Find book word counts

I use the value of the associated audiobook to come up with the calculation. Is it accurate? Let’s take a look at a few examples…

The actual word count for The Hunger Games is 99,750 and my utility calculates 99,216 words. The Girl on the Train has a word count of 101,704 and my calculation is 102,648. Pretty impressive! Are they all that accurate? Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the pace and style of the narrator.

And if you’re only looking for a few examples from a particular genre, the word counts for other books listed on this site have been verified. Word Count Ranges by Genre is a good place to start.

At times the readers of books may be interested in discovering how many words they read. There are several methods for determining the word count of a given book. These include using published information about the book to determine an exact word count, estimating the number of words based on industry standards and sampling to capture the author’s writing style for producing an estimate based on this sampling.

Getting An Exact Count

Step 1

Examine a book word-count directory. This method is necessary if you need to achieve an exact word count and is doable if the book for which you need a word count is well known. There are multiple online resources that publish directories of well-known books with their corresponding word counts. These include the Renaissance Learning online bookstore, Amazon’s «Inside This Book» feature, various blogs and potentially book publishers who may choose to publish information and statistics about their books.

Step 2

Search for the book using the directory’s search interface.

Step 3

Find the word count feature, which will vary by directory. For instance, Amazon places the word count inside the «inside this book» option while Renaissance Learning places the word count near the top of the book’s description.

Estimating Based on Industry Standards

Step 1

Determine the industry standard of words per page for your book. For example, in most cases it is considered to be an industry standard for books such as novels to contain 250 words and 25 lines per page.

Step 2

Multiply the industry standard by the number of pages contained in your book. If the industry standard is 250 words per page and the book you read contains 200 pages then you could reasonably expect that the number of words read is 50,000.

Step 3

Ensure all pages were included in the count and adjust the count if necessary. Consider that some if not many publications may not number the book’s preface. Add the words on these pages to your count.

Sampling for Author’s Writing Style

Step 1

Count the number of pages in the book. Sub-divide the count into full, 1/2 and 1/3 pages. If necessary, round the count to the nearest of the three size specifications.

Step 2

Generate the overall page count by multiplying the number of each category by the category size and adding up those three numbers. For example, a book may have 155 full-pages (totaling 155) , 18 1/2-pages (totaling nine) and nine 1/3-pages (totaling three). Your total count in this case would be 167.

Step 3

Discover the average number of words on a page by counting the number of words on three randomly picked full pages distributed throughout the book. Average the count by taking the total number of words counted and divide by three. This should capture the authors writing style and provide a reliable estimate of the number of words used by the author on each full page.

Step 4

Multiply the average words per page by the overall page count. This should provide a close estimate of the number of words in the book.

If you’re looking for word counts of your favorite books or series, then you’ve come to the right place. Whether you’re just curious about how many words are in these books or you’re writing a book and want to compare the length of your novel to these famous tomes, then read on to find the word counts of famous books and series.

The average word count for a typical novel ranges anywhere from 70,000 to 120,000 words, with the average hanging around 90,000. 

How Many Words Is Harry Potter by JK Rowling?

When combined, the total Harry Potter series word count is 1,084,625 words. At an average reading rate, it will take about 60 hours to read Harry Potter.

Word Count of Each Harry Potter Book

The Sorcerer’s Stone – 77,325 words
The Chamber of Secrets – 84,799 words
The Prisoner of Azkaban – 106,821 words
The Goblet of Fire – 190,858 words
The Order of the Phoenix – 257,154 words
The Half-Blood Prince – 169,441 words
The Deathly Hallows – 198,227 words
Total – 1,084,625 words

How Many Words Is Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien?

When combined, the total Lord of the Rings word count is over half a million words. At an average reading rate, that’s about 30 hours of reading.

The Hobbit – 95,022 words
The Fellowship of the Ring – 177,227 words
The Two Towers – 143,436 words
The Return of the King – 134,462 words
Total – 550,147 words 

How Many Words Is Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins?

The Hunger Games trilogy has 301,583 words and takes about 17 hours to read.

Hunger Games – 99,750 words
Hunger Games: Catching Fire – 101,564 words
Hunger Games: Mockingjay – 100,269 words
Total – 301,583 words

How Many Words Is Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin?

The entire Game of Thrones series is nearly two million words.

