How Long Should a Novel Be? Word Counts by Genre
Most adult novels land between 70,000 and 100,000 words. Fantasy and science fiction run longer (90k to 120k), romance and thrillers sit around 70k to 90k, and YA is 50k to 80k. Agents check the number before they read a page, so know your genre's range before you query.
Thereâs no rule that says a novel has to be a certain length, but there are very strong conventions, and agents and readers feel them even when they couldnât tell you the numbers. Reedsy keeps a genre-by-genre breakdown that lines up with what agents ask for, and the short version is below.
The ranges, by genre
| Genre | Usual range |
|---|---|
| Literary and upmarket fiction | 70,000 to 100,000 |
| Fantasy and science fiction | 90,000 to 120,000 (epic fantasy goes higher) |
| Romance | 70,000 to 90,000 (category romance can be shorter) |
| Thriller, mystery and crime | 70,000 to 90,000 |
| Young adult | 50,000 to 80,000 |
| Middle grade | 30,000 to 55,000 |
You can go outside these. Most books on the shelf in each genre sit inside them, though, so thatâs where an agent expects a debut to be.
Why agents care about the number
An agent reads the word count in your query before they read a word of the book, and they use it as a quick guess about how much editing the manuscript needs. A 150,000-word debut thriller tells them the writer probably hasnât cut enough yet. A 45,000-word âadult novelâ is really a novella, and novellas are a harder sell to a publisher than either a full novel or a book that knows itâs short.
Is that fair to your book? Probably not. Itâs still how a slush pile gets sorted when someone has 300 queries to get through this week.
For the length of the chapters inside it, see how many words should a chapter be.
If youâre over
Cut before you think about splitting. Do a self-editing pass and look for scenes where nothing changes, two subplots that could be one, and description of things the reader already pictured. Most long first drafts have 15 to 20% they donât need. Splitting one long book into two only works if the first half has a proper ending of its own, and most donât.
If youâre under
Add story, not words. A thin book is usually thin on plot and consequence, so padding the sentences makes it longer without making it better. Go back to what your main character wants, whatâs in the way, and whether theyâve had to pay anything to get it.
Established authors get to ignore all of this, because their publisher already knows their long books sell. A first book doesnât have that track record yet, so itâs worth landing inside the range.
Keeping track while you write
Galley shows a live word count for the chapter youâre in and for the whole book, so you donât have to paste anything into a counter. Chapter lengths sit side by side in the pacing chart too, which is the quickest way to spot the one chapter thatâs twice as long as the rest. For the words you lean on rather than how many there are, thereâs overused words in fiction.
Outside the app, novel word count by genre puts your number against the range for your shelf, and the reading time calculator turns it into hours of reading.
More on craft
- Conan Doyle Used âUponâ 465 Times: Overused Words in FictionThe filler words fiction editors cut first, real counts from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and how to find your own habits without reading the whole draft again.
- How Many Words Should a Chapter Be?Typical chapter lengths in novels by genre, why there's no rule, and how to tell whether one of your chapters is too long or too short for the book around it.
- A Series Bible for Book Two and BeyondWhat a series bible holds that a single book's notes don't, how to start one when you're already a book in, and how to carry it into the next book.