How many pages in a novel, novella, novelette, and short story?
A novel is 50,000 to 110,000 words, which works out to roughly 200 to 440 printed pages. The average novel is about 90,000 words — 300 to 360 pages at the standard 250–300 words per page. A novella runs 20,000–50,000 words (about 80–200 pages), a novelette 7,500–20,000 words, and a short story anything under 7,500 words. Genre moves these targets a lot: the average bestselling fantasy novel is 109,000 words (~436 pages), while a young adult novel can succeed at half that.
Below is every number you need — by story type, by genre, and by chapter — plus honest advice on how long your first book should be. The figures come from analyzing Amazon's top 100 sellers per genre and from campaign data across the 350+ authors I've worked with.
Word count and page count by story type
Stories are classified by word count, not page count — pages vary with trim size and font, words don't. Here are the generally accepted ranges, with page counts calculated at 250 words per page:
| Story type | Word count | Approx. pages | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flash fiction | 300 – 1,500 | 1 – 6 | — |
| Short story | 1,500 – 7,500 | 6 – 30 | Most magazine fiction |
| Novelette | 7,500 – 20,000 | 30 – 80 | The Call of Cthulhu (~12,000) |
| Novella | 20,000 – 50,000 | 80 – 200 | Animal Farm (29,966); The Metamorphosis (22,009) |
| Novel | 50,000 – 110,000+ | 200 – 440+ | Most commercial fiction |
Boundaries are conventions, not laws. Science fiction and fantasy writers should know the official awards definitions too: SFWA's Nebula Awards (and the Hugos) draw the lines at short story under 7,500 words, novelette 7,500–17,500, novella 17,500–40,000, and novel anything over 40,000. Commercial publishing is stricter — most agents and retailers treat 50,000 words as the practical minimum for a novel.
How many words are on one book page?
A typical printed book page holds 250–300 words. That's the conversion used throughout this article. Three caveats worth knowing before you fixate on page count:
- Print layout changes everything. The same 90,000-word manuscript can be 320 pages in a 6"×9" trade paperback or 420 pages in a 5"×8" with larger type. Publishers adjust trim size, font, and spacing to hit a target feel.
- Manuscript pages are different. A double-spaced 12-pt manuscript page holds about 250 words, so manuscript page count roughly matches printed page count — a convenient accident.
- Kindle counts its own way. Amazon assigns ebooks a normalized page count (KENPC) for Kindle Unlimited payouts, and it typically runs much higher than the print page count. For KU authors — most indie sci-fi and fantasy writers — those normalized pages are literally revenue: you're paid per page read.
Can a novel be 100 pages?
No — a 100-page book is about 25,000–30,000 words, which makes it a novella, not a novel, in every genre. That's not a demotion. Ethan Frome (30,191 words), Animal Farm (29,966 words), and The Metamorphosis (22,009 words) are all short books with long legacies.
If you've written a novella, the commercial rule is simple: market it as one. Say so on the cover if you can, list it in novella categories on retailers, and price it accordingly. Readers who expect a full novel and run out of book at page 100 leave the kind of reviews that follow you around.
Is 200 pages too short for a novel?
No. At roughly 50,000 words, 200 pages clears the accepted minimum for a novel. But genre expectations matter more than the technical floor: 200 pages is fine for young adult or contemporary fiction and conspicuously thin for epic fantasy, where readers expect immersion and bestsellers average more than double that. A "short" book in your genre reads as a value problem before anyone has read a word.
How many pages in a novel by genre?
These averages come from analyzing Amazon's top 100 sellers in each genre (pages calculated at 250 words per page):
| Genre | Average word count | Approx. pages |
|---|---|---|
| Romance | 90,000 | 360 |
| Mystery / Thriller / Suspense | 91,000 | 364 |
| Action & Adventure | 96,000 | 384 |
| Contemporary fiction | 96,000 | 384 |
| Science fiction | 98,000 | 392 |
| Horror | 102,000 | 408 |
| Historical fiction | 102,000 | 408 |
| Fantasy | 109,000 | 436 |
Treat these as targets, not gospel. Rushing a story to hit a number — or padding it to reach one — is a revision problem wearing a word-count costume. Write until the story is complete, then check where you landed.
How long should a fantasy or sci-fi novel be?
Since Weekend Publisher works exclusively with science fiction and fantasy authors, this is the version of the question I answer most. The data says: fantasy bestsellers average 109,000 words (~436 pages) and science fiction 98,000 words (~392 pages) — the two longest genres in commercial fiction, because worldbuilding takes room.
For a debut, I recommend aiming at or slightly under the average: 90,000–110,000 words for fantasy, 85,000–100,000 for sci-fi. Two economic reasons. First, editing, cover-to-content fit, and production costs scale with length, and a debut is the book you're most likely to want to revise. Second, in Kindle Unlimited — where most indie SFF revenue lives — a longer book only earns more if readers finish it. Read-through is the metric that matters, and a tight 95,000-word debut that readers finish beats a sprawling 150,000-word one they abandon at 40%.
Once the manuscript is the right length, the next question is how to sell it. I compare the main options — agencies, marketplaces, promo platforms, and genre specialists — in my guide to the best book marketing service for fantasy authors.
How many pages in a chapter?
The working average is 2,000–5,000 words per chapter — about 8 to 20 pages. The extremes prove there's no law: Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy contains a chapter with zero words, while The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle has a chapter over 23,000 words. For a first book, stay near the average. Consistent, moderate chapters create the "just one more" rhythm that keeps Kindle Unlimited readers turning pages — and in KU, pages turned are income.
How long should your first novel be?
Stick close to your genre's average — or slightly under. The pattern among famous series is striking: authors earn the right to write long.
- J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is 76,944 words — below the fantasy average. By the finale, Deathly Hallows ran 198,227 words. The series' word count more than doubled as the readership grew.
- J.R.R. Tolkien: The Hobbit is 95,356 words; The Fellowship of the Ring, published after his audience was established, is 187,790.
The logic is return on investment — the reader's, not just yours. A reader browsing an unknown author is gambling time and money, and a 150,000-word doorstopper raises the stakes of that gamble. A tighter debut lowers the barrier, earns trust, and starts your series read-through. Once readers know your name delivers, you can write as big as the story demands. Your first book is also very unlikely to be your best — better to learn the craft on a normal-sized canvas.
Frequently asked questions
How many pages is a 50,000-word book?
About 170–200 printed pages at 250–300 words per page — the minimum length generally accepted as a novel.
How many pages is a 90,000-word book?
About 300–360 printed pages. This is the length of the average commercial novel.
What is the difference between a novella and a novelette?
Word count. A novelette runs roughly 7,500–20,000 words; a novella runs roughly 20,000–50,000. The SFWA awards definitions draw the line at 17,500 words. Nobody outside awards committees polices the boundary — retailers mostly care that you don't label a novella a novel.
Can my first novel be 150,000 words?
You can publish anything you like, but the data argues against it: readers hesitate to gamble that much time on an unknown author, production costs scale with length, and even in fantasy — the longest genre — bestsellers average 109,000 words. If your draft is 150,000, that's usually a signal to revise, split into two books, or save the epic for book three, when your audience is ready to follow you anywhere.
Does page count affect how much I should charge?
It's one factor among several — novellas are usually priced below full novels, and Kindle Unlimited changes the math again because payment comes per page read rather than per sale. Pricing strategy deserves its own article; the short version is that word count sets reader expectations, and price has to match them.
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