You ever wonder how many words you need to have an acceptable novel? Well, it varies depending on the genre. I pulled the following list from Writer’s Digest and The Manuscript Appraisal Agency. There are slight differences in their numbers, but they are within the following range.
- Flash Fiction 500
- Novella 10,000 – 40,000
- Adult Mainstream Novels 80,000 – 100,000
- Adult Mainstream Novel Deal Breakers fewer than 70,000 and more than 110,000
- Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy 90,000 – 120,000
- Romance 50,000 – 100,000
- Mystery/ Crime/ Horror 70,000 – 90,000
- Historical Fiction 100,000 +
- Young Adult 50,000 – 80,000
- Upper Middle Grade 40,000 – 55,000
- Middle Grade 20,000 – 55,000
- Picture Books 32 pages; 500 – 600 words
Hope this helped.
– Jan R
Writing your first novel-Things you should know 
I think Flash is anything under 2000 really… most are 500 or 1000.
The adult SFF probably reflects the impact of the ‘epic’ sub-genre, rather than the genre itself, which I think is anything up from 80k.
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Very helpful – thanks for this
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Reblogged this on Becky's Book Notes and commented:
Excellent breakdown by genre of word count.
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Thank you!
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If reblog worked I would do that! Really helpful post.
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Reblogged this on adaratrosclair.
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Thank you!
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You’re welcome.
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog.
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Thank you!
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Welcome 🤗
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