How Long Should a Novel Be?

My students sometimes hit a snag when they try to classify their novel and write the standard length for that genre.
Writing Tip for Today: So what are some categories of novels and how long should they be?

  • Mainstream. Think Oprah’s Book Club. These are authors that readers ask for by name.Subcategories of Literary Fiction and Women’s Fiction. Usually run 85-110,000 words. Examples: John Updike, Toni Morrison,Marilynne Robinson, Ian McEwan (literary) , Barbara Kingsolver, Jackie Mitchard, Jodi Picoult (women’s).
  • Mystery. Subcategories of Suspense, Murder, Cozy, Police Procedural, Medical. One of the most read of the genres. 70-90,000 words.
  • Thrillers, Espionage. 85,000-100,000.
  • Westerns 70-85,000.
  • Fantasy. 80-120,000.
  • Science Fiction. 65-85,000 and up.
  • Historical. 100-110,000.
  • Romance. 55-65,000
  • Category Romance. 50-60,000.
  • Women’s Fiction (contemporary). 80-100,000.
  • Young Adult. (12 and up). 45-62,500 words.
  • Middle Grade (chapter books). 20-37,500.
  • Young Readers. 10-15,000 words.

About Linda S. Clare

I'm an author, speaker, writing coach and mentor. I teach both fiction and nonfiction writing at Lane Community College and in the doctoral program as expert writing advisor for George Fox University. I love helping writers improve their craft and I'm both an avid reader and writer of stories about those with wounded hearts.

5 comments on “How Long Should a Novel Be?

  1. Great post. I remember being worried about this very thing when I first started completing manuscripts. I tend to write very lean on my first draft and I needed to understand whether I had to add a bit of description and detail to fill out the story I told, or whether I was short a sub plot.

    What I’ve found since I’ve published ebooks, is that the word count is less important because you don’t need to worry how much space your spine will take on the shelf. The tradition word counts are still helpful in the way of understanding whether you have told a whole story.

    If your word count is really too low, you’ve probably missed something important.

  2. That’s a great point, PA. If you tend to write a scene that lasts for x number of pages, you’ll need at least a dozen, likely more scenes to fill a story arc. ~Linda

  3. I’m currently reading David Weber’s sci-fi military novel series Honor Harrington. I’m on the 11th book, At All Costs and it has 827 pages of story with 28 pages of extra materials like a character list, an afterword, and a glossary equalling up to 855 pages. How many words is that exactly?

  4. Mike, I’d say around 200,000. This length is exceptional, and I should point out that first novelsists are often asked to come in on the shorter side of the range. ~Linda

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