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WRITING

Word Count Guide: How Long Is a Book, Short Story, or Novella?

Written by MasterClass

Last updated: Sep 4, 2021 • 4 min read

There are a lot of elements that go into writing a story, like fleshing out characters, piecing together the plot, and crafting the perfect ending. On the technical side of things, authors need to consider the number of words that will be in their completed manuscript. There is a sweet spot when it comes to word count, and it’s based on a book’s genre and target audience. Follow this rough word count guide as you embark on your literary journey.



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3 Reasons Word Count Is Important in Writing

How Long Should a Novel Be?

How Long Should a Novella Be?

How Long Should a Short Story Be?

How Long Should a Young Adult Novel Be?

How Long Should a Middle Grade Book Be?

How Long Should a Children’s Book Be?

How Long Should a Picture Book Be?

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3 Reasons Word Count Is Important in Writing

While there are no hard and fast rules on the amount of words a book needs, there are highly-suggested guidelines in the traditional publishing industry, especially for first time authors. Let’s face it, we can’t all be J.K. Rowling right out of the gate with a bestseller as our first book. Unless you’re self-publishing, you’ll need to pay attention to how many words you use to compose your first draft. Here are three reasons why word count is important:

1. Shorter novels are more marketable. A literary agent and traditional publisher are less likely to take a chance on long novels when they come from a new writer. An adult fiction book is most marketable in the suggested word count.

2. Longer novels are more expensive to print. Longer books increase the number of pages that need to be printed. That makes them more expensive to print and a bigger investment.

3. Audiences expect a certain word count. Audiences are used to a certain story length and page count, so an unknown author can attract more readers by staying in the expected range.

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How Long Should a Novel Be?

If you’re writing your first novel, the general rule of thumb for novel writing is a word count in the 80,000 to 100,000 range. While anything over 40,000 words can fall into the novel category, 50,000 is considered the minimum novel length. Anything over 110,000 words is considered too lo