How Long Should a Book Be? Word Counts by Genre, With Page Estimates
Standard word counts for novels, memoir, non-fiction and children's books, what happens when you are far outside the range, and how words translate into printed pages.
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Most adult novels run between 70,000 and 100,000 words. Epic fantasy stretches to 90,000–120,000, category romance sits at 50,000–60,000, memoir at 60,000–90,000, and practical non-fiction at 40,000–70,000. A printed page holds roughly 250–300 words, so an 80,000-word novel comes out around 300 pages at a standard trim size.
Word count is not a bureaucratic detail. It signals genre to readers, sets your printing cost, and is the single number an editor will ask for first. Here are the working ranges publishing professionals actually use.
Word counts by genre
| Genre | Typical range | Approx. pages (6 × 9 in) |
|---|---|---|
| Literary & general fiction | 70,000–100,000 | 260–380 |
| Thriller & crime | 70,000–90,000 | 260–340 |
| Fantasy & sci-fi | 90,000–120,000 | 340–450 |
| Romance | 50,000–90,000 | 190–340 |
| Young adult | 50,000–80,000 | 190–300 |
| Middle grade | 25,000–50,000 | 100–190 |
| Memoir | 60,000–90,000 | 230–340 |
| Non-fiction & business | 40,000–70,000 | 150–260 |
What if your manuscript is far outside the range?
Too short usually means underdeveloped scenes or missing connective tissue, something a developmental edit identifies quickly. Too long is more common: a 160,000-word debut is expensive to print, slow to read and hard to market. The professional answer is rarely "cut a third blindly", it is a structural edit that finds what the story does not need. Librum's editing service starts exactly there, with a manuscript critique before any line is touched.
From words to pages
Divide your word count by roughly 270 to estimate pages at 6 × 9 in with standard typography, then add front matter (title page, copyright, contents) and back matter. Trim size shifts the math, which we covered in Book sizes and trim sizes explained. For an instant estimate, the book page count calculator does the conversion for any trim size, and the deeper dive on lengths lives in Librum's journal piece How long should a book be.
Want a professional read on whether your manuscript is the right length for its genre? Librum editors give a structured critique with a fixed quote, based on length. See the editing service
Frequently asked questions
How many words is a typical novel?
Most adult novels fall between 70,000 and 100,000 words. Thrillers tend toward the lower half of that range, literary fiction toward the middle, and epic fantasy or historical sagas run longer, commonly 90,000 to 120,000 words for established genre expectations.
How many pages is 80,000 words?
At a standard 6 × 9 in trim size with normal typography, 80,000 words comes out at roughly 300 printed pages once front and back matter are included. At a smaller 5 × 8 in trim the same text runs closer to 380 pages, with a thicker spine and higher print cost.
Can a first novel be too long to publish?
There is no hard ceiling in self-publishing, but printing cost rises with every page, and reader patience is finite. Debuts over 120,000 words usually benefit more from a structural edit than from a larger print budget, and most come out stronger and shorter.
Next in this series: How to self-publish a book in the UK.
