This Rule of Thumb for Estimating Word Count Is Obsolete

In days of yore, the accepted rule for estimating word count was 250 words per manuscript page. Is that still the case today? If not, how should it be done instead?

William Shunn
The Writing Cooperative
3 min readSep 2, 2021

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Photo by Sean Thomas on Unsplash

A reader writes to ask:

Can you enlighten me on how to determine word

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Writer, poet and puzzle maker. Hugo and Nebula Award finalist. Author of The Accidental Terrorist: Confessions of a Reluctant Missionary. He/him/Bill.