Word Count Counts
Have you ever been listening to a speech and you find yourself thinking, “When is this person going to finish?” Or been scrolling, scrolling, scrolling through your Instagram feed just hoping something will pop up that catches your attention?
Word count is important! If you are like me, an author and wordsmith, you get paid by how well and how many words you write. But no matter what business you are in, the length of what you write is key to getting your message across successfully.
My goal for this post is to give you a rough guideline for word count. You will notice that it varies greatly depending on what you are writing.
Books have specific recommended word counts depending on the genre.
500-1000 words for children’s picture books (Penguin Books)
55,000 - 80,000 for YA chapter book (Self Publishing School)
70,000 - 200,000 for adult fiction (Jericho Writers)
Blog post lengths depend a bit on what you are writing about, who your audience is and what channels you are promoting on. One school of thought is your blog should be as long as it needs to be! This is my preferred method of writing by the way! There are two primary versions:
Long form → At least 1,200 words. Examples may be a more technical topic (think a medical breakthrough, a new piece of manufacturing equipment, or a governmental ruling) may lend itself to a long form.
Short form → Less than 1,000 words. Perhaps a more conversational post (like this one for instance) or promotional piece is better suited as a short form post.
!!Caution!! Try not to go under 500 words. These types of blog posts are called “snackables” and don’t generally get as much engagement.
All that being said, the general consensus is that longer is better. Why, you might ask? Because people want more information and are willing to spend time reading and engaging if it’s well written. As a business, you can include more search words (think SEO) here.
According to HubSpot, “For SEO, the ideal blog post length should be 2,100-2,400 words.”
With social media posts, you literally have seconds to capture and KEEP the reader’s attention. Think about your own scrolling habits. Am I right?
Here is my 4-step fishing formula:
Step 1 - Bait them! This is the headline (4-5 words)
Step 2 - Hook them! This is the first line of text after your headline (10-20 words)
Step 3 - Give them something! Give the reader a taste of what they would get if they use your product or service (10-20 words)
Step 4 - Reel them in! Provide somewhere they can go to get more info (website, call, email, LinkedIN profile). (3-5 words)
!!Caution!! Each platform has different character limits, beware not to go over. You can check out this article by Hootsuite for a comprehensive listing.
In short, be short!
KISS – Keep It Simple & Short
Write to an 3rd grader - it forces you to write clearly
Ditch the jargon and terms that make eyeballs roll
Write to the reader - No one cares about what you (or I) do. Readers only care what they can get from what you (or I) do.
Use pictures & videos
Ask questions
Create interest or intrigue
Give a link for more info
For video scripts and speeches, it’s a little easier. On average, most people can speak aloud at about 150 words per minute. You can do the math from here, but my advice is threefold:
Confirm how long your speech or script is meant to be
Write out your piece using the 150 words per minute guideline
Practice! As a potential listener, I beg you to please practice and time yourself while you’re doing it!
Now that we’ve covered the basics of word count and you understand why it’s important, the question of “how do I figure it out?” comes into play. Most, if not all, document creator programs like Google Docs and Microsoft Word have a “Word Count” tool that can be used to count a section or the entire document.
—>For both MS Word and Google Docs, open your document, highlight the section you wish to count, go to the “Tools” tab from your status and pull down to ‘Word Count.’
Easy peasy!
For the purpose of proof in the pudding, this document is 789 words long. Now, go and blog on and if you need any help, words are my gig!
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Maggie van Galen is an awarding-winning children’s book author and wordsmith who offers writing services to weave your words into compelling content!📝
Visit www.maggievangalen.com to learn more or give me a call at 603*801*4050 to schedule your free consultation today.