How Many Words In A Novel? It Depends On The Genre

Are you wondering about how many words are in a novel for your genre?

There is no hard and fast rule. In some ways, it is a bit like asking how long a piece of string is. In today’s publishing world, does book word count matter anymore?

If you are pitching a new novel to a literary agent or a publishing house, yes, it probably still does. You should always note your word count in your query letter.

But if you are self-publishing, you have much more latitude with your word and page count. Is there a guide for how long a novel should be? No, but you can look at commonly accepted standards for popular book genres.

Book word count averages

How long is a novel?

As a general rule of thumb, a novel falls somewhere between count ranges of 50,000 and 100,000 words.

Some genres, like science fiction, can be much longer and spend 1,000s of words on world-building.

If there is an average, then 60,000 to 80,000 words is probably the sweet spot.

It is interesting to note that JK Rowling’s first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, is 76,944 words long.

Another famous book, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is only 46,333 words.

This proves that there is no hard and fast rule regarding the number of words in a novel.

If a story is in the range of 20,000 to 30,000 words, it is most often classified as a novella.

Below this range, you are probably looking at a short story or a children’s book.

Let’s look at some popular genres in more detail.

Story length by specific genres

Romance

Romantic fiction can be anywhere from 55,000 words up to 120,000 words.

If you are trying to find a traditional publisher for your book, then around 110,000 words would be about right.

Some sub-genres of romance sometimes tend to be a little shorter than mainstream romance.

Nora Roberts is a good example of continuity in story length for romance novels. Almost all of her books are about 460 printed pages, which is around 127,000 words.

This uniformity is a vital factor in how a print book looks on a bookstore shelf, especially for a series of books by the same author.

Literary fiction

It is a very broad category, but these novels are usually quite long.

As a guide, literary fiction novels are most often between 120,000 to 150,000 words.

Crime, thriller, and suspense

These novels almost always range from 90,000 to 130,000 words or even more.

As an example, The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown is 170,000 words long.

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy is 162,690 words.

However, In a House of Lies by Ian Ranking is much shorter at 101,355 words.

Science fiction and fantasy

In these two genres, word count can extend up to and beyond 200,000 words. There seems to be no limit to how many words you can write in a fantasy novel.

I am sure you have read many of the classics that can take an awfully long time to read.

Memoirs and biographies

These books are generally limited from 70,000 words up to 100,000 words.

Higher word counts might be acceptable if you are an ex-president or a famous or infamous celebrity.

Middle-grade fiction

As a rule, 20,000 to 40,000 words is the ideal range. But there is no hard and fast rule.

Young adult fiction

Young adult stories often range from 40,000 to 80,000 words. But rarely anywhere over 100,000 words.

Non-fiction

There are many sub-genres to this category. However, an acceptable length is generally within the range of 75,000 to 110,000 words.

Self-help and personal development

There are no strict guidelines for this genre. Say what you have to say in as many or as few words as it takes to cover your topic.

Children’s books

For a picture book, 200 to 300 words are about the limit.

If you are writing for early readers, up to 3,000 words is the top range.

Chapbooks

Chapter books, or Chapbooks, are usually below 10,000 words.

Summarized word counts by genre

For a quick overview, this graph is a guide to book word count averages.

Does the rule book apply to ebooks?

Publishing today is tipping all the average book-length rules upside down and shaking them for good measure.

The guidelines for the length of a novel are usually based on the traditional publishing model.

In many ways, it is about market expectations by book buyers who browse for a new book in a brick-and-mortar bookstore.

Word count dictates the number of pages in a print book, which defines the spine thickness.

Thick is good because the spine is so important in how a novel is presented on a bookstore shelf.

The thicker, the better because there is more room for the title and author name.

But how thick is an ebook? And where is the spine?

Amazon self-publishing has changed everything.

Even more challenging for authors is adapting to ebook subscriber reading with Kindle Unlimited (KU).

If you enroll your ebooks into KDP Select, you earn royalties by page reads and not by the number of ebooks you sell.

You are selling 187 words per page with KU, and you hope that KDP gets the calculation right. It is still arguable that Amazon can’t count by the number of words read in an ebook.

But in the end, the more words in your ebook, the more you should earn from KU page reads.

However, subscriber readers don’t necessarily read a whole book.

They can flit from one book to another, reading a few pages here and a few pages there. You will know about this reading trend if you check your KDP sales dashboard.

How many words in a novel for ebooks

Ebook reading creates many challenges and questions about word count.

Should you opt out of subscriber reading and focus on actual ebook unit sales?

If you write a classic crime thriller of, say, 120,000 words, your list price for your ebook will struggle to sell at a price above $4.99.

But you could divide your story into a three ebook series of 40,000 words each. Then, you have a good chance of selling for $2.99 or even $3.99.

For a return on your word count, the lower price should return more for you. But only if you hook a new reader with your first book in the series.

There is no easy answer. However, there has been a noticeable trend toward ebook readers preferring shorter reads.

Maybe it has something to do with attention span or when and how an ebook reader reads.

It could also be because screen reading is not as comfortable as reading a print book.

There is no right or wrong length for an ebook. Sure, you can use the generally accepted count for specific genres.

But I would say that you have much more flexibility when it comes to your ebooks.

It’s a tough market. Balancing your ebook price or subscription return against the number of words in your book is a calculation only you can make.

Conclusion

The decision you make about the ideal word count for your novel is not an easy one.

If you are taking the traditional publishing route, then yes. You should use the generally accepted word count totals for your particular genre as a guide.

But if you self-publish ebooks, you can forget the rules and make your own.

Experiment, try to see what works and what doesn’t.

Some writers are now bundling blog posts together to create quick Kindle ebooks. This method is especially suited to self-help books.

So should you write short or long? There is no correct answer.

But I have an inkling that if you count words, shorter is better when it comes to ebooks.

Related Reading: Memoir Or Autobiography? How To Choose The Right Genre