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Tip Tuesday #78

Tip Tuesday is a recurring feature where readers send in tips for fellow writers. If you'd like to send in a tip e-mail me at agentspotlight(at)gmail(dot)com. Today's tip was sent in by Julie Hedlund and it's a good one! Please visit Julie at her blog, Write Up My Life.

I've been using this resource for a while and figured it was time to share. There's a feature on the Renaissance Learning website that allows you to quickly find the word count of almost any children's book. It also provides the book's publication history - by year and by publisher. If you follow this link: http://www.renlearn.com/store/quiz_home.asp?c=MA+21%3A72%3A9+1102%2F8%2F2, it will take you to a page where you can search for books by title, author, ISBN, etc. In less than five minutes, I found the word counts for these popular books:

A Sick Day for Amos McGee: 441
Ling and Ting: Not Exactly the Same: 887
Clementine: 12,706
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate: 80,972
Mockingjay: 100,269
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: 198,227

This is a great tool for comparing your own word counts to other popular books in your genre. I hope everyone finds it as useful as I have.
Julie Hedlund
on Tuesday, March 01, 2011

16 comments:

  1. StephanieMarch 1, 2011 at 3:08 AM

    This is an amazing resource! I've always just had to guess before. Thanks for this!

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  2. Andrea MackMarch 1, 2011 at 6:35 AM

    I've been using this resource for a while. It is really useful!!

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  3. Ishta MercurioMarch 1, 2011 at 8:19 AM

    You know, I came across this a couple of years ago, loved it, lost track of the link, and have been searching for it ever since. THANK YOU!

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  4. JenniferMarch 1, 2011 at 8:36 AM

    Thank you! I was looking for a site like this the other day - definitely bookmarking.

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  5. JenniferMarch 1, 2011 at 8:36 AM

    Thank you! I was looking for a site like this the other day - definitely bookmarking.

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  6. AlexandraMarch 1, 2011 at 9:40 AM

    Just bookmarked it, thanks so much!

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  7. AnnieMarch 1, 2011 at 9:52 AM

    This is such a fantastic resource. Thanks so much for sharing!

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  8. Sarah KielyMarch 1, 2011 at 1:49 PM

    This is great. Thanks!

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  9. Natalie AguirreMarch 1, 2011 at 2:06 PM

    Great resource. Casey posted a link to a site--maybe this one--that I bookmarked to check word counts when that's an issue in my manuscript. It beats hand counting. Thanks.

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  10. Ghenet MyrthilMarch 1, 2011 at 2:52 PM

    This is awesome! I'm definitely going to use this. Thanks for sharing.

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  11. Julie HedlundMarch 1, 2011 at 3:21 PM

    Glad you guys are finding it useful. Thanks to Casey for posting!

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  12. Tatum FlynnMarch 1, 2011 at 3:53 PM

    Ohhh... I can see this is going to be a timesuck :) Seriously, thank you, super useful tool to have.

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  13. Tatum FlynnMarch 1, 2011 at 3:53 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. Lisa NowakMarch 2, 2011 at 1:59 AM

    I can't remember where I stumbled upon The Renaissance Learning website, but it's very cool.

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  15. Priscilla MizellMarch 2, 2011 at 11:04 AM

    What an amazing link--thanks for sharing, Julie and Casey!

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  16. BrittanyMarch 4, 2011 at 10:05 AM

    Looks like a great site! Another site that I use to find the word count of books is Permabound: http://www.perma-bound.com/

    When you find a book, just click the "Reading Information" tab on the book's page.

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