The "official" specs and classification vary by publishing house and editor. These are general classifications with considerable fudge factor. If an editor wants something badly enough they will gladly stuff 10 pounds of literature into a 5 pound bag if they think it will sell. Page count trivia: A typical double-spaced pica type (monospaced font) works out to about 10 words per line, 25 lines a page- 250 words. Depending on book and print size... a printed book page can be between 280 words (large print small book) to 600 words (small print big book). General Fiction
- Flash Fiction: under 1250 words
- Short Story: 1250 - 3000 words
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- Genre stories can range up to 5000 - 7000 words
- Novelette: 5000 - 20000 words
- Novellas: 7000 - 25000 words
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- GRAY AREA 25000-40000 - Too long for a novella - not long enough for a novel. Editors will usually ask for a cut or build up to get into one category or the other.
- Novels: 40,000-125,000 words Fiction Genres
- Romance: 40,000-100,000 words
- Science Fiction / Fantasy: 70,000-150,000
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- Note: one of the best selling fantasy works of all time was Jonathan Livingston Seagull - at 20k words (Novella)
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- Epic fantasy works can be up to 300k+ words in a single volume
- Historical Fiction: 80,000-100,000
- Thrillers / Horror / Mysteries / Crime: 70,000-90,000 words
- Young Adult: 50,000-80,000 Children's Books
- Board books - Age 0-3 - Word Count: 0 - 100
- Picture books - Age 3-8 - Word Count: 250 - 1000
- Early Reader - Age 5-9 - Word Count: 1,500 - 2,000
- Chapter Book - Age 6-10 - Word Count: 8,500 - 12,000 (or 20,000 for older kids)
- Middle Grade - Age 8-12 - Word Count: 25k - 50k (Genre fiction leans toward longer end)
- Young Adult - Age 12-14 - Word Count: 50k - 75k (Genre fiction leans toward longer end) Nonfiction
- Standard Nonfiction (Business, Political Science, Psychology, History, etc.): 70,000-80,000 words
- Memoir: 80,000-100,000 words
- Biography: 80,000-200,000 words
- How-to / Self-Help: 40,000-50,000 words What are the stages of writing a book? How long does it take to put all together?