A Game of Thrones – 292,727 words
A Clash of Kings – 318,903 words
A Storm of Swords – 414,604 words
A Feast for Crows – 295,032 words
A Dance with Dragons – 414,788 words
Total – 1,736,054 words

How Many Words Is Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan?

The entire Wheel of Time series has over four million words.

Eye of the World – 305,902 words
The Great Hunt – 267,078 words
The Dragon Reborn – 251,392 words
The Shadow Rising – 393,823 words
The Fires of Heaven – 354,109 words
Lord of Chaos – 389,823 words
A Crown of Swords – 295,028 words
The Path of Daggers – 226,687 words
Winter’s Heart – 238,789 words
Crossroads of Twilight – 271,632 words
Knife of Dreams – 315,163 words
The Gathering Storm – 297,502 words
Towers of Midnight – 327,052 words
A Memory of Light – 353,906 words
Total – 4,287,886 words

How Many Words Is Twilight by Stephenie Meyer?

The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer total 587,246 words which take about 33 hours to read.

Twilight – 118,975 words
New Moon – 132,758 words
Eclipse – 148,971 words
Breaking Dawn – 186,542 words
Total – 587,246 words

Other Famous Books Word Counts

Below are some of the most famous and most-read books along with their word counts.

591,554 words – A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
587,287 words – War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
561,996 words – Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
455,125 words – The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
418,053 words – Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
365,712 words – Lonesome Dove by McMurtry, Larry
364,153 words – The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
349,736 words – Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
316,059 words – Middlemarch by George Eliot
311,596 words – The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
260,742 words – Cloudsplitter by Banks, Russell
257,154 words – Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
236,061 words – A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
225,395 words – East of Eden by John Steinbeck
216,020 words – The Amazing Adventures of Kavelier and Clay by Chabon, Michael
211,591 words – Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
208,773 words – Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
206,052 words – Moby Dick by Herman Melville
198,901 words – A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul
198,227 words – Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling
197,517 words – Stones from the River by Hegi, Ursula
196,774 words – The Corrections by Franzen, Jonathan
190,858 words – Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
186,418 words – Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
183,858 words – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
183,833 words – Little Women (Books 1&2) by Louisa May Alcott
183,349 words – Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
177,679 words – The Poisonwood Bible by Kingsolver, Barbara
177,227 words – The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
174,269 words – Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
169,481 words – The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinback
169,441 words – Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling
169,389 words – White Teeth by Zadie Smith
166,622 words – Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
161,511 words – Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
159,276 words – The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
157,665 words – Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
156,154 words – Watership Down by Richard Adams
155,960 words – Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
155,887 words – Emma by Jane Austen
145,469 words – Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper
145,265 words – Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
145,092 words – A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
144,523 words – One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
143,436 words – The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien
138,138 words – 20000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
138,098 words – Snow Falling on Cedars by Guterson, David
138,087 words – Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
135,420 words – A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
134,710 words – Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally
134,462 words – The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien
130,460 words – War Trash by Jin, Ha
128,886 words – The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
127,776 words – Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain
123,378 words – Atonement by Ian McEwan
119,529 words – My Sisters Keeper by Jodi Picoult
119,394 words – Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
114,779 words – The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
114,634 words – Walden by Henry David Thoreau
112,815 words – The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
112,737 words – McTeague by Frank Norris
109,571 words – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
107,945 words – Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
107,349 words – Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift
106,821 words – Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling
103,090 words – A Distant Shore by Phillips, Caryl
100,609 words – Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
100,388 words – To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
99,560 words – Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
99,277 words – All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
97,364 words – Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
95,022 words – The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
92,400 words – Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
91,419 words – Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
89,297 words – Waiting by Jin, Ha
88,942 words – Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
87,978 words – Persuasion by Jane Austen
87,846 words – Pere Goriot by Honore de Balzac
85,199 words – The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
84,845 words – Gilead by Robinson, Marilynne
84,799 words – Chamber of Secrets by JK Rowling
83,774 words – Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
82,762 words – Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
82,370 words – The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
82,143 words – The Dark Is Rising by Cooper, Susan
80,398 words – The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
78,462 words – The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
77,325 words – Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling
73,404 words – The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
72,071 words – White Fang by Jack London
70,957 words – Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
69,066 words – The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
68,410 words – Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by Packer, ZZ
67,707 words – The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
67,606 words – Ironweed by Kennedy, William
67,203 words – The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
66,950 words – Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
66,556 words – The Color Purple by Alice Walker
64,768 words – The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
63,766 words – Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
63,604 words – The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
63,422 words – Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
61,922 words – All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque
60,082 words – The Dew Breaker by Danticat, Edwidge
59,900 words – Lord of the Flies by William Golding
59,635 words – Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
58,428 words – The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame
56,787 words – A Separate Peace by John Knowles
56,695 words – As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
54,243 words – The Hours by Cunningham, Michael
49,459 words – Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
48,523 words – The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
47,180 words – The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
47,094 words – The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
46,118 words – Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
42,715 words – The Tequila Worm by Canales, Viola
36,363 words – Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
35,968 words – Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
30,644 words – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
22,416 words – The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary

See more great book series.

