How Long Should a Book Be?
by Mary Kole | Former literary agent, now a freelance editor, writing teacher, and IP/story developer for major publishers and creators.
Recently, one of our Good Story Learning members posed a seemingly simple question:
How long should a book be?
Book length can be a controversial topic and there are many different opinions. This member, for example, is writing YA fantasy with 90K words and an agent recently suggested that it should be shorter. This has left the member feeling anxious about either querying again or cutting 10k words from the project. So how long should a book be, and is there a hard and fast rule? Read on to find out.
Consideration Points For How Long Should a Book Be
Writers obviously want to preserve their artistic vision but that doesn't always mean overwriting or rambling. Sometimes it means simplifying and tightening. Good writing and a good story aren’t indulgent . It’s undeniable that the publishing industry—while it has slowly grown to accept longer and longer projects—still views anything over 100k words with suspicion.
It's important to recognize that, for agents and busy publishing professionals, a longer manuscript often has more barriers to entry. One issue is that long, long manuscripts are rarely as refined as they could be. I’ve never met a 100k+ manuscript that couldn’t have been tightened up.
Down the publishing road a bit, long books also have higher production, storage, and distribution costs. These things all factor into the profit and loss statement that publishing editors create when convincing their teams to acquire a book, and some P&Ls look better—and are more convincing—than others.
How Long Should a Book Be? The Answers …
These are the generally accepted word count ranges for how long should a book be in today’s publishing marketplace, and they are listed here by category:
children’s books
Board Book (ages 0 to 3): 100 words at most
Early Picture Book (ages 0 to 3): 400 words at most
Picture Book (ages 3 to 5 or 5 to 7, typically): 600 words at most
Nonfiction Picture Book (ages 5 to 9): 1,000 to 2,000 words, but closer to 3,000
Early Reader (ages 5 to 7): 1,500 words at most
Chapter Book (ages 7 to 9): 4,000 words and up to 15,000
Young Middle Grade or MG (ages 9 to 11): 15,000 to 35,000 words
Middle Grade or MG (ages 11 to 13): 35,000 words and upwards of 65,000 for fantasy, sci-fi, and historicals
Upper Middle Grade (ages 13 and 14): 80,000 words max for fantasy/sci-fi, and historicals
Young Adult or YA (ages 14+ and 16+, depending on content): 80,000 words at most for contemporary, humor, mystery, historical, romance; 100,000 words at most for fantasy, sci-fi and paranormal
adult books
Novellas: 20,000 to 40,000 words
New Adult (ages 19 and up) fiction: 80,000 to 90,000 words
Chicklit/romantic comedy/romance/contemporary fiction: 70,000 to 90,000 words
Literary fiction: ranges all over the map, from novellas to epics, but usually around 80,000 words as well
Sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal/historical fiction: 90,000 words up to 150,000 words
Mystery/thriller/suspense: some either read lean at 60,000 to 80,000 words, and others are much more world-building heavy and/or leisurely at around 120,000 words
Other genres not specified here: try to find the closest range from the above.
Do notice that works of fantasy, paranormal, historical, and sci-fi often usually have longer word counts. But as you can tell, the answer to the question of “How long should a book be?” is not at all straightforward. Every book has a word count, so there is always an example to be found that proves or disproves the guidelines above.
Feeling overwhelmed by the amount you have to write (or cut) from your manuscript to get it into the range of normal for how long should a book be? Stop! If you find yourself wondering, "Do I need to revise this for the millionth time?" (more here on how to revise a novel) try to put it away for a few months.
And if you’re getting literary rejections while in these acceptable ranges for your word count, you may have to dig a bit deeper into why you’re not seeing the results you want. A revision might be in order if you’ve answered the question of how long should a book be to your—and the market’s—satisfaction. Word count is important, but it is not the most important factor when it comes to a marketable manuscript. (Consider hiring a developmental editor if you’re really stuck for revision techniques.)
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