How many words in a novel? Most land between 70,000 and 100,000. For adult fiction, the range agents like best is 80,000 to 90,000. Fantasy and science fiction run longer, young adult and middle grade run shorter. Anything from 40,000 words up counts as a novel.
Those are the numbers. The rest of this post shows where they come from and what to do with your own count once you have one. Because a word count is not a grade. It is a measurement, and it only matters at a couple of moments in the life of a book.
How many words in a novel? A novel is 40,000 words or more, by the definition the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association uses. Most published adult novels fall between 70,000 and 100,000 words, and Writer’s Digest calls 80,000 to 89,999 the ideal range for commercial and literary fiction.
- Adult literary and commercial fiction: 80,000 to 90,000 is the safe middle
- Fantasy and sci-fi: 100,000 to 115,000 is common, epic fantasy goes far beyond
- Young adult: about 55,000 to 80,000
- Middle grade: 20,000 to 55,000
- A debut that goes past 110,000 words will face harder questions from agents
How many words make a novel
There is no law here, but there is one line most people agree on. The Nebula Award rules set by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association sort fiction by length like this:
| Form | Word count |
|---|---|
| Short story | under 7,500 |
| Novelette | 7,500 to 17,499 |
| Novella | 17,500 to 39,999 |
| Novel | 40,000 or more |
Reedsy uses the same 40,000-word floor. So if your finished draft is 45,000 words, it is a novel. A short one, and maybe short for its genre, but a novel.
That line has some funny results. By Reedsy’s count, Animal Farm is 29,966 words and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is 38,421. Under the Nebula rules, both are novellas. Nobody told their readers, and nobody minded.
Novel word count by genre
Genre sets the expectation more than anything else. A reader who picks up an epic fantasy expects to live in that world for a while. A reader who picks up a thriller expects to be turned loose at the end of a tight weekend.
Here is what three of the most cited guides say. I have kept each number with its source, because they do not always agree.
| Genre | Common range | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Literary and commercial fiction | 80,000 to 89,999 ideal, 70,000 to 109,000 safe | Writer’s Digest |
| Mystery and thriller | 80,000 to 100,000 | Reedsy |
| Crime and thriller | 75,000 to 120,000 | Jericho Writers |
| Romance | 80,000 to 100,000 | Reedsy |
| Category romance | 50,000 to 60,000 | Jericho Writers |
| Horror | 70,000 to 100,000 | Reedsy |
| Historical fiction | 75,000 to 100,000, epics to 150,000 and beyond | Jericho Writers |
| Science fiction and fantasy | 100,000 to 115,000 | Writer’s Digest, Reedsy |
| Young adult | 55,000 to 79,999 | Writer’s Digest |
| Middle grade | 20,000 to 55,000 | Writer’s Digest |
Where the guides disagree
Fantasy is the big split. Writer’s Digest calls 100,000 to 115,000 excellent and treats anything past about 124,000 as a problem. Jericho Writers, a UK writing service, says fantasy and sci-fi can run to 180,000 or 200,000 and beyond. Both are describing real books. The difference is that Writer’s Digest is talking about what an agent will take from a new writer, and Jericho is describing what ends up on shelves.
Romance splits too, for a different reason. Short category romance, the kind sold in numbered lines, runs 50,000 to 60,000 words. Mainstream romance sits with other adult fiction, at 80,000 to 100,000. Know which shelf you are writing for.
If you write in a genre that is not listed, find five recent books like yours from publishers you would want. Their lengths will tell you more than any table.
How many words should a debut novel be
This is where the number matters most. An agent sees your word count in the query letter before reading a page, and a number far outside the range can end the conversation early.
Writer’s Digest says adult fiction under 70,000 reads as too short and 110,000 or more as too long. Career Authors goes further. In a post on debut pitches, the agent writing it calls 90,000 words the sweet spot. Almost every longer debut they have shopped to editors came back with the same note about length.
The reason is not snobbery. A longer book costs more to print and edit, and a publisher takes that risk more easily on an author who already sells.
That is why you will see famous books well past these limits. By Reedsy’s count, Gone Girl is 145,719 words and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is 257,045. Those were not first books. Their authors had earned the room.
For a first novel, aim for the middle of your genre’s range. If you land above it, take that as a reason to revise, not a reason to despair.
Famous novels by word count
It helps to see real books next to the numbers. All of these counts come from Reedsy’s list:
| Book | Words |
|---|---|
| Animal Farm | 29,966 |
| The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe | 38,421 |
| The Perks of Being a Wallflower | 60,438 |
| The Haunting of Hill House | 66,691 |
| Shutter Island | 81,666 |
| Life of Pi | 98,783 |
| The Hunger Games | 99,750 |
| Ender’s Game | 100,609 |
| Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | 106,821 |
| Gone Girl | 145,719 |
| A Storm of Swords | 424,000 |
A caution on lists like this. Counts for the same book can differ between sources, depending on the edition and what the counter included. Treat them as close, not exact.