How many words are in a novel? After all…

Writing too many words in your novel is just as embarrassing as not writing enough.

A book’s word count does matter and if you get it wrong, this can impact your book sales, reviews, and its overall performance.

So if you want to write and publish a book successfully, this is vital information to know (even if it seems trivial).

But that’s why we’re here.

To not only help you understand how many words are in a novel, but how many should be in your specific book depending on what you’re writing and its genre.

Because yes, different types of books require different book lengths.

And you will instantly lose readers if you are too far off the general norm…yikes.

Not only do you need to know how many words are in a novel, but also why and how the genre you’re writing it can change this word count.

Word counts per book genre:

1. Memoir – 45,000 to 80,000
2. Self-Help Book – 30,000 – 70,000
3. Fantasy Novel – 50,000 – 150,000
4. Sci-fi Novel – 50,000 – 150,000
5. Romance Novel – 50,000 – 90,000
6. Mystery Novel – 40,000 – 80,000
7. Horror Novel – 40,000 – 80,000
8. Dystopian Novel – 60,000 -120,000
9. Contemporary Novel – 60,000 – 90,000
10. Young Adult Book – 60,000 – 90,000
11. Middle-Grade Book – 20,000 – 55,000

Get specific word and page count recommendations, based on your book type, genre, and audience age using our Word/Page Count Calculator, below.

How many pages is 1000 words?

1000 words single-spaced is about 1 page in Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or equivalent software. 1000 words in a book is about 3 pages.

One thing to keep in mind with how many pages is 1000 words is that it depends on the text, its size, and the spacing you’re using.

For example, if you write 1000 words on a page in Google Docs, but maintain double spacing, that would be about two pages. However, if your text is smaller than 12 and you use a different spacing variation, it may only be one to one and a half pages.

Here’s how you can make 1000 words be more than two pages:

• Increase the font size by .5 or 1 point
• Increase the line spacing
• Change the size of all the punctuation to be larger

[Pssst! Want to see some of our Students’ published books? Check out the SPS Library here!]

How many words per page in a book?

Ultimately, you can expect there to be roughly 300 words per page in a book you write as a whole. Because dialogue requires paragraph breaks, there will be fewer words than if you have a few pages of full paragraphs instead of dialogue.

On average, there are about 300 words per page in a book. This number can vary depending on if you’re writing dialogue or how short each paragraph is.

How many words does a 300 page book have?

A 300-page book word count average is about 90,000 words. However, the word count per page can widely change, depending on the format, amount of dialogue, and even font size.

How to Find How Many Words are in Your Novel So Far

Knowing where to look to locate your word count will help you determine how long your book is actually going to be once it’s finished and you publish it (which you’ll learn to do in the next step).

Finding your book’s word count depends on which writing software you’re using to write it.

Here’s how to find your book’s word count for a number of writing software:

• Microsoft Word: The word count for your book in Microsoft Word will be located in the bottom left corner next to the page number.
• Google Docs: To find the word count in Google Docs using a mac, you can hit Command > Shift > C (Control > Shift > C on Windows) and a box will pop up. You can also go to Tools > Word Count
• Scrivener: If you’re using this writing tool, just go to Scrivener > Preferences > Editing and then select live counts to show the word count box and character on the bottom bar.
• Pages: To view word count in Pages on a mac, go to the toolbar and click View > Show Word Count.
• Open Office: If you’re using open office, the word count is visible in the bottom left corner.

Book Length Calculator

The best way to find out how many pages will be in your book is to use this calculation method:

Take your current word count and divide it by 300. This will give you the approximate number of pages that will be in your book.

Keep in mind that this is not a perfect way to calculate the number of pages your book will be. However, this rough estimation can help you understand the approximate length of your book.

How many words in a novel?

