The short answer
A novel is typically 70,000 to 100,000 words. 80,000 words is the canonical debut novel target. But hold on, genre matters: fantasy and sci-fi run longer, romance and mystery sit a little shorter, literary fiction sits right in the middle. Anything under 50,000 words is generally a novella, not a novel.
Fiction length categories
Below you'll find the standard categories used by award bodies, agents, and the industry. These ranges come from the Hugo and Nebula award definitions plus general publishing conventions. Novel is the top official category, it has no upper bound, but "epic" is the informal label once a novel runs past 120,000 words.
| Category | Word count | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Flash fiction | Under 1,000 | A complete story told in a few hundred words, sometimes only a handful. Also called sudden fiction or microfiction. |
| Short story | Up to 7,500 | A standalone story built around a single incident or idea, meant to be read in one sitting. 7,500 is the Hugo/Nebula upper limit. |
| Novelette | 7,500 to 17,500 | Longer than a short story but too short for a novella, usually with more subplot or a longer timespan. Mostly used in sci-fi and fantasy markets. |
| Novella | 17,500 to 40,000 | A short standalone narrative, long enough for real character development but built around one central conflict. |
| Novel | 40,000 + | A full-length work of fiction with no formal upper limit. Most published novels land between 70,000 and 100,000 words. |
| Epic novel | 120,000 + | Not an official category, an informal label for novels long enough to span multiple POVs, subplots, or books. Common in epic fantasy. |
Novel word counts by genre
Genre matters more than people expect. Submitting an 80,000-word epic fantasy is too short. Submitting a 130,000-word romance is too long. These ranges reflect what agents and publishers actually buy.
| Genre | Typical word count | Debut sweet spot |
|---|---|---|
| Literary fiction | 70,000 to 100,000 | 80,000 to 90,000 |
| Commercial / upmarket | 80,000 to 100,000 | 80,000 to 90,000 |
| Romance | 70,000 to 100,000 | 80,000 to 90,000 |
| Mystery / thriller | 70,000 to 90,000 | 75,000 to 85,000 |
| Cozy mystery | 65,000 to 80,000 | 70,000 to 75,000 |
| Science fiction | 90,000 to 120,000 | 90,000 to 100,000 |
| Fantasy | 90,000 to 120,000 | 95,000 to 110,000 |
| Epic fantasy | 120,000 to 200,000+ | 110,000 to 130,000 |
| Historical fiction | 90,000 to 120,000 | 95,000 to 110,000 |
| Horror | 70,000 to 90,000 | 75,000 to 85,000 |
| Western | 65,000 to 85,000 | 70,000 to 80,000 |
| Memoir | 70,000 to 100,000 | 80,000 to 90,000 |
Word counts by age category
Children's and young adult fiction has its own word count ranges, and they are often stricter than adult genres.
| Age category | Word count | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Picture book | 500 to 1,000 | Under 500 is often better. |
| Early reader | 1,000 to 2,500 | Designed for new independent readers. |
| Chapter book | 5,000 to 15,000 | Roughly ages 6 to 9. |
| Middle grade | 20,000 to 50,000 | Ages 8 to 12 |
| Young adult (YA) | 50,000 to 90,000 | Sweet spot is 60,000 to 80,000. |
| YA fantasy / sci-fi | 70,000 to 100,000 | Longer on average than YA |
| New adult (NA) | 60,000 to 85,000 | Sits between YA and adult. |
How many words in a chapter?
There is no industry standard chapter length. The best answer is "as long as the scene needs to be." Empirically:
- Most published novels: 2,000 to 5,000 words per chapter
- Commercial thrillers: 1,500 to 3,000 words per chapter
- Literary fiction: 4,000 to 8,000 words per chapter
- Middle grade: 1,000 to 2,500 words per chapter
- Fantasy / sci-fi: 4,000 to 7,000 words per chapter
Some bestsellers have chapters under 500 words (James Patterson, certain Stephen King). Some have chapters over 15,000 words (Donna Tartt). The "right" chapter length is the one that serves the scene's pace.
How many words is a screenplay?
Screenplays are measured in pages, not words. The convention is one page equals roughly one minute of screen time. A feature screenplay is usually 90 to 120 pages, or about 18,000 to 24,000 words at the typical 200 words per page of formatted screenplay.
| Format | Pages | Approximate words |
|---|---|---|
| TV pilot (half-hour) | 30 to 35 | 6,000 to 7,000 |
| TV pilot (hour) | 55 to 65 | 11,000 to 13,000 |
| Feature film | 90 to 120 | 18,000 to 24,000 |
| Short film | 5 to 40 | 1,000 to 8,000 |
Word counts of famous novels
Useful reference points. These are approximate and vary slightly between editions.
| Novel | Author | Approximate word count |
|---|---|---|
| The Great Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald | 47,000 |
| The Old Man and the Sea | Ernest Hemingway | 27,000 |
| The Catcher in the Rye | J.D. Salinger | 73,000 |
| 1984 | George Orwell | 89,000 |
| To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | 100,000 |
| Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | J.K. Rowling | 77,000 |
| The Hobbit | J.R.R. Tolkien | 95,000 |
| The Hunger Games | Suzanne Collins | 100,000 |
| The Fellowship of the Ring | J.R.R. Tolkien | 187,000 |
| A Game of Thrones | George R.R. Martin | 298,000 |
| The Stand (uncut edition) | Stephen King | 472,000 |
| War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy | 587,000 |
What to take from this
80,000 words is a safe target for most first novels. Genre pushes that number up or down: epic fantasy and sci-fi can run past 100,000, cozy mystery and YA can land under 70,000. Chapter length, screenplay pages, and the famous-novel benchmarks above are reference points, not rules. Use whichever range matches what you're writing. itself.
The most important thing to keep in mind is to not try to pad words to your writing just to hit some arbitrary wordgoal target. Write what must be written, edit that which has to go, and let the total take care of.