Word Counter · 5 min read
How Many Words Are in a Novel? Word Counts by Genre
Word count is one of the first questions every writer faces — and agents, publishers, and readers all have strong implicit expectations. Here are the standard ranges and the reasons behind them.
Standard Word Counts by Genre
| Format / Genre | Typical word count |
|---|---|
| Flash fiction | Under 1,000 |
| Short story | 1,000 – 7,500 |
| Novelette | 7,500 – 17,500 |
| Novella | 17,500 – 40,000 |
| Literary fiction | 70,000 – 110,000 |
| Commercial / genre fiction | 70,000 – 90,000 |
| Science fiction & fantasy | 90,000 – 120,000 |
| Epic fantasy (debut) | 90,000 – 120,000 |
| Romance | 50,000 – 100,000 |
| Mystery & thriller | 70,000 – 90,000 |
| Young adult (YA) | 55,000 – 80,000 |
| Middle grade | 20,000 – 55,000 |
| Picture books | 500 – 1,000 |
| Memoir / narrative non-fiction | 70,000 – 100,000 |
| Business / self-help non-fiction | 40,000 – 80,000 |
| Academic monograph | 80,000 – 120,000 |
Why Word Count Matters
Word count matters for practical reasons. A 200,000-word debut novel is expensive to print, hard to shelve, and signals to agents that the author may not yet know how to edit. A 40,000-word "novel" is too short for adult fiction but sits comfortably in middle grade. Publishers, agents, and readers all have calibrated expectations, and deviating sharply from genre norms is a structural red flag regardless of writing quality.
Famous Novels and Their Word Counts
| Novel | Author | Approx. words |
|---|---|---|
| The Old Man and the Sea | Hemingway | ~26,600 |
| The Great Gatsby | Fitzgerald | ~47,000 |
| Of Mice and Men | Steinbeck | ~30,000 |
| Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Rowling | ~77,000 |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Lee | ~100,000 |
| 1984 | Orwell | ~88,000 |
| Moby Dick | Melville | ~209,000 |
| War and Peace | Tolstoy | ~580,000 |
| In Search of Lost Time | Proust | ~1,500,000 |
| The Lord of the Rings (trilogy) | Tolkien | ~500,000 |
How Long Does It Take to Write a Novel?
At an average writing pace of 500–1,000 words per hour (for focused first-draft work), a 80,000-word novel represents 80–160 hours of writing time. That does not include research, planning, revision, or editing. Allowing for interruptions and the natural unevenness of creative work, first drafts typically take six months to two years for most novelists working around jobs and family commitments.
NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenges writers to produce 50,000 words in November — 1,667 words per day. This is achievable but demanding, and 50,000 words is technically more of a novella than a publishable novel. The point is to produce a complete first draft.
Non-Fiction Word Count Norms
Non-fiction books follow looser conventions because readers are buying specific information rather than an immersive experience. A 40,000-word business book (roughly 160 printed pages) is perfectly respectable if it communicates its thesis thoroughly. Padding for the sake of appearing weighty is a well-documented problem in the category, often mocked as "airport books."
Longform journalism typically runs 3,000–10,000 words. Blog posts optimised for SEO tend to target 1,500–2,500 words for informational content. Academic journal articles average 5,000–8,000 words in most fields.
References
- Blythe, C., & Snowdon, K. (2020). Word count guidelines for fiction genres. Writer's Digest, 91(4).
- Wendig, C. (2014). The Kick-Ass Writer. Writer's Digest Books.
- Nielsen BookScan. (2023). Average book word counts by genre. Nielsen Holdings.
- Campbell, N. (2019). Non-fiction word count benchmarks. Publisher's Weekly.