The question, ‘how long should your book be?’ isn’t always easy to answer precisely. Exactly how long your manuscript will be comes down to a few factors. Some of those will be highly specific, but luckily some can be more generalised. The two main things to take into account when considering what wordcount to aim for are genre, and the age of your target audience.
Obviously, there are exceptions. There always are! But these are good guidelines to work by. I’ve pulled my information for this post from Writers Digest and Reedsy specifically, although I checked a few different sources to make sure this advice wasn’t an outlier.
How long should your book be by target age?
Standard commercial fiction, aimed at adults, tends to be in the region of 80-100,000 words. Genre depending, of course! As you might expect, the younger your target readers, the shorter the books tend to be.
Young adult usually falls between 60-80,000 words, whereas middle grade is more like 20-60,000. And children’s picture books naturally have the lowest wordcount at 5-600 words.
How does genre affect wordcount ranges?
Romance and literary fiction typically sit around 80-100,000 words. The same average length as commercial adult fiction. These are stories typically set in the world we know, so there doesn’t tend to be as much need for extensive explanation of the setting as in some other genres.
For science fiction and fantasy, on the other hand, 100-115,000 words isn’t unusual. Given that these books often have to set up a whole new world, with its own rules and systems, this makes sense! Of course, that isn’t to say you’re obliged to use more words if your book doesn’t call for it.
Mystery can be a little more fast-paced, with a normal range of 75-100,000 words. Memoir is usually within the range of 80-90,000 words, a slightly narrower band.
Why does wordcount matter?
If you’re aiming to be traditionally published, there’s a very obvious answer to this. Agents and publishers want to know that your book is marketable, and manuscripts that fall well outside the standard ranges are much harder to sell. Books that are too short won’t meet readers’ expectations, books that are too long will be off-putting or too expensive.
If you’re self-published, does that mean you don’t need to think about wordcount? It certainly isn’t a barrier to entry in the same way. That isn’t to say it’s necessarily wise to throw wordcount ranges out the window.
Readers have certain expectations when they pick up a book in a given genre, and if you’re falling well outside those expectations it might make it more difficult for your book to get the kind of traction you want. That’s why, regardless of what your planned route to publishing may be, it’s good to consider and aim for the standard wordcount ranges for the genre and age range you’re writing for.
Does your writing tend to the long or short side?
I’m in the process of trying to cut my young adult novel down to a more reasonable length. I definitely tend to over-writing! Where do you tend to fall? And have you got any tips for trimming down a wordcount? Share thoughts and advice in the comments!
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