How Many Words In A Short Novel
I'm writing a novel. You're writing a novel. We're all writing or reading novels. But how long is too long? How short is too short? If you lot're obsessing over how many words your novel should exist, it's a good idea to consult the discussion counts of popular novels as a frame of reference. In this post, you'll find the word counts of 175 (well, it's actually 177, just 175 sounds cleaner!) classic, bestselling, award-winning novels, from books you'd recognize from high school English language to contempo hits. Along the way, I'll analyze the word counts and note a few interesting trends. It's my hope this list can be a resources for other writers similar me who wonder how long a novel should exist. I hope to follow it upward with a children'southward literature specific list.
The links will take you to Amazon (affiliate links), and if y'all'd like to know my sources, y'all tin can view them in this Google spreadsheet.
Also of annotation, check out my listing of the 20+ best books on artistic writing:
A few series in focus
Earlier we dive into the list, allow's explore the word count of a few popular fantasy serial and one favorite, bestselling author who racks up loftier word counts.
Word count of Harry Potter serial
The full word count of J.One thousand. Rowling'south seven-volume Harry Potter serial is 1,084,625. That's like reading David Foster Wallaces's Space Jest (488,940) twice.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer'southward Stone | J. K. Rowling | 77,325 |
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | J. K. Rowling | 84,799 |
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | J. G. Rowling | 106,821 |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Burn | J. K. Rowling | 190,858 |
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | J. M. Rowling | 257,154 |
Harry Potter and the One-half Blood Prince | J. K. Rowling | 169,441 |
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows | J. Yard. Rowling | 198,227 |
Discussion count of The Chronicles of Narnia series
The total word count of C.Due south. Lewis' vii-book Chronicles of Narnia series is 345,535. That'south approximately the same length as Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote (344,665).
The Magician'southward Nephew | C.S. Lewis | 64,480 |
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe | C.S. Lewis | 38,421 |
Prince Caspain | C.S. Lewis | 46,290 |
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader | C.S. Lewis | 53,960 |
The Silver Chair | C.Southward. Lewis | 51,022 |
The Equus caballus and His Boy | C.S. Lewis | 48,029 |
The Last Boxing | C.S. Lewis | 43,333 |
Word count of Earthsea serial
The discussion count of Ursula K. Le Guin's six-book Earthsea series is 480,503. That's like reading Stephen King's The Stand: Uncut at 471,485 words and a third of Ernest Hemingway'southward The Old Homo and the Sea at 26,601 words.
A Wizard of Earthsea | Ursula Grand. Le Guin | 56,533 |
The Tombs of Atuan | Ursula K. Le Guin | 45,939 |
The Uttermost Shore | Ursula K. Le Guin | 60,591 |
Tehanu | Ursula K. Le Guin | 99,200 |
Tales from Earthsea | Ursula K. Le Guin | 128,960 |
The Other Air current | Ursula K. Le Guin | 89,280 |
Word count of His Dark Materials series
The word count of Philip Pullman'southward 3-book His Nighttime Materials fantasy series is 390,575, about the length of reading J. R. R. Tolkien's The Silmarillion (130,115) three times.
Word count of Game of Thrones series
The discussion count of George R. R. Martin'due south five-book A Song of Ice and Fire series is 1,770,000. The series is incomplete, so there could still be more than words on the fashion! That's about the length of Stephen King'southward Information technology (445,134) times four (1,781,736).