The average word count for a novel is between 60,000 and 110,000 words depending on the genre. First-time writers should research their genre in this post and choose the word count that’s the industry standard. Example: 90,000 words for a romance novel.

The amount of words in your novel does matter. Depending on your genre, having too many or too little can not only hurt your book sales, but also cause fewer 5-star reviews (which also hurts your sales).

This is how many words to have in a novel for each genre.

#1 – How many words in a memoir?

On average, when writing a memoir should not exceed 90,000 words and that is a stretch when it comes to memoir word count.

We recommend memoirs be between 45,000 to 80,000 words in order to maintain intrigue and reduce intimidation. This means your memoir will average between 150 and 265 pages.

When readers see that a memoir exceeds 300 pages, it sets up a red flag in their mind. Even if they’re interested in the memoir, a very lengthy memoir is often indicative of something reminiscent of an autobiography (which is basically a timeline of life events) versus a personal life telling with a theme or message.

Exceptions for memoir word count:

• You’re famous or well-known. Anyone who already has an audience can get away with a longer memoir simply because people have already shown interest in your life. They’re more likely to want more rather than less.
• Your memoir contains multiple lessons or messages. If your memoir is in several parts or you have a few messages to get across, you can write a longer memoir. Keep in mind, however, that it may be more beneficial to write two memoirs instead of one massive one.
• It’s your first draft word count only. It’s okay if your first draft is over 90,000 words. Oftentimes, professional editing will cut down the unnecessary information so your memoir is the appropriate word count.

Word count for memoirs: 45,000 – 80,000

#2 – How many words in a self-help book?

Any self-help or motivational nonfiction book should be between 30,000 and 70,000 words

This means your book will be between 100 and 230 pages in total.

Those looking for help through a book in this genre don’t want a massive novel to go through just to read what they need. For that reason, if you have a motivational or self-help book idea, keep it at a lower word count will actually help you more.

For example, our own Student Success Strategist, Lisa Zelenak, wrote this book called Find Your Thing. It’s a self-help book detailing how to escape monotony in your early 20s and do work that actually matters.

Find Your Thing is about 30,000 words and, with formatting, 178 pages long.

The reason this book does well is because it is not a super lengthly novel. With a self-help book, your audience wants to learn something and they want to learn it sooner rather than later.

Word count for self-help books: 30,000 – 70,000 words

#3 – How many words in a fantasy novel?

The average fantasy novel should have between 50,000 and 150,000 words. However, the true word count depends on the category in which you’re writing.

If you’re writing a young adult fantasy novel, you should keep your word count below 90,000 words or 300 book pages.

This is due to the audience you’re reaching preferring that length.

If you’re writing an adult fantasy novel or an epic fantasy novel (like Game of Thrones), your word count can skew higher at 90,000 – 200,000 words.

Not all fantasy novels are epic fantasy novels. Epic fantasy is a sub-genre beneath fantasy and encompasses very long journey-specific plots. Authors who write in this style are George R.R. Martin, Brandon Sanderson, and the late J.R.R. Tolkien.

Word count for fantasy novels: 50,000 – 150,000 words

#4 – How many words in a science fiction book?

Science fiction books typically have between 50,000 and 150,000 words, like fantasy novels. This puts them at between 170 – 500 pages.

This specific genre has a lot of flexibility with word and page count due to the variety of plot types and story arcs.

Here are some popular sci-fi novels and their word counts:

• Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams – 50,895 words
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card – 100,609 words
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – 46,118 words
• I, Robot by Isaac Asimov – 69,000 words
• The Stand by Stephen King – 500,000 words
• The Martian by Andy Weir – 104,588 words

As you can see, word count for science fiction books vary widely. However, we do not suggest writing a novel of 500,000 words unless you as established as Stephen King is.

Word count for science fiction novels: 50,000 – 150,000 words

#5 – How many words in a romance novel?

Romance novels often run between 50,000 and 90,000 words on average.

Romance is a unique genre because the plot is all about two characters and their adventure with one another. For that reason, writing a long, lengthy book just about their romance can become a problem for the readers.

This is why romance books tend to be below 90,000 words.

The more you write, the more you run the risk of losing your reader’s attention and motivation to keep reading.

A popular romance novel that’s a great example of keeping your story shorter rather than longer is The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks.

This book only has 52,000 words and has become one of the most recognizable romances of our time.

