How many words should a novel have? That’s a question I’ve seen many times. Just recently, user Burty Burtman asked in the forums, “How long is a novel?“
The answer is that for novel word counts it depends. Any numbers you can get are, at best, rule-of-thumb with many exceptions.
To give you a better answer, I asked Google, “How long should my novel be by word count?” I asked follow-up questions for some genres. Below is a summary of what the Internet says about how long a novel should be. There was generally little consensus and so a lot of notes.
For the average, I took the mean of the upper and lower limits and then the mean of those two values.
I did NOT ask AI. As far as I know, all sources were written by humans.
| Novel size for… | Word Count Range | Word Count Average | My Estimated Ideal (best guess) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Novels in general | 70,000 to 120,000 | 85,000 | 70,000 to 90,000 |
| Genre romance (13) | 50,000 to 100,000 | 79,000 | 80,000 to 100,000 |
| Genre romance: Harlequin/Mills and Boon | 50,000 to 60,000 | 55,000 | 50,000 to 55,000 (1) |
| Women’s Fiction (13) (2) | 70,000 to 110,000 | 85,833 | 80,000 to 100,000 |
| Family Saga | 100,000 to 250,000 | 156,250 | 100,000 to 125,00 (3) |
| Crime/Suspense/Thriller/Horror (13) | 40,000–135,000 | 82,500 | Horror: 40,000 to 50,000 (4) Otherwise: 55,000 to 90,000 (4) |
| Historical Fiction (13) (5) | 75,000 to 180,000 | 97,000 | 75,000 to 100,000 |
| Fantasy And Sci-fi (6) (7) | 60,000 to 200,000 | 121,429 | 90,000 to 120,000 (8) |
| Literary Fiction (9) (5) | 45,000 to 100,000 | 78,750 | 70,000 to 100,000 (8) |
| Memoir/Biography (10) | 45,000 to 100,000 | 98,500 | 70,000 to 80,000 |
| Young Adult Fiction (11) | 30,000 to 90,000 | 62,334 | 60,000 to 70,000 |
| Picture Books (12) | 0 to 800 | 290 | 100 to 250 (8) |
| Self Help & How To (13) | 30,000 to 120,000 | 60,000 | 40,000 to 70,000 (11) |
| Children’s (12) (13) (14) | 200–3500 | 1300 | 300 to 3500 (8) |
| Short Story (14) | 3,000 to 30,000 | 13,500 | 7,500 (8) |
- This genre is strictly defined by word count must be within 50k-55k
- This genre was somewhat nebulously defined with fewer suggestions
- If this is your first novel aim nearer 100k but if established 250k may be possible
- Make every last word count – established writers may get away with longer novels
- Not really a single genre
- hard sci-fi may run as little as 60k
- Genre Fantasy tends to run longer
- Your Mileage May Vary
- The shorter, the better it must be
- Celebrity memoirs can be (much) larger
- If you are really good and it is justified, higher word counts may be available
- Varies by reading age
- Varies by sub-genre/topic/niche
- Varies greatly – do your homework first
Please share your thoughts, comments, questions, and examples that fall way outside the range in the comments.
If I get more than 25 comments, I’ll do a deep-dive examining niche and sub-genre word count ranges. There might be a spreadsheet. If you want, I’ll do a separate post just for short stories.