Genre guide · Nonfiction
Biography: word count & book length
How long a biography book should be, which trim sizes suit it and what that means in printed pages. Typical length: 80,000–120,000 words.
About biography
The story of another person's life, built on research, interviews and archives. Notes, bibliography and index are expected for serious biographies.
Printed length in recommended trim sizes
| Trim | Pages at 11 pt | Spine (white) |
|---|---|---|
| 6 x 9 in US Trade | 248–374 pages | 0.56–0.84 in |
| Royal (6.14 x 9.21 in) | 236–354 pages | 0.53–0.8 in |
Page counts for these lengths
Tips for this category
- Budget 10–15% extra pages for endnotes and the index.
About Biography
A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description or account of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death. It portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae (résumé), a biography presents a subject's life story, highlighting various aspects of their life, including intimate details of experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality. Biographical works are usually non-fiction, but fiction can also be used to portray a person's life. One in-depth form of biographical coverage is called legacy writing. Works in diverse media, from literature to film, form the genre known as biography. An authorized biography is written with the permission, cooperation, and at times, participation of a subject or a subject's heirs.
From the Wikipedia article “Biography”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Most-published biography works in Open Library
| Title | Author | First published | Editions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gulliver's Travels | Jonathan Swift | 1726 | 1,810 |
| Don Quijote de la Mancha | Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra | 1600 | 1,595 |
| Julius Caesar | William Shakespeare | 1656 | 1,531 |
| La Divina Commedia | Dante Alighieri | 1472 | 1,339 |
| Анна Каренина | Лев Толстой | 1876 | 1,316 |
| Anne of Green Gables | Lucy Maud Montgomery | 1908 | 1,299 |
| Walden | Henry David Thoreau | 1854 | 1,140 |
| Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass | Frederick Douglass | 1845 | 1,032 |
| Twelve years a slave | Solomon Northup | 1853 | 1,029 |
| Dubliners | James Joyce | 1914 | 997 |
Open Library lists 916,247 works under this subject.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a biography book be?
What trim size is best for biography?
Sources & data
- Subject statistics from Open Library.
- Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).