successful business books, it’s mission critical to know your target audience deeply. What challenges they are facing, where they are currently going to seek out information that can help them and who they are following.

If you do your research rather than assume you know, you’ll also get to understand the type of information your audience is seeking and how they are consuming it. These insights will help you determine what type of book you will write and the best formats for it . . .including how much you should write.

If you’re stuck and need some guidance contact me and book in a free strategy session here . . . or CLICK HERE to download a short eBook that will help you get started. Funny that!