5,000 Words in Pages, by Format
| Format | Words per page | Pages |
|---|---|---|
| Manuscript, Times New Roman 12 pt, single-spaced | 642 | 7.8 |
| Manuscript, Times New Roman 12 pt, 1.5 spacing | 428 | 12 |
| Manuscript, Times New Roman 12 pt, double-spaced | 321 | 16 |
| Arial 12 pt, single-spaced | 628 | 8 |
| Arial 12 pt, double-spaced | 314 | 16 |
| A4, Times New Roman 12 pt, single-spaced | 678 | 7.4 |
| A4, Times New Roman 12 pt, double-spaced | 332 | 16 |
| Paperback 5" × 8", Garamond 11 pt | 265 | 20 |
| Paperback 5.5" × 8.5", Garamond 11 pt | 314 | 16 |
| Paperback 6" × 9", Garamond 11 pt | 384 | 14 |
Letter pages have one-inch margins; paperback pages use print margins and 1.15 line spacing. Paperback counts are rounded up to an even number, because every printed leaf has two sides. All figures are for typical fiction; dialogue-heavy text fills more pages, long-paragraph nonfiction fewer. Change any of it in the calculator above.
What Kind of Story Is 5,000 Words?
By the length categories of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association, used for the Nebula Awards, 5,000 words is a short story: a short story runs under 7,500 words, a novelette 7,500 to 17,499, a novella 17,500 to 39,999, and a novel 40,000 or more.
Printed on its own as a 6" × 9" paperback, it makes a book of about 14 pages. Amazon KDP prints paperbacks from 24 pages, so a text this short becomes a 24-page book, or goes into a collection. See the printing cost and royalty for 24 pages →
How Long Does It Take to Read 5,000 Words?
At the average adult reading speed of 260 words a minute for fiction, 5,000 words take about 19 minutes to read silently; nonfiction, read at about 238 words a minute, takes about 21 minutes. Read aloud, at 183 words a minute, it takes about 27 minutes. The speeds come from a 2019 review of 190 reading studies by Marc Brysbaert. Reading time at your own speed →
Other Word Counts
2,200 words · 2,500 words · 4,000 words · 6,000 words · 7,000 words · 7,500 words · every word count