Word count for romance novels: 50,000 – 90,000 words

#6 – How many words in a mystery novel?

Mystery novels do best if they’re written between 40,000 and 80,000 words.

Writing more than 80,000 words can become difficult, as you have to ensure your readers don’t know the answer behind the mystery.

As with anything, the more you say, the easier it is to decipher the clues underneath, which is what you don’t want when it comes to a mystery novel.

For example, Agatha Christie, one of the bestselling mystery writers of all time, write between 40,000 and 60,000 words per book.

Word count for mystery novels: 40,000 – 80,000 words

#7 – How many words in a horror novel?

Horror is much like mystery in the sense that you don’t want to drag these novels on too long. Therefore, we advise writers to stick between 40,000 to 80,000 words for horror novels.

As an example, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is 42,211 words long.

Word count for horror novels: 40,000 – 80,000 words

#8 – How many words in a dystopian novel?

Typical dystopian novels run between 60,000 and 120,000 words, though this genre has the flexibility to be longer.

Because dystopian is often a sub-genre, meaning it usually has a broader genre within it like fantasy or sci-fi, there’s room to expand and grow these types of novels.

Here are some popular dystopian novel word counts:

• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – 90,240
• Red Rising by Pierce Brown – 124,749 words
• The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau – 59,937

As you can see, this genre’s word count bounces all over the place. Just keep your intended audience in mind (young adult, middle-grade), in order to know how many words to write.

Word count for dystopian novels: 60,000 – 120,000 words

#9 – How many words in a contemporary book?

In a typical contemporary book, you will have between 60,000 and 90,000 words.

One popular example of a contemporary novel is Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli, which stands at 60,965 words in total.

Contemporary novels typically don’t exceed 90,000 words particularly because they’re focused on modern problems versus anything other wordly. This means if you write too long of a book, you run the risk of losing your reader’s attention.

Word count for contemporary novels: 60,000 – 90,000 words

#10 – How many words in a young adult novel?

Young adult books range between 60,000 and 90,000 words. Unless you’re writing a young adult epic fantasy, which can go up to 150,000 words.

Young adult is a category more than a genre, but it’s important to keep this in mind when writing a book in any genre.

Your audience matters because different age ranges prefer different lengths of books. An older audience, like new adult or adult, is far more likely to consumer a book that’s over 100,000 words, whereas a younger audience like young adult only has the attention span for less than 90,000 words.

Word count for young adult novels: 90,000 words

#11 – How many words in a middle-grade book?

Middle-grade books are best if kept between 20,000 and 55,000 words in order to maintain the attention of readers this age.

Anything longer can be difficult for a younger audience to consume and retain all of the information. Therefore, cap your first draft off at 65,000 words with the intent to cut out what you don’t need when you ship it off to your editor.

Keep in mind that these word counts are guidelines. One thing we teach here at Self-Publishing School is that you must first know the rules before you can confidently break them.

Word count for middle grade novels: 40,000 words

Still not sure where to start? Check recommended word and page counts for multiple ages of varied audiences using the calculator at the top of this post. Once you have that, you can break your total words needed for your novel down into monthly, weekly, and daily writing goals.

Enjoy!

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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’re obsessing over how many words your novel should be, it’s a good idea to consult the word 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, but 175 sounds cleaner!) classic, bestselling, award-winning novels, from books you’d recognize from high school English to recent 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 resource for other writers like me who wonder how long a novel should be. I hope to follow it up with a children’s literature specific list.

The links will take you to Amazon (affiliate links), and if you’d like to know my sources, you can view them in this Google spreadsheet.

Also of note, check out my list of the 20+ best books on creative writing:

A few series in focus

Before we dive into the list, let’s explore the word count of a few popular fantasy series and one favorite, bestselling author who racks up high word counts.

Word count of Harry Potter series

The total word count of J.K. Rowling’s seven-book Harry Potter series is 1,084,625. That’s like reading David Foster Wallaces’s Infinite Jest (488,940) twice.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s 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. K. Rowling	106,821
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	J. K. Rowling	190,858
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	J. K. Rowling	257,154
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince	J. K. Rowling	169,441
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows	J. K. Rowling	198,227

Word count of The Chronicles of Narnia series

The total word count of C.S. Lewis’ seven-book Chronicles of Narnia series is 345,535. That’s approximately the same length as Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (344,665).

