# Lord of the Rings word count



## WizardMagus

Being a writer myself, I was just wondering if anyone had an exact or even approximate word count of the LotR series. I've done a little bit of research, and I've been unable to find one. Does anyone know?


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## Celebthôl

I think it was someing about 500,000 words. Give or take. . .


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## Beleg

525,414 words.
There are a couple of approximate references in the Letters about word count.


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## HLGStrider

What? You mean you haven't COUNTED them? I bet you haven't even counted the words in the Hobbit!

What kind of fan are you?

Geez, the lack of comitment in today's world.


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## Eledhwen

I know what WizardMagus means; I am writing a book which is taking longer than I anticipated (real life keeps interfering).

I was gratified to hear that Tolkien spent four months at Balin's tomb, for instance, wondering what would happen next. To plot my book's progress in paperback pages, I approximated the number of words per page in FotR, and worked out that my story has got to about the 80th page - about where Tolkien ends his second chapter. Although my book is outlined right through to the end (I wrote it in screenplay format first), I am ending up with many more characters with interesting lives and loyalties walking into the story who never appeared in the screenplay version, and I think "Hmm, I like you; you can stay."

Perhaps we should add Elgee's fan definition to the "You are a real Tolkien fan when you..." thread, which is somewhere, I think, and may have a different title, or may have been deleted or archived (pathetic attempt to cover all reasons why people can't find such a thread.)


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## Gil-Galad

> _Originally posted by HLGStrider _
> *What? You mean you haven't COUNTED them? I bet you haven't even counted the words in the Hobbit!
> 
> What kind of fan are you?
> 
> Geez, the lack of comitment in today's world.
> 
> 
> 
> *


Elgee,the real fan will know not only how many words is LOTR,but also how many letters.............


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## WizardMagus

I was really asking because I'm a writer myself, but I have a tendency to write epics that are a little too long to actually print. One of my books was projected at 1,200,000 words (Six parts, appx. 200,000 words each). At about 250,000 I realized I already had two or three books worth of writing, and I doubted anyone would consider taking it on. Of course, I could split it up into multiple books, but it really was all one story. =/

The average novel is about 80,000 words, some more, some less. When it comes to fantasy and sci-fi, which are my chosen genres, you can get up to 200,000 before people start to get nervous. Only a few authors can sell books bigger than that. I figured that if Tolkien could get a monster like LotR published, then a book of my own at an approximate length would also stand a chance. That's why I looked for the LotR word count, but couldn't find it. Thanks, Beleg, for the exact count. =)


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## HLGStrider

My problem generally seems to be the opposite. The average length for what I write has been in between 20,000 and 50,000 words, give or take. Too long to be short stories. Too short to be novels. My only work I'm considering for publication is, however, 114,812. I thought it was still a little short. I'm glad to hear it is about industry standard.


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## WizardMagus

You can sell your novellas (20-50k words) to many magazines. You can make AT LEAST five cents a word, which is a few thousand dollars for just one story. Even if one doesn't sell the first time, you can try again. Or, just write another one up, and do that. Most novel writers first break into the business selling short stories to such magazines. As for myself, I dislike short stories and novellas, and I am not good at writing them. That will probably make my life harder, but, oh well. 

Seriously, do some research and send off some stories. Maybe you'll make it big. =) Even if you don't, you still make a fistful of dollars, and that in itself is pretty good. The only advice I have for you is to find an agent. There are so many people trying to become writers that editors will almost never open unsolicited mail. Having an agent will allow you to be noticed, if you have the talent. Without an agent, it's nearly impossible to get recognized. The odds are worse than one in a million, but it has happened. *shrug*


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## Niniel

It cost Tolkien a lot of trouble to get LOTR published, because the publisher thought it was too long (read the Letters), but that was 50 years ago, so maybe it won't be so hard now.


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## HLGStrider

Currently my publishing attempts have garnered a prize collection of rejection letters, actually. I also write children's books, so I am working on the front too. I don't know of many magazines but plan to research them as well.


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## Rangerdave

Using the average word count from 10 random pages and multipyling that out, I get an estimate of 341,921 words.

I only included the narritive text in my count, the appendicies in RotK would greatly expand this number.






and thats as close to math as I ever want to get.

RD


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