TL;DR
Length labels differ by who is counting. The Nebula Awards call 40,000 words or more a novel, 17,500 to 40,000 a novella and under 7,500 a short story. Agents and editors quoted by Writer's Digest and Jericho Writers prefer adult novels of roughly 70,000 to 100,000 words, because longer books cost more to make. These are guidelines, not rules.
A novel is 40,000 words or more if you ask the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and 70,000 to 100,000 words if you ask the agents and editors who decide what gets published. Both answers are true. One is a definition used to sort award entries, the other is a market habit, and a writer needs to know which of them they are dealing with.
If you want a target for your genre, average book word count has the genre figures, and fantasy book word count covers the long end.
The labels, as one awards body draws them
The Nebula Awards publish the clearest set of cut-offs. In their rules, a short story is fewer than 7,500 words, a novelette is at least 7,500 but fewer than 17,500, a novella is at least 17,500 but fewer than 40,000, and a novel is 40,000 words or more.
| Form | Nebula Awards rules |
|---|---|
| Short story | Fewer than 7,500 words |
| Novelette | 7,500 to fewer than 17,500 |
| Novella | 17,500 to fewer than 40,000 |
| Novel | 40,000 words or more |
Scroll horizontally to see all columns. Arrow keys work when the table is focused.
Other bodies draw other lines. Writer's Digest answered a reader's question in 2007 with different bands: short stories from 1,500 to 30,000 words, novellas from 30,000 to 50,000, and novels from 55,000 to 300,000, with a warning against the high end because books the length of War and Peace are hard to sell. Reedsy points out that NaNoWriMo set 50,000 words as the length a manuscript needed to qualify. So the novella and novel boundary sits somewhere between 40,000 and 55,000 words depending on who you ask, and short stories shade into novelettes anywhere from 7,500 to 30,000.
The practical lesson is to use the label the venue uses. If you are entering a contest or submitting to a magazine, read its own rules before you decide what you have written.
What the market wants is a different question
A label tells you what to call a manuscript. It does not tell you whether anyone will publish it. For adult novels, the figures that agents and editors give are tighter and higher.
Chuck Sambuchino, writing for Writer's Digest in 2016, set out bands for commercial and literary adult fiction:
- 80,000 to 89,999 words: the safest range
- 90,000 to 99,999: generally safe
- 70,000 to 79,999: might be too short, probably all right
- 100,000 to 109,999: might be too long, probably all right
- Below 70,000: too short
- 110,000 or above: too long
He is blunt that these are his reading of the market, and that exceptions exist. His point is that you cannot count on being the exception. In an earlier Writer's Digest piece, agent Lori Perkins said books between 80,000 and 100,000 words are easier to market for a first-time novelist, and that the cost rises on books larger than 100,000 words, so agents and publishers are less likely to gamble on a very long manuscript.
Jericho Writers gives the commercial reasoning in its own words. The author of its guide describes a "Crude Commercial Standard": books cost about the same to make at 200 or 400 pages, so readers expect a long book for the same price as a short one, and commercial novels need a minimum of about 70,000 or 75,000 words to sell. Literary novels may start a little lower, at 60,000 or even 50,000. He also says there is no firm upper end and that 120,000 words is not a hard limit, citing his own first novel at more than 180,000 words.
Taken together, the sources agree on the middle and disagree at the edges. Sambuchino calls anything over 110,000 too long. Jericho says the upper limit is soft. Neither says a manuscript under 40,000 words can be sold as an adult novel, and Reedsy notes that well-known books such as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (38,421 words) and Animal Farm (29,966) fall below the Nebula threshold, so the labels are looser than the shelves.
Why novellas are a harder sell than they look
A novella can be a fine thing to write. It is also easy to misjudge. Jericho's reasoning about price and length applies to it directly: a reader who cannot judge quality in advance sees the longer book as better value for the same money, so very short books mostly are not published. Self-publishing works to different rules. Jericho notes that some authors sell beach-read romances of about 30,000 words in series of eight or so books. If that is your plan, describe the book accurately and price it for its length.
How to state your word count
When you query an agent or send a manuscript, you give a number, and the convention is simple. Writer's Digest advises using your word processor's count and rounding to the nearest thousand: an 91,437 word manuscript becomes "92,000 words." The count goes in the query letter, in the paragraph that introduces the title, and on the cover page of the manuscript, in the upper right corner, as "About 92,000 words." Jericho's manuscript guide says the same thing in different terms, rounded to the nearest 1,000 or 5,000.
Agents do not penalise you for being a few hundred words off. As the Writer's Digest answer puts it, they are looking for a ballpark picture of where your work falls, whether it is roughly 85,000 words or closer to 250,000.
If your draft is outside the range
A draft that is too long is much more common than one that is too short, and the advice from every source is to cut before you query. Jericho's phrase is "delete text without removing content": five sentences about a horse market can usually become three, and an eighteen-word sentence can often become twelve. Its example is an author whose 120,000 word manuscript came down to well below 100,000 words and sold, because the story had found its proper weight. On Jane Friedman's site, Amy L. Bernstein describes cutting about 8,000 words from a 96,000 word draft while still writing new scenes, and concludes that it is about what you write, not how much you write.
A draft that is too short usually lacks texture. Jericho says journalists are especially prone to it, and that what is missing is typically description of place, feeling and character nuance, not extra plot.
Brian Klems of Writer's Digest gives the advice that sits under all of this: do not impose word limits while you write. Finish the first draft, then tighten it to a reasonable length, and keep every scene you cut because it may lead to another story.
Frequently asked questions
How many words is a novel?
By the Nebula Awards rules, 40,000 words or more. In practice, agents and editors quoted by Writer's Digest and Jericho Writers look for roughly 70,000 to 100,000 words in adult fiction.
How many words is a novella?
The Nebula Awards define a novella as 17,500 words up to fewer than 40,000. Writer's Digest has given 30,000 to 50,000. Different organisations draw different lines.
How many words is a short story?
Under 7,500 words in the Nebula rules. Writer's Digest has described short stories as anywhere from 1,500 to 30,000 words.
Should I round my word count when I query?
Yes. Writer's Digest advises using your word processor's count and rounding to the nearest thousand.
Is 50,000 words a novel?
It meets the Nebula minimum, and Reedsy notes that NaNoWriMo used it as its qualifying length. Most agents expect more for adult fiction, though middle grade and some genre romance can sit lower.
Where Musael fits
A writer who knows what length their story wants is a writer who stops guessing in month five. In Musael the manuscript shows a word count as you write, and writing goals in the manuscript editor let you set a target for a session. The plan board keeps scenes and chapters in one structure, so you can see which part of the book is heavy before you decide what to cut.
Sources
- SFWA, Nebula Awards rules: nebulas.sfwa.org
- Brian A. Klems, "Novel and Short Story Word Counts", Writer's Digest: writersdigest.com
- Chuck Sambuchino, "Word Count for Novels and Children's Books: The Definitive Post", Writer's Digest: writersdigest.com
- Writer's Digest, "Which Word Count Do Agents Want?": writersdigest.com
- Brian A. Klems, "Where Should You List Your Manuscript's Word Count?", Writer's Digest: writersdigest.com
- Jericho Writers, "How many words": jerichowriters.com
- Jericho Writers, "How Many Words in a Novel?": jerichowriters.com
- Reedsy, "How Many Words in a Novel?": blog.reedsy.com
- Amy L. Bernstein, "The Case for Shrinking Your Novel", Jane Friedman: janefriedman.com