The Magician’s 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.S. Lewis	51,022
The Horse and His Boy	C.S. Lewis	48,029
The Last Battle	C.S. Lewis	43,333

Word count of Earthsea series

The word 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’s The Old Man and the Sea at 26,601 words.

A Wizard of Earthsea	Ursula K. Le Guin	56,533
The Tombs of Atuan	Ursula K. Le Guin	45,939
The Farthest 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 Wind	Ursula K. Le Guin	89,280

Word count of His Dark Materials series

The word count of Philip Pullman’s three-book His Dark 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 word count of George R. R. Martin’s five-volume A Song of Ice and Fire series is 1,770,000. The series is incomplete, so there could still be more words on the way! That’s about the length of Stephen King’s It (445,134) times four (1,781,736).

A Game of Thrones	George R. R. Martin	298,000
A Clash of Kings	George R. R. Martin	326,000
A Storm of Swords	George R. R. Martin	424,000
A Feast 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 four-volume Lord of the Rings series is 576,459. To equal that, read J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (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 Return of the King	J. R. R. Tolkien	137,115

Author in focus: word count of Stephen King’s books

It’s also fun to look at the word counts in the work of one author in particular, so I decided to do 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 list, you 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 take more of those over another novel. (Though I’d of course take The Stand over any novel ever.) For more Stephen King book word counts, see this very detailed Reddit thread.

Carrie	Stephen King	61,343
‘Salem’s Lot	Stephen King	152,204
The Shining	Stephen King	165,581
The Stand (uncut version)	Stephen King	471,485
The Dark Tower: Gunslinger	Stephen King	56,583
Pet Sematary	Stephen King	142,664
It	Stephen King	445,134
On Writing	Stephen King	79,139

Now we’ll move along to look at this list of 177 word counts of popular novels.

Books that are 500,000+ words long

Here we see some of the longest novels in the world in the 500,000-word and up level. (And for more on that, check out the Wikipedia entry for List of Longest Novels.) Many people put reading Marcel Proust’s seven-volume In Search of Lost Time series on their reading bucket list. I’ve only read the first volume, Swann’s Way, and loved it, but I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to reading the rest 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 can manage writing a 400,000-word novel? If you were going to write 1,000 words a day, that would take 400 days, more than a year. And if you only manage 500 words a day, double that to 800 days, over 2 years. Still, if it’s fame and glory you’re chasing, why not? David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest is a cult classic. And Margaret Mitchell’s 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 Dance 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’re writing a 300,000-word novel, you’re in good company. Some of the most beloved classics in literature sit 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 Dove	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 also his shortest while J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is the fifth and longest book in her series. Here we also have the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and Salman Rushdie’s Man Booker-winning Midnight’s Children. Two classics of the Western canon, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment also reach the 200,000 word novel club.

A Game of Thrones	George R. R. Martin	298,000
Ulysses	James Joyce	265,222
Cloudsplitter	Russell Banks	260,742
Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix	J. K. Rowling	257,154
A Prayer for Owen Meany	John Irving	236,061
East of Eden	John Steinbeck	225,395
Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay	Michael Chabon	216,020
Crime and Punishment	Fyodor Dostoyevsky	211,591
Midnight’s 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 two to make it easier to grasp. Plus, that 50,000 word difference is significant, at least according to the good 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 see a few fantasy and science fiction novels here, too, like Dune, American Gods, and Eragon.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows	J. K. 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 Ring	J. R. R. Tolkien	187,790
Dune	Frank Herbert	187,240
Memoirs of a Geisha	Arthur Golden	186,418
Jane Eyre	Charlotte Brontë	183,858
Little Women (Books 1 and 2)	Louisa May Alcott	183,833
Great Expectations	Charles Dickens	183,349
American Gods	Neil Gaiman	183,222
The Poisonwood Bible	Barbara Kingsolver	177,679
Catch-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 Half Blood Prince	J. K. Rowling	169,441
White Teeth	Zadie Smith	169,389
The Amber Spyglass	Philip Pullman	168,640
Uncle Tom’s Cabin	Harriet Beecher Stowe	166,622
The Shining	Stephen King	165,581
Cold Mountain	Charles Frazier	161,511
Dracula	Bram Stoker	160,363
The Kitchen God’s 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 Down	Richard Adams	156,154
Oliver Twist	Charles Dickens	155,960
Emma	Jane Austen	155,887
The Time Traveler’s Wife	Audrey Niffenegger	155,717
‘Salem’s Lot	Stephen King	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 hit, this might be the sweet spot. Also, we’ve got Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Ian McEwan’s Atonement, and Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, all three of which were adapted for Oscar-nominated movies. Might this be the perfect length for a film version of your novel? It’s certainly something to consider. Note that we’ve got the first novels in three beloved YA fantasy series here: Twilight, Divergent, and Throne of Glass. If you’re writing YA fantasy, aim your word count high.

