The three different pages nobody separates

A manuscript page is 12-point, double-spaced, one-inch margins: about 250 words. This is the page an editor or agent means.

A single-spaced page of the same setting holds about 500 words. This is the page a school or client brief usually means.

A printed book page — 5.5x8.5 or 6x9, set for reading — holds about 250 to 300 words. This is the page a reader holds, and it is the only one that appears on a retail listing.

So one number gives three answers. Always ask which page is meant before you promise a length.

The conversion table

500 words — 2 pages double-spaced, 1 single-spaced, 2–2 printed pages.

1,000 words — 4 double-spaced, 2 single-spaced, 3–4 printed.

2,000 words — 8 double-spaced, 4 single-spaced, 7–8 printed.

5,000 words — 20 double-spaced, 10 single-spaced, 17–20 printed.

50,000 words — 200 double-spaced, 167–200 printed pages: a short novel.

90,000 words — 360 double-spaced, 300–360 printed pages: the standard novel.

200,000 words — 800 double-spaced, 667–800 printed pages: an epic, and a printing cost you should check early.

What those words become when they are performed

A page count tells you how much paper. Runtime tells you how much time, and it is the figure that matters for an audio or film edition. This house works at 155 words to one finished minute — 9,300 words to a finished hour.

So 1,000 words is about 6m of finished audio. 50,000 words is 5h 23m. 90,000 words is 9h 41m. 200,000 words is 21h 30m.

And because this house prices by word count rather than by the hour, the same number gives you the price: 7.000000000000001% of the count for an audio book, 12% for a film book. A 90,000-word novel is $6,300 in audio, $10,800 as a film book.

Why your word processor disagrees

Font, size, leading, margins, trim size and chapter breaks all move the count. A book set in 11-point with generous leading can run 15% longer than the same text set in 10-point.

Front matter, part titles, blank versos and a table of contents add pages that carry no words at all — usually 8 to 20 pages in a novel.

Dialogue-heavy prose sets shorter per page than dense description, because every line break wastes the rest of the line.

Asked and answered

How many pages is 50,000 words?

200 double-spaced manuscript pages, or about 167–200 pages of a printed 6x9 book.

How many words is one page?

About 250 words double-spaced, 500 single-spaced, and 250 to 300 on a printed book page.

How many pages is 80,000 words?

320 double-spaced pages, or about 267–320 printed pages — a normal-looking novel on a shelf.

Does page count affect what an audio or film edition costs?

No. Pages move with formatting, so they are a poor unit to price by. Word count does not move, which is why this house prices from it: 7.000000000000001% for audio, 12% for a film book.