Recently someone asked me about how many words I tend to aim for when I’m writing a novel. Generally speaking, I tend to aim for 80,000 words as a good benchmark, which works out at about 330 or so pages in a 5.5 x 8.5 paperback book.
There are so many different opinions about how long an adult fiction novel should be, particularly depending on what genre you write. I’ve heard that speculative fiction should be on the longer side – up to 120,000 words, though around 100k is a good aim, especially if it’s a debut.
Of course, if you’re a children’s author or write YA fiction, your books can be on the shorter side: I’ve heard that between 40-80,000 words is a good length, with a 60k word count a decent goal to aim for.
As for my own books, my debut novel, Gods of Avalon Road, was 102,000 words. My second novel, The Buddha’s Bone, was 90,000 words. My forthcoming third book, The Blue Man, is the shortest of the three at around 81,000 words.
What about for any budding Indie writers out there? As a general rule, I’d say aim to write above 40,000 words as that is the baseline for what constitutes a novel. In a KDP paperback of their smallest template size (5 x 8 inches) this would work out at maybe 180 printed pages.
Leilanie Stewart 