A Game of Thrones | George R. R. Martin | 298,000 |
A Disharmonism of Kings | George R. R. Martin | 326,000 |
A Storm of Swords | George R. R. Martin | 424,000 |
A Banquet for Crows | George R. R. Martin | 300,000 |
A Dance with Dragons | George R. R. Martin | 422,000 |
Word count of the Lord of the Rings series
The word count of J. R. R. Tolkien's 4-volume Lord of the Rings series is 576,459. To equal that, read J. Thousand. Rowling'south Harry Potter and the Goblet of Burn down (190,858), Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (169,441), and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (198,227) plus about half of Albert Camus' The Stranger (36,014)
The Hobbit | J. R. R. Tolkien | 95,356 |
The Fellowship of the Ring | J. R. R. Tolkien | 187,790 |
The Two Towers | J. R. R. Tolkien | 156,198 |
The Render of the King | J. R. R. Tolkien | 137,115 |
Author in focus: word count of Stephen King'southward books
It's also fun to look at the give-and-take counts in the work of one author in particular, so I decided to practice a little exploring and find out the word counts of some books by a beloved author, Stephen King, a prolific writer with millions of words among his many books. In this listing, y'all tin can see that The Stand: Uncut is 471,485 words. His writing guide and memoir On Writing is 79,139, meaning The Stand holds approximately six (5.957) books of On Writing's length within it. On Writing is one of my favorite guides to writing. I'd gladly have more than of those over some other novel. (Though I'd of form take The Stand up over whatsoever novel always.) For more than Stephen King book give-and-take counts, see this very detailed Reddit thread.
Carrie | Stephen Male monarch | 61,343 |
'Salem'southward Lot | Stephen Male monarch | 152,204 |
The Shining | Stephen Male monarch | 165,581 |
The Stand up (uncut version) | Stephen King | 471,485 |
The Dark Tower: Gunslinger | Stephen King | 56,583 |
Pet Sematary | Stephen King | 142,664 |
It | Stephen Male monarch | 445,134 |
On Writing | Stephen King | 79,139 |
Now we'll move along to expect at this list of 177 give-and-take counts of popular novels.
Books that are 500,000+ words long
Hither we see some of the longest novels in the world in the 500,000-word and upwardly level. (And for more on that, check out the Wikipedia entry for List of Longest Novels.) Many people put reading Marcel Proust's vii-volume In Search of Lost Time series on their reading bucket list. I've only read the beginning volume, Swann'south Mode, and loved it, just I'grand non sure I'll ever get around to reading the residuum of the books.
In Search of Lost Time books | Marcel Proust | 1,267,069 |
A Suitable Boy | Vikram Seth | 591,554 |
Atlas Shrugged | Ayn Rand | 561,996 |
War and Peace | Leo Tolstoy | 561,304 |
Les Miserables | Victor Hugo | 530,982 |
Books that are 400,000 words long
Think you tin can manage writing a 400,000-discussion novel? If you were going to write 1,000 words a twenty-four hour period, that would take 400 days, more than a year. And if yous but manage 500 words a twenty-four hours, double that to 800 days, over 2 years. Still, if information technology's fame and glory you're chasing, why not? David Foster Wallace's Space Jest is a cult archetype. And Margaret Mitchell'southward Gone with the Wind won the Pulitzer Prize. Maybe bigger is better.
Infinite Jest | David Foster Wallace | 488,940 |
The Stand (uncut version) | Stephen King | 471,485 |
It | Stephen King | 445,134 |
A Storm of Swords | George R. R. Martin | 424,000 |
A Trip the light fantastic toe with Dragons | George R. R. Martin | 422,000 |
Gone with the Wind | Margaret Mitchell | 418,053 |
Books that are 300,000 words long
If you lot're writing a 300,000-word novel, you're in practiced company. Some of the most beloved classics in literature sit down in the 300,000 word range. And some of these are downright page turners. Diana Gabaldon's Outlander has to be the quickest 305,000 words I've ever read.
