Word count to audiobook hours
The finished length of an audiobook is the word count divided by the narrator’s pace. The formula is:
finished hours = words ÷ words per minute ÷ 60
At the average pace of 155 words per minute, every 9,300 words is one finished hour.
Common manuscript lengths
| Words | Fast (170 wpm) | Average (155 wpm) | Slow (140 wpm) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 30,000 | 2 h 56 min | 3 h 13 min | 3 h 34 min |
| 50,000 | 4 h 54 min | 5 h 22 min | 5 h 57 min |
| 70,000 | 6 h 51 min | 7 h 31 min | 8 h 20 min |
| 80,000 | 7 h 50 min | 8 h 36 min | 9 h 31 min |
| 90,000 | 8 h 49 min | 9 h 40 min | 10 h 42 min |
| 100,000 | 9 h 48 min | 10 h 45 min | 11 h 54 min |
| 120,000 | 11 h 45 min | 12 h 54 min | 14 h 17 min |
| 150,000 | 14 h 42 min | 16 h 7 min | 17 h 51 min |
What changes the pace?
- Genre. Action and thrillers often run faster; literary fiction, poetry and memoir slower.
- Dialogue and characters. Many voices and dramatic pauses add time.
- Non-fiction detail. Numbers, lists and technical terms slow narration down.
- The narrator. Ask for a short sample and time it: words in the sample ÷ its minutes gives their real pace.
Once you know the length, see what it might cost with the narrator cost calculator.