Gone Girl	Gillian Flynn	145,719
The Last 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 King	142,664
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea	Jules Verne	138,128
Snow Falling on Cedars	David Guterson	138,098
Moll Flanders	Daniel Defoe	138,087
The Return of the King	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 Sister’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 Glass	Sarah J. Maas	113,665
The Golden Compass	Philip Pullman	112,815
McTeague	Frank Norris	112,737
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	Mark 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 Card	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, but that doesn’t mean the prestige (or bestseller potential) drops, too. Here at 90,000 words, we see Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games alongside Paula Hawkins’ frenzied thriller The Girl on the Train and Toni Morrison’s lush literary Song of Solomon. And 90,000 words seems quite doable. At 1,000 words a day, you’d be finished in 90 days, or three months. And if you really hit your stride at 1,000 words, you’d finish four 90,000-word books in a year. Not bad if you’re planning a series!

The Hunger Games (Book 1)	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 Girl on the Train	Paula Hawkins	95,410
The Hobbit	J. R. R. Tolkien	95,356
The Left Hand of Darkness	Ursula K. Le Guin	94,240
Song of Solomon	Toni Morrison	92,400
Joy Luck Club	Amy Tan	91,419

Books that are 80,000 words long

There are many bestsellers and award-winning novels in the 80,000-word novel society, like Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize winning Gilead and the Booker Prize-winning The English Patient. But what strikes me most about the books in this category is The Diary of a Young Girl. I take particular inspiration from Anne Frank’s diary, which is 82,662 words long. That’s as long as 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 it?

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 Secret Garden	Frances Hodgson Burnett	80,398

Books that are 70,000 words long

It feels a bit strange to know that one of my favorite novels of all time, J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye is 73,404 words long. It’s like knowing how many words are in the bible, if Catcher is your misfit religion like mine was. We see in this batch of 70,000-word novels the first book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series at 77,325. If you’re keeping track, you could write that in 77 days, a little over two months at 1,000 words each day.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep	Phillip K. Dick	79,360
On Writing	Stephen King	79,139
The Picture 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 Farewell to Arms	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 Green to Virginia Woolf to Terry Pratchett, the authors who have written beloved 60,000-word novels know how to pack a lot of meaning into a relatively short book. If you’re looking to expand your novel beyond NaNoWriMo length, take some comfort that you don’t have to stretch too far past the 50,000 word draft to pen a future classic.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer	Mark Twain	69,066
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere	ZZ Packer	68,410
The Sun Also Rises	Ernest Hemingway	67,707
A Clockwork Orange	Anthony Burgess	67,280
The Fault in Our Stars	John Green	67,203
Treasure Island	Robert Louis Stevenson	66,950
The Color Purple	Alice Walker	66,556
The Color of Magic	Terry Pratchett	65,113
The Martian Chronicles	Ray Bradbury	64,768
The Magician’s Nephew	C.S. Lewis	64,480
Brave New World	Aldous Huxley	63,766
The Scarlet Letter	Nathaniel Hawthorne	63,604
Mrs. Dalloway	Virginia Woolf	63,422
All Quiet on the Western Front	Erich Remarque	61,922
Carrie	Stephen King	61,343
The Farthest Shore	Ursula K. Le Guin	60,591

Books that are 50,000 words long

Several classics of children’s literature are comfortably in the 50,000-word novel range, including Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows, and Ursula K. Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. The novels in this category, including Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer-winning The Hours (one of my favorite books), prove that you don’t have to type your fingers off in order to craft something that takes your reader’s breath away. It’s also interesting to note 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 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 Wind in the Willows	Kenneth Grahame	58,428
A Separate Peace	John Knowles	56,787
As I Lay Dying	William Faulkner	56,695
The Dark Tower: 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.S. Lewis	53,960
The Silver Chair	C.S. Lewis	51,022

Books that are 40,000 words long

Now, none of these authors would win NaNoWriMo with their 40,000-word novel, but they’re obