How Long is a Novel … and How Long Should YOUR Novel Be?

This post was first published in September 2016 and last updated in September 2025.

How long is a novel?

And perhaps more importantly, how long should your novel be?

You might think this doesn’t really matter. After all, surely what’s important is that your novel is well-structured and well-paced; that your protagonist has an engaging character arc, and that your ending satisfies the reader.

However, if you’ve written something that’s 20,000 words, readers will feel cheated if you describe it as a novel. Similarly, if it’s 500,000 words, that’s probably a whole trilogy (or more) of novels.

Whether you’re aiming for traditional publication or planning to self-publish, you want your writing to fit in with what readers expect.

So how long is a novel?

How Long Are Different Types of Story?

Let’s take a look at some key definitions, based on the number of words.

How Long is a Novel?

The average word count of a novel is about 80,000–90,000 words. However, anything over 40,000 words counts as a novel. There’s no upper limit: novels can potentially be hundreds of thousands of words long.

(If you want the number of pages, the rough industry standard is “250 words per page” when formatted and published, so 80,000 words is around 320 pages. Obviously, the page count can vary significantly depending on the font size, page size, and even how much dialogue there is in a novel.)

Under 70,000 or over 100,000 could be hard to sell to an agent/publisher and might seem unusually short or long to readers … though the “expected” novel length does depend on the genre. For instance, mass-market romance (think Mills & Boon) is usually around 50,000 words; epic fantasy novels are often 150,000 words or more.

Literary fiction can be shorter or longer than the average novel, so if you’re writing something that’s literary rather than commercial, you might be aiming anywhere from 55,000–100,000 words.

How Long is a Novella?

Novellas are between 17,000–40,000 words. Longer than 40,000 is generally considered a “short novel”. You could legitimately describe this as a “book” (though not as a “novel”) without readers feeling it was strangely short.

How Long is a Novelette?

Novelettes are pieces of fiction between 7,500–17,000 words. This is a rarely-used term; most people would call this a “long short story”. It’s also an awkward length: too long for most short story competitions and too short to really be considered a book.

How Long is a Short Story?

Short stories are under 7,500 words, though some people would consider anything under 17,000 words to be a short story. If your story is under 1,000 words, then it might be called “flash fiction”. Anything under about 800 words would be unusually short and generally considered experimental.

How Long is a Book?

A “book” isn’t any specific length. Often, fiction writers use “book” to mean a “novel” … but novels are just one type of book. Non-fiction books, for instance, are typically 50,000–80,000 words (similar to novels) but this can vary massively. Children’s books and short guides might only be a few thousand words long, or even less for picture books.

How Long Are Children’s Books and YA Novels?

Novels for children are often shorter than standard novels—this is very obvious in the case of picture books (ages 3–8) and chapter books (ages 6–10). Middle grade books, aimed at ages 8–12, are usually novella or short novel length, around 25,000–50,000 words.

The average book length increases as children get older, and Young Adult (YA) novels will usually be a similar length to regular adult fiction, though on the lower end of the scale—think 70,000–80,000 words rather than 100,000.

What if Your Novel is Really a Novella, Based on Its Length?

The novella form has been around for centuries, and there are plenty of classic novels that are novella-length. For instance:

• The Turn of the Screw (Henry James) – a shade over standard novella length at 42,000 words.
• Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) – 38,000 words.
• A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens) – 29,000 words.

With the huge rise of ebooks over the past couple of decades, novellas have had a resurgence in popularity. They’re quick to get into and read, and they can be priced very cheaply in ebook form.

Many self-publishing authors use novellas as extras to their main books. For instance, thriller author J.F. Penn gives away a free novella to encourage people to sign up to her email list.

And traditionally published authors are increasingly producing novellas, often as additions to established series. Ben Aaronovitch, for instance, has added novellas like The Furthest Station and Winter’s Gifts to his Rivers of London series (which mostly consists of full-length books).

So, if you’ve written a novella or a short novel (under 70,000 words), you may struggle to get a traditional deal … but you might do just fine self-publishing it.

Marketing Your Short Novel or Novella

In general, you can market a short novel or novella in just the same way as you’d market a full-length one! These are a few key things to keep in mind:

If you’ve written a 30-40,000 word book, don’t describe it as a “novel” in your sales material: readers may feel cheated. You could use “book” or use a genre-related description like “thriller” or “romance”. Phrases like “quick read” or “fast-paced read” can clue readers into the length: not all readers will necessarily be familiar with the term “novella”.

You’ll also want to consider pricing, especially if you’ve published novels too. For instance, you might price your ebooks at $2.99 for your novels and $1.99 for novellas. Not unreasonably, most readers will expect novellas or short novels to cost less than full-length ones.

You might also want to consider using a novella as a cheap or free entry-point for readers new to your work. For instance, you could put it on Kindle Unlimited for free, run periodic giveaways, or use it as a permanently free incentive to get people to sign up for your mailing list.

Should You Cut Down a Long Novel?

Whether you’re seeking a traditional publishing deal or publishing independently, a too-long novel can be a problem.

Novels that are over 100,000 words often have more words than they need: most authors over-write, at least a bit, and cutting 105,000 words to 95,000 could make for a tighter, better-paced novel.

(Due to excellent editorial advice from the lovely Lorna Fergusson, I cut my novel Lycopolis down from 135,000 words to 85,000 – it was a much better novel for it!)

Also, readers have certain expectations of novels. Many of these are structural: that the novel will have an ending, major plot points will be resolved, the protagonist will grow/change in some way … but one fairly basic expectation is how long the novel will be.

Even if you’ve written a well-paced novel that’s not too wordy, it may not go down well with readers if it’s far longer than what they’d normally expect.

In some genres (such as science fiction, fantasy, and historical fiction), longer books are the norm. But in others (romances and Westerns), readers will expect shorter reads.

Ultimately, you’ll have to decide if your novel needs to be long – you can’t do justice to the story and characters otherwise – or if you’ve written more words than necessary. You may want to get beta-readers, or a professional editor, involved at this stage. You might also want to consider splitting a really long novel into two separate ones, if the structure would work for that.

If you’re stuck…

Aim for 75–95,000 words. This is a “normal” novel word count in almost every genre; it’ll work fine whether you’re seeking traditional publication or whether you’re self-publishing.

Why Do Some Novelists Write Much Longer Novels?

Let’s say you’ve read a bestselling doorstopper of a novel that’s 640 pages long—that’s twice the average length, so around 160,000 words.

Some novelists do write very long novels, and they can get away with this either because it’s normal in their subgenre (e.g. epic sci-fi/fantasy) or they’re a bestselling author already.

J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel was 76,944 words—a fairly normal length for a YA novel, though on the long side for children’s fiction. The fourth novel in the series, once she was already a household name, was 190,637 words – way over what the publishing industry would consider “normal”. And the fifth book was 257,045 words.

You might argue that the longer Harry Potter books would have benefited from being edited down, but this does show that well-established authors can get away with much longer books than first time novelists.

Ultimately, if you’re not (yet!) a bestselling novelist, I’d strongly advise keeping your novel within the expected norms of your genre.

Help With Finishing Your Novel

Completing a full-length novel is a huge undertaking. You’re juggling all sorts of things: character arcs, plot points, pacing, how much information to reveal, and so on.

You’ll likely do a lot of editing before your novel’s finished … and then you’ll want to think about submitting it to publishers, or publishing it yourself.

I’ve got plenty of resources that can help. Here are some great places to begin:

How Much Should You Plan Before Starting a Novel? (article)

How to Start Writing a Novel: Get Inspired and Get Going (article)

Three Act Story Structure (Including the Seven Plot Points Your Novel Needs) (article)

Eight Easy(ish) Ways to Finish the First Draft Of Your Novel (article)

Supercharge Your Writing series (motivational/organizational guides & printables; $8 each or $20 for all four)

How to Write Faster (short video course to help you speed up your writing; $15)

Or best of all, come and join my online writing community, Writers’ Cafe. We’re a friendly, supportive bunch of writers and we’d love to help you get all the way to “The End” with your novel.