Okay, some of you may already know this, but I just learned this today.
There’s a site you can go to if you want to find out how many words are in a published book.
Why, you may ask, would a writer want to know that?
Because it really really really helps to know if you’re evaluating a book in a genre or market you want to write.
For example, I’m in the middle of hosting a picture book mentoring workshop in my home. We’re studying and evaluating 3 picture books. At one point we wanted to know the word counts of these books, so we counted them. Yup. Word for word. (Thanks to one of our gals who counted 2 of them all by herself!!!)
No more!!!
Now I’ll just visit this handy dandy site, and search for the book’s title to see how many words are in the book. Whew! Easy Peasy!
Here’s the site:
Okay…tell me if you already knew this and you’ll earn 5 bonus points for the day!!! 
)
Thanks for sharing this…I didn’t know it already, so I don’t get any bonus points. I wish I didn’t live on the other side of the country, as I would love to be a part of a picture book workshop in your home. I enjoyed learning from you this week on the Writer’s Retreat message board. Thanks for blogging and sharing…I appreciate it!
By: Audrey McLaughlin on March 15, 2013
at 7:04 pm
It was so fun to meet you on the ICL message board, Audrey!!! Welcome to my blog. It’s fun to have you hang out here, too!
By: nancyisanders on March 15, 2013
at 7:59 pm
Did not know of the site. When I went to it and put in a title, I could not figure out how to get the word count!
By: Louise Willis on March 15, 2013
at 7:19 pm
Oops!! Figured it out. Thanks!
Louise
By: Louise Willis on March 15, 2013
at 7:27 pm
Glad you found it!!!
By: nancyisanders on March 15, 2013
at 8:00 pm
Yes, I already knew this, Nancy, and there’s another site, too, but I can’t remember what it is. If it comes to me, I’ll email you!
By: Tina Cho on March 16, 2013
at 12:29 am
Yay!!! You earned 5 bonus points for the day!!! And yes, there are other sites that do this…I’d heard about it before but never checked it out. It’s soooooo handy!
By: nancyisanders on March 16, 2013
at 6:57 am
No I didn’t know. I’ll bookmark it in my favorites. Thanks Nancy!
Rachael
By: Rachael Benson on March 16, 2013
at 9:35 am
Thanks for this info, Nancy. I love it. It also gives the reading level for the book. Great help!
By: chris on March 16, 2013
at 9:57 am
Hi Nancy I just went on the website but I don’t see where they talk about a word count. All is is books for teachers. Am I looking in the wrong place? Rachael
By: Rachael Benson on March 16, 2013
at 11:04 am
No, that’s the right place, Rachael. Just type the title of any book you want to check inside the search box.
Then a list comes up and click on to the link for the book you want. You’ll see the word count and other stats. Let me know if that works!
By: nancyisanders on March 16, 2013
at 1:27 pm
It’s a miraculous site for sure. Over the last 2 years, there’s never been a book title that I typed in that was NOT in the database. Incredible!
By: Cathy Ballou Mealey on March 18, 2013
at 1:40 pm
Thanks for letting us know, Cathy!!! And since I discovered it, I’ve also been checking books for their readability level. That’s another really valuable feature.
By: nancyisanders on March 18, 2013
at 2:03 pm
I knew about it, only because of Jan Fields at the ICL site.
By: Rick Starkey on March 24, 2013
at 7:02 pm
I think Jan knows EVERYTHING!!!
)
By: nancyisanders on March 24, 2013
at 9:08 pm