Word count may seem like a needless concern.
But surprisingly, it is one of the general rules writers grapple with.
Understandably, books can get costly without the word limit.
You can go overboard with your story and dump whatever you think is relevant, in the hopes of thinking that readers will gladly absorb everything.
Unfortunately, it does the opposite—it draws away their interest.
o Reader expectations
You cannot win a reader with a 200,000 words memoir unless you are someone as famous as Rowling.
Likewise, you can’t drag readers into a plodding suspense thriller except if you have a New York Times Bestseller seal glaring right before their very eyes.
o Keeps the audience engagement afloat
You have successfully written a book when you have kept your reader up to the last page.
It’s hard to compete with today’s technology when its algorithm is a stronger force than the printout copy itself.
Therefore, it holds your reader's attention from any digital distraction when they have a clear grasp of your story.
Shorter or clearer plots tend to attract higher audience engagement.
o Enhances authority in content
It goes with the famous quote ‘the shorter, the better’.
If you have to write lengthy content, make sure it’s direct and the plot is moving.
Don’t expect readers to beat around the bush in reading a 100,000 words-book when it could’ve been shorter than that.
• Short Story
A short story is one of the most common fiction work that falls in the range of about 1,500-30,000 words.
It is usually written to describe a single tale or character that exists in the form of mythic tales, legends, anecdotes, and the like.
Famous examples of short stories include Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, and the like.
• Flash Fiction
Also known as sudden fiction, short-short stories, and microfiction, Flash fiction refers to an extremely short story that runs a word count of 300-1,500 words.
Despite its brevity, this fiction remains to deliver a riveting plot containing its core elements.
The best-known flash fiction of all time is Ernest Hemingway’s six-word long story:
“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”
• Novella
A novella is a stand-alone piece of short fiction that is roughly 30,000 words and 60,000 words.
Identified based on its central conflict, pace, and unity of time and place, Novellas are also commonly released as eBooks in genres like romance, sci-fi, and fantasy.
Some of the popular novellas include the works of Franz Kafka and his Metamorphosis, Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
• Novel
Alongside novels being the most common type of fiction work, novels like young adult (YA) fiction lean on heavier topics and transformational events its characters go through.
The general rule of thumb for novels is in between 80,000 and 100,000 words but varies on sub-genres: romance, thriller, horror, sci-fi, coming of age stories, and non-fiction.
• Romance
The average range for romance novels is approximately 50,000 words to 90,000 words.
It is rather shorter than sci-fi/fantasy novels as it only involves two main characters.
Lengthy romance plots likely slacken readers. Not unless if it’s as captivating as Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander.
• Science Fiction, Fantasy
Science fiction or fantasy genres move around the spectrum of imagination and out of the box intricacies; making it more extensive than other fiction genres.
The sci-fi or fantasy category typically runs from 90,000 to 120,000 words and is far widely known ever since one of the famous and earliest sci-fi, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein established its groundbreaking publication.
• Historical Fiction
Breathing life into the remnants of the past lends itself a word count of around 80,000-100,000 words.
Best examples of essential historical fiction novels include Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, Philippa Gregory’s The Other Boleyn Girl, and more.
• Thrillers, Horror, Mysteries, Crime
These genres may vary depending on their sub-genres but holds an average word count for spine-chilling novels from 70,000 - 90,000 words.
Focus on balancing the readers' grasp and delivering nail-biting scenes to avoid the dull or tedious moment.
• Picture Books
Picture Books catering to an audience with the shortest attention span, children ages 4 to 8 years old, have the shortest word count of 300 – 800 words.
It counts heavily on illustrations to narrate a story while having to maintain an interesting plot.
Some popular picture books you can take examples from are Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree, Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, and Margaret Brown’s Goodnight Moon.
• Early Readers
Early Reader books or also called Beginning Reader books are geared to practice a child's reading skill and caters to children ages 5 to 9 years old.
Storylines and dialogues are simpler and engaging. This time, illustrations come second from texts with an average word limit of 200 - 3,500 words.
• Chapter Books
This type of children’s book is intended for intermediate readers ages 7-9 years old with an average word count of 4,000-10,000 words.
It is usually spoken in the third person and integrates a more complex language compared to the Early Readers book.
• Middle-Grade Books
Books in this genre have over 25,000 – 50,000 words with a sweet spot of 35,000 words.
These are the fun ones to write about as they involve imaginative character arcs, with age-appropriate plots, and narratives.
Famous middle-grade books include Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl.
• Standard Nonfiction (Academic books: Business, Health, Psychology, etc.)
The Standard non-fiction books like academic books, business, or health books have no definitive number of words considering its wide gamut of sub-genres that differ on the subject matter.
Nevertheless, the sweet spot for standard nonfiction is on an average of 70,000–80,000 words.
• Memoir / Autobiography
Writing a story of your life can get tricky and tempting to write a lengthy one.
And as the unspoken rule goes, you can always go past the intended word count if you’re an influential figure with an extensive contribution or someone who lived a rags-to-riches story.
If not, you likely need to work on your fan base initially before exceeding to lengthy memoirs. The average word count for memoirs is 65,000 – 75,000 words.
• Biography
Writing stories based on real accounts can be even more engaging than fiction.
You can go past the word limit if you qualify for the exceptions: writing about famous people that people have shown interest in or if there are sensible values you want to deliver.
Either way, the sweet spot for biographies is in between 80,000 - 200,000 words.
• Self-help / Motivational
When a reader buys any self-help genre, they’re not likely to invest in a 100,000-word book to look how for the answer that could help them.
Working instead with about 40,000 – 50,000 words will help you get your point across and deliver directly the solution your readers need.
And while it is true that word count matters, try to pay attention first in building a framework for your story before going through the pruning process.
If your word count goes over the limit you can either split it into two or three books, do self-editing and professional editing, or shrink some conversation into indirect dialogues.
Now that you have an idea of how long is a novel and the rest of the genres, it is about time to write down the story you have been itching to write.