Roughly how many words is 15-20"

I use a program at work that gives me a running tally of how many inches I've written, but I'm filing on my laptop today and don't really know. Is 450-500 words right?

 

450-600, depending on type size and spacing.

 

Yep. Figure 30-40 words per inch.

 

It could depend on the size/width of the columns your shop uses, font sizes, etc.

But 450-600 seems about right.

 

When I first started in the biz, my SE told me an inch was 33 words. I'm not sure if that's on point, but it's been what I've gone with, more or less.

 

The general rule is 35-40.
But, there are variables. Such as column width, font size, justification, set width and even leading come into play.

 

Another trick I learned is to go to characters (with spaces), drop the last two digits, and divide the rest by two.

Thus: 3,000 characters = 15".

 

I always work on a laptop and I go by lines. In the font and size I use, 100 lines is a little more than 30 inches, so 50 lines is right around 15.

 

At my place 15-20 would be 600-800.

 

Multiple inch count by 30 and then 35, and that gives you a legit range.

 

When I first started, I learned I could get a more accurate count by counting characters. I think it was something like 31 characters (including spaces) per line and seven lines per inch.

 

AP now figures 25 words to the inch. Back in the day, it was 50. That should tell you something about the news hole, or lack thereof.