Standard Manuscript Page
In short: A standard manuscript page is a standardized page used to measure text length and calculate fees – classically about 1,500 characters including spaces (roughly 30 lines of 60 characters).
Where the standard page comes from
The standard page dates back to the typewriter: 30 lines of at most 60 characters made a uniform, easy-to-count manuscript page. Because paragraphs and short lines leave space, such a page holds around 1,500 characters in practice – hence today's rule of thumb.
What it's for
Comparable length: Because font and layout distort page counts, the industry measures length in standard pages rather than book pages.
A basis for fees: Editing and translation are often billed per standard page.
Work it out yourself: Let your writing software show the character count including spaces and divide it by 1,500 – that tells you roughly how many standard pages your text has.
Standard pages on Fireside
A story on Fireside can be up to 40,000 characters long – roughly 27 standard pages. If your text is longer, publish it as serial fiction, chapter by chapter.
Related terms: Synopsis · Editing
Frequently asked questions
What is a standard manuscript page?
A standardized page of about 1,500 characters that serves as a unit for measuring text length.
How many characters does a standard page have?
Classically around 1,500 characters including spaces; sometimes 1,800 is used.
How many standard pages is a short story?
It varies widely: many short stories run from about 3 to 20 standard pages. Competitions and anthologies often set a fixed upper limit.