When words are off on holiday someplace you are not, numbers can abide the time.

Here’s a few:

50
The average age of authors (1955-2004) when their novels hit #1 on New York Times bestseller list.

27
The number of publishers who rejected Dr. Seuss’s (Theodor Geisel) first book.

50
The number of pages to read before you abandon a book, any book. Then, don’t.

500
The number of words that fill one single-spaced page when you print it out.

300,400 or 500
The number of words that fill a page in a published book.

100,000
The number of words in many books.

1,000
The number of words to read for each word you write.

2,3 or 4
The number of years it takes most folks to write a book.

1
The number of novels written each by Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird), Margaret Mitchell (Gone With the Wind) and Boris Pasternak (Dr. Zhivago).