I assume that when you show statistics and Scrivener tells you how many paperback book pages your manuscript is (I know it’s somewhat of an estimate), that there is some kind of mathematics to arrive at that number.
I’d like to know what the assumptions are: Is it assuming a certain sized page, or a certain number of characters on a printed paperback page, or specific line lengths, or what?
And here is my reason. It’s not idle curiosity. I want to pull in my text into an Adobe InDesign document so I can see what it looks like as if printed on a paperback page. To do that, I have to tell InDesign what the printable page is (note that this is not the same as the physical sheet of paper it’s printed on). I want to print out drafts on regular sized paper but show the crop marks that define the page and the text on the page. I want to get this as close to what Scrivener is telling me. Thanks.
I found an InDesign template for paperback books. The template is for a 6 by 9 inch (152 x 229 mm) paperback, which ends up to be about 260 to 275 words/page, making my 50,212 words that Scrivener says is 131 pages more like 179 pages. That’s using Adobe Minion Pro 11 point type on 18 point lines (I think 18 point line spacing is a little large but that’s what this particular designer set it at).
I’m going to edit my first draft on paper with writing notes all over the page so I get away from the screen. To do that, I wanted to have it printed and spiral bound, which you can get for 50% off (for first timers) using discount code “wwwprint” at mimeo.com here http://www.mimeo.com/products/manual-printing.php
Not sure if that applies to outside of the US but it’s one of the cheaper/easier to use sites I found. They will do color printing and print on heavy card stock for the front cover.