How many pages is a novel
Pages are a loose way to measure a book, because a page changes with the font and the trim size. Publishing uses a standard to get around this. A double-spaced manuscript page holds about 250 words. Career Authors uses the same math: 90,000 words is 360 manuscript pages.
So:
- A 70,000-word novel is about 280 manuscript pages
- A 300-page manuscript is about 75,000 words
- A 400-page manuscript is about 100,000 words
Printed books fit more on a page. Jericho Writers gives one example: 180,000 words came to about 650 paperback pages, or roughly 275 words a page. Use manuscript pages when you are writing and querying. Printed pages are the publisher’s problem.
Penflow shows an estimated page count under each scene, using that same 250-word page, next to the word and character counts. It is a small thing, but it turns an abstract number into something you can picture in a stack.
Is 60,000 words too short
It depends on the shelf. For young adult, 60,000 words sits comfortably inside the range. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is about that length. For adult commercial fiction, Writer’s Digest would call it short, and an agent might ask whether the story has room to grow.
Self-publishing is looser. Jericho Writers notes there is no fixed limit for ebooks, and that series books of 30,000 words can do fine.
A short draft is rarely a problem of too few words. It is usually a missing piece of story. Look first at the middle. Maybe a subplot never got its own scenes. Maybe two characters go from strangers to allies with nothing in between. Fix those gaps and the count follows. Padding sentences to hit a number will make the book worse and the count only a little better.
How many chapters in a novel
There is no standard. Chapter length is a pacing choice, not a rule, and published novels range from a few long chapters to a hundred short ones.
What you can do is the math. Divide your target word count by the chapter length that feels right for your story:
- 80,000 words in chapters of about 2,500 words is 32 chapters
- 80,000 words in chapters of about 4,000 words is 20 chapters
Short chapters tend to speed a book up, because each ending is a small reason to keep reading. Long chapters give a reader room to settle in. Neither is correct. What matters is that the length changes on purpose, not by accident, which is where counting by scene helps.
If your draft runs long
Almost every first draft runs long, and that is fine. The draft’s job is to exist. Worry about length when you revise, not while you write. If you are still in the drafting stage, how long it takes to write a novel has the daily math, and how to write a novel covers the whole process.
When you do revise, cut by the scene before you cut by the sentence. Line edits save hundreds of words. Structural cuts save thousands. Some places to look:
- Scenes that make the same point twice, such as two arguments that end in the same place
- Openings that start before the story does, with a character waking up or driving somewhere
- Secondary characters who do the same job and could be merged into one
- Backstory told in a block that could be shown in a line of dialogue later
- Travel and setup between scenes that a chapter break could skip
Keep a file of what you cut, so nothing is truly gone. Readers never miss a scene they did not see.
Track word count by scene, not only by book
A total word count tells you where you stand. Counts per scene and chapter tell you how the book moves. If one chapter is 9,000 words and the next four are 2,000 each, a reader will feel that drag long before they could explain it.
Most writing tools give you a total. It is worth finding one that shows the parts. In Penflow, the write view shows the count for the scene you are in, and the outline lists words beside every scene. The bookshelf keeps each book’s total. There are no daily goals or streaks. That is on purpose. The numbers are there when you want to look, and quiet when you do not.
Frequently asked questions
How many words is a 300-page novel?
About 75,000 words, using the standard of 250 words per double-spaced manuscript page. A 300-page printed paperback usually holds more, because book pages are denser than manuscript pages.
Can a novel be 40,000 words?
Yes. 40,000 words is the line where a novella becomes a novel under the Nebula Award rules, and Reedsy uses the same floor. It is short for most adult genres, but it fits some middle grade and self-published series fiction.
How many words should a first novel be?
Aim for the middle of your genre’s range. For most adult fiction that is 80,000 to 90,000 words. Career Authors puts the debut sweet spot at 90,000, and Writer’s Digest treats 110,000 and up as too long for adult fiction.
How many pages is a 70,000-word novel?
About 280 manuscript pages. In print it depends on the book’s design, but it will usually come out shorter than that.
Your novel word count is a way to check whether the book on the page matches the book in your head. Write the draft first. Count it when you are ready to fix it.
If you want to see those numbers scene by scene, Penflow is free for one novel with a free account, and your manuscript stays on your Mac as plain files.