The Count of Monte Cristo | Alexandre Dumas | 375,695 |
Lonesome Pigeon | Larry McMurtry | 365,712 |
The Brothers Karamazov | Fyodor Dostoyevsky | 364,153 |
Bleak House | Charles Dickens | 360,947 |
David Copperfield | Charles Dickens | 358,000 |
Anna Karenina | Leo Tolstoy | 349,736 |
Don Quixote | Miguel de Cervantes | 344,665 |
A Clash of Kings | George R. R. Martin | 326,000 |
Gravity's Rainbow | Thomas Pynchon | 324,945 |
Middlemarch | George Eliot | 316,059 |
The Fountainhead | Ayn Rand | 311,596 |
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell | Susanna Clarke | 308,931 |
Outlander | Diana Gabaldon | 305,000 |
A Feast for Crows | George R. R. Martin | 300,000 |
Books that are 200,000 words long
Writing 200,000 words seems manageable. Interestingly, the first book in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, A Game of Thrones, is likewise his shortest while J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Lodge of the Phoenix is the 5th and longest volume in her series. Hither we too take the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and Salman Rushdie'due south Human Booker-winning Midnight's Children. Two classics of the Western catechism, Herman Melville's Moby Dick and Fyodor Dostoyevsky'south Law-breaking and Punishment also reach the 200,000 give-and-take novel club.
A Game of Thrones | George R. R. Martin | 298,000 |
Ulysses | James Joyce | 265,222 |
Cloudsplitter | Russell Banks | 260,742 |
Harry Potter: Society of the Phoenix | J. K. Rowling | 257,154 |
A Prayer for Owen Meany | John Irving | 236,061 |
Eastward of Eden | John Steinbeck | 225,395 |
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay | Michael Chabon | 216,020 |
Crime and Punishment | Fyodor Dostoyevsky | 211,591 |
Midnight'south Children | Salman Rushdie | 208,773 |
Moby Dick | Herman Melville | 206,052 |
Books that are 150,000 words long
I split up the 100,000 – 200,000 category in ii to brand it easier to grasp. Plus, that 50,000 discussion difference is significant, at least according to the proficient people of National Novel Writing Month, who count a winning novel at 50,000 words. In this category, we have three books in the Harry Potter series. We have a few modern classics of literary fiction, including Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, Zadie Smith's White Teeth, and Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible. We meet a few fantasy and science fiction novels here, too, similar Dune, American Gods, and Eragon.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows | J. M. Rowling | 198,227 |
The Corrections | Jonathan Franzen | 196,774 |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | J. K. Rowling | 190,858 |
The Fellowship of the Band | J. R. R. Tolkien | 187,790 |
Dune | Frank Herbert | 187,240 |
Memoirs of a Geisha | Arthur Gold | 186,418 |
Jane Eyre | Charlotte Brontë | 183,858 |
Little Women (Books 1 and two) | Louisa May Alcott | 183,833 |
Peachy Expectations | Charles Dickens | 183,349 |
American Gods | Neil Gaiman | 183,222 |
The Poisonwood Bible | Barbara Kingsolver | 177,679 |
Grab-22 | Joseph Heller | 174,269 |
For Whom the Bell Tolls | Ernest Hemingway | 174,106 |
The Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck | 169,481 |
Harry Potter and the One-half Claret Prince | J. G. Rowling | 169,441 |
White Teeth | Zadie Smith | 169,389 |
The Amber Spyglass | Philip Pullman | 168,640 |
Uncle Tom'due south Cabin | Harriet Beecher Stowe | 166,622 |
The Shining | Stephen Rex | 165,581 |
Cold Mountain | Charles Frazier | 161,511 |
Dracula | Bram Stoker | 160,363 |
The Kitchen God'southward Wife | Amy Tan | 159,276 |
Alias Grace | Margaret Atwood | 157,665 |
Eragon | Christopher Paolini | 157,000 |
The Two Towers | J. R. R. Tolkien | 156,198 |
Watership Downwardly | Richard Adams | 156,154 |
Oliver Twist | Charles Dickens | 155,960 |
Emma | Jane Austen | 155,887 |
The Fourth dimension Traveler's Married woman | Audrey Niffenegger | 155,717 |
'Salem'south Lot | Stephen Rex | 152,204 |
Books that are 100,000 words long
At 100,000 words, several of these novels are bestsellers. If you want to write a striking, this might be the sweet spot. Also, we've got Gillian Flynn'south Gone Daughter, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Ian McEwan'south Amende, and Jane Austen'due south Pride and Prejudice, all three of which were adapted for Oscar-nominated movies. Might this exist the perfect length for a film version of your novel? Information technology's certainly something to consider. Note that we've got the showtime novels in three dear YA fantasy serial hither: Twilight, Divergent, and Throne of Glass. If you're writing YA fantasy, aim your word count high.
Gone Daughter | Gillian Flynn | 145,719 |
The Terminal of the Mohicans | James Fenimore Cooper | 145,469 |
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn | Betty Smith | 145,092 |
One Hundred Years of Solitude | Gabriel Garcia Marquez | 144,523 |
Pet Sematary | Stephen Rex | 142,664 |
20,000 Leagues Nether the Body of water | Jules Verne | 138,128 |
Snow Falling on Cedars | David Guterson | 138,098 |
Moll Flanders | Daniel Defoe | 138,087 |
The Return of the Rex | J. R. R. Tolkien | 137,115 |
A Tale of Two Cities | Charles Dickens | 135,420 |
Schindler's List | Thomas Keneally | 134,710 |
The Silmarillion | J. R. R. Tolkien | 130,115 |
Tales from Earthsea | Ursula K. Le Guin | 128,960 |
Sense and Sensibility | Jane Austen | 126,194 |
Atonement | Ian McEwan | 123,378 |
Pride and Prejudice | Jane Austen | 120,697 |
My Sis's Keeper | Jodi Picoult | 119,529 |
Twilight (Book 1) | Stephanie Meyer | 118,875 |
The Tenth Circle | Jodi Picoult | 114,779 |
Walden | Henry David Thoreau | 114,634 |
Throne of Drinking glass | Sarah J. Maas | 113,665 |
The Aureate Compass | Philip Pullman | 112,815 |
McTeague | Frank Norris | 112,737 |
The Adventures of Blueberry Finn | Marking Twain | 109,571 |
The Subtle Knife | Philip Pullman | 109,120 |
Wuthering Heights | Emily Brontë | 107,945 |
Gullivers Travels | Jonathan Swift | 107,349 |
Harry Potter: Prisoner of Azkaban | J. K. Rowling | 106,821 |
Divergent | Veronica Roth | 105,143 |
A Distant Shore | Caryl Phillips | 103,090 |
Ender's Game | Orson Scott Menu | 100,609 |
To Kill a Mockingbird | Harper Lee | 100,388 |
Books that are 90,000 words long
We've dropped a digit and are now at five-figure word counts, only that doesn't mean the prestige (or bestseller potential) drops, too. Hither at ninety,000 words, nosotros see Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games alongside Paula Hawkins' frenzied thriller The Girl on the Railroad train and Toni Morrison's lush literary Song of Solomon. And ninety,000 words seems quite doable. At 1,000 words a day, you'd exist finished in ninety days, or iii months. And if y'all really hit your pace at one,000 words, you'd cease four 90,000-word books in a year. Not bad if y'all're planning a series!
The Hunger Games (Book i) | Suzanne Collins | 99,750 |
Welcome to the Monkey House | Kurt Vonnegut | 99,560 |
All the Pretty Horses | Cormac McCarthy | 99,277 |
Tehanu | Ursula K. Le Guin | 99,200 |
Anne of Green Gables | Lucy Maud Montgomery | 97,364 |
The Daughter on the Train | Paula Hawkins | 95,410 |
The Hobbit | J. R. R. Tolkien | 95,356 |
The Left Hand of Darkness | Ursula Yard. Le Guin | 94,240 |
Vocal of Solomon | Toni Morrison | 92,400 |
Joy Luck Club | Amy Tan | 91,419 |
Books that are fourscore,000 words long
There are many bestsellers and award-winning novels in the eighty,000-word novel society, like Marilynne Robinson's Pulitzer Prize winning Gilead and the Booker Prize-winning The English language Patient. But what strikes me almost almost the books in this category is The Diary of a Young Girl. I take detail inspiration from Anne Frank's diary, which is 82,662 words long. That's as long equally some of the classics of literature, including 1984 and Persuasion, and shows how insightful, observant, intelligent, and hopeful Anne Frank was while writing her diary. What an accomplishment. It stirs you on, doesn't information technology?
Waiting | Hin Ja | 89,297 |
The Other Wind | Ursula K. Le Guin | 89,280 |
1984 | George Orwell | 88,942 |
Persuasion | Jane Austen | 87,978 |
Pere Goriot | Honore de Balzac | 87,846 |
The Unbearable Lightness of Being | Milan Kundera | 85,199 |
Gilead | Marilynne Robinson | 84,845 |
Harry Potter: Chamber of Secrets | J. K. Rowling | 84,799 |
Cry, the Beloved Country | Alan Paton | 83,774 |
The Diary of a Young Girl | Anne Frank | 82,762 |
The English Patient | Michael Ondaatje | 82,370 |
The Dark Is Rising | Susan Cooper | 82,143 |
The Surreptitious Garden | Frances Hodgson Burnett | fourscore,398 |
Books that are 70,000 words long
Information technology feels a bit strange to know that i of my favorite novels of all time, J.D. Salinger'due south The Catcher in the Rye is 73,404 words long. Information technology's like knowing how many words are in the bible, if Catcher is your misfit religion similar mine was. We see in this batch of 70,000-word novels the first volume in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter serial at 77,325. If you lot're keeping rails, yous could write that in 77 days, a picayune over 2 months at ane,000 words each solar day.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep | Phillip K. Dick | 79,360 |
On Writing | Stephen King | 79,139 |
The Movie of Dorian Gray | Oscar Wilde | 78,462 |
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | J. K. Rowling | 77,325 |
Frankenstein | Mary Shelley | 74,800 |
A Good day to Artillery | Ernest Hemingway | 74,240 |
The Catcher in the Rye | J.D. Salinger | 73,404 |
White Fang | Jack London | 72,071 |
The Woman Warrior | Maxine Hong Kingston | 70,957 |
Books that are 60,000 words long
From John Greenish to Virginia Woolf to Terry Pratchett, the authors who take written beloved 60,000-word novels know how to pack a lot of meaning into a relatively short book. If yous're looking to expand your novel beyond NaNoWriMo length, accept some comfort that y'all don't have to stretch likewise far past the l,000 word draft to pen a future classic.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer | Mark Twain | 69,066 |
Drinking Java Elsewhere | ZZ Packer | 68,410 |
The Sun As well Rises | Ernest Hemingway | 67,707 |
A Clockwork Orangish | Anthony Burgess | 67,280 |
The Fault in Our Stars | John Greenish | 67,203 |
Treasure Island | Robert Louis Stevenson | 66,950 |
The Colour Imperial | Alice Walker | 66,556 |
The Color of Magic | Terry Pratchett | 65,113 |
The Martian Chronicles | Ray Bradbury | 64,768 |
The Magician'south Nephew | C.Southward. Lewis | 64,480 |
Dauntless New World | Aldous Huxley | 63,766 |
The Scarlet Letter | Nathaniel Hawthorne | 63,604 |
Mrs. Dalloway | Virginia Woolf | 63,422 |
All Tranquillity on the Western Front | Erich Remarque | 61,922 |
Carrie | Stephen Rex | 61,343 |
The Farthest Shore | Ursula One thousand. Le Guin | 60,591 |
Books that are l,000 words long
Several classics of children'southward literature are comfortably in the 50,000-discussion novel range, including Anna Sewell'due south Black Beauty, Kenneth Grahame'south The Current of air in the Willows, and Ursula K. Le Guin's A Wizard of Earthsea. The novels in this category, including Michael Cunningham'south Pulitzer-winning The Hours (i of my favorite books), prove that you don't take to type your fingers off in club to craft something that takes your reader's breath away. It's too interesting to notation that The Hours is an homage to Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, which we learned in the last category, is longer (at 63,422). Sometimes you lot can take inspiration for a retelling and capture the beauty of the original in far fewer words.
Lord of the Flies | William Golding | 59,900 |
War of the Worlds | H.G. Wells | 59,796 |
Black Beauty | Anna Sewell | 59,645 |
The Current of air in the Willows | Kenneth Grahame | 58,428 |
A Split Peace | John Knowles | 56,787 |
As I Lay Dying | William Faulkner | 56,695 |
The Nighttime Belfry: Gunslinger | Stephen King | 56,583 |
A Wizard of Earthsea | Ursula K. Le Guin | 56,533 |
The Hours | Michael Cunningham | 54,243 |
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader | C.South. Lewis | 53,960 |
The Silverish Chair | C.South. Lewis | 51,022 |
Books that are twoscore,000 words long
At present, none of these authors would win NaNoWriMo with their 40,000-word novel, only they're obviously playing the long game. This list of 40,000-discussion novels should be subtitled: "How to write a book they'll teach in high schoolhouse English language." Information technology'due south similar a who's who of the English language curriculum: Fitzgerald, Vonnegut, Hinton, Bradbury, hell, probably Nicholas Sparks… I mean, who knows? Clearly, fifty-fifty though we're getting down to the end of this listing of word counts of favorite novels, there are nonetheless heavy hitters in the lower range.
Shambles-Five | Kurt Vonnegut | 49,459 |
The Notebook | Nicholas Sparks | 48,978 |
The Outsiders | S.East. Hinton | 48,523 |
The Equus caballus and His Male child | C.Southward. Lewis | 48,029 |
The Crimson Badge of Backbone | Stephen Crane | 47,180 |
The Groovy Gatsby | F. Scott Fitzgerald | 47,094 |
Prince Caspain | C.Due south. Lewis | 46,290 |
Fahrenheit 451 | Ray Bradbury | 46,118 |
The Tombs of Atuan | Ursula One thousand. Le Guin | 45,939 |
The Last Boxing | C.Southward. Lewis | 43,333 |
Books that are 30,000 words long
As an aspiring children's literature writer, I'm pleasantly surprised and inspired to larn that Roald Dahl's archetype Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is only thirty,644 words long. You tin can manage that in a month, for sure! It's also interesting to note that James 1000. Cain'southward noir novel Double Indemnity is only 30,072. And at thirty,000 words, well-nigh of these novels fall into the novella length, which is generally between 17,500 and 40,000 words.
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe | C.Southward. Lewis | 38,421 |
The Stranger | Albert Camus | 36,014 |
Quondam Yeller | Fred Gipson | 35,978 |
The Time Machine | H.Chiliad. Wells | 32,149 |
Charlie and the Chocolate Manufacturing plant | Roald Dahl | xxx,644 |
Double Indemnity | James M. Cain | 30,072 |
Books that are 20,000 words long
And hither we are at the final category I've included: novels that are twenty,000 words long. When y'all read Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis and George Orwell's Animal Farm, you're reading some of the shortest novels (really, novellas) yous'll find in jump books, yet these alarming, still-shocking stories testify you can make a huge touch in only a few words.
Animal Subcontract | George Orwell | 29,966 |
Of Mice and Men | John Steinbeck | 29,160 |
The Old Man and the Sea | Ernest Hemingway | 26,601 |
The Mouse and the Motorbike | Beverly Cleary | 22,416 |
The Metamorphosis | Franz Kafka | 21,180 |
What's the word count of your novel? What are some of your favorite brusque novels or long novels? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on writing and readings books of all lengths.
Related
How Many Words In A Short Novel,
Source: https://brokebybooks.com/the-word-count-of-175-favorite-novels/
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