Writing a Book: Word Count by Genre

It is important to know when writing a book that each genre has its own recommended word count. Depending on the genre of book that you're writing, yours must fit within this recommended word count. So, here are the word counts for each genre:

A book is "novel length" when it between the 50,000 - 110,000 word count range.

General Fiction

• Flash Fiction: 300 - 1,500 words.

• Short Stories: 1,500 - 30,000 words.

• Novellas: 30,000 - 50,000 words.

• Novels: 50,000 - 110,000 words.

Genres within Fiction

• Young Adult: 50,000 - 80,000 words.

• Adult Fiction: 80,000 - 100,000 words.

• Romance: 70,000 - 100,000 words.

• Subgenre Romance: 40,000 - 100,000 words.

• Sci-Fi/Fantasy: 90,000 - 120,000 words (sometimes up to 150,000).

• Mystery/Crime/Thriller/Horror: 70,000 - 90,000 words.

• Historical Fiction: 80,000 - 100,000 words.

Nonfiction

• Standard Nonfiction: 70,000 - 80,000 words (this can be history, psychology, business, politics etc).

• Memoirs: 80,000 - 100,000 words.

• How-To/Self-Help: 40,000 - 50,000 words.

• Biographies: 80,000 - 200,000 words.