Word Count Tool for UK Authors
Count words in your manuscript and benchmark against UK market standards. Get page estimates for UK paperback formats, reading time, and audiobook duration. All benchmarks reflect the British publishing market.
Word Count Standards for the UK Market
The UK publishing market closely mirrors US expectations but with some notable differences. Booker Prize-winning novels average around 90,000 words, and UK literary agents typically expect debut fiction between 75,000 and 100,000 words. Crime fiction — the UK's bestselling genre — averages 70,000–90,000 words.
UK paperback formatting traditionally uses B-format (198 × 129mm) for literary fiction and C-format (234 × 156mm) for trade paperbacks. These differ from US standard sizes, affecting page count estimates. A 70,000-word novel in B-format produces approximately 300–320 pages, while the same text in US trade format (6×9 inches) produces around 280 pages.
For UK authors publishing on Amazon KDP, the marketplace supports both metric and imperial trim sizes. The most popular UK choices are 5×8 inches (close to B-format) and 5.5×8.5 inches. KDP printing costs for Amazon.co.uk are £0.70 fixed plus £0.010 per page for black & white, making per-page costs slightly lower than the US marketplace.
Children's and young adult books follow UK-specific conventions. The Carnegie Medal, the UK's most prestigious children's book award, favours middle-grade titles of 40,000–70,000 words and YA titles of 50,000–80,000 words — generally shorter than US equivalents in the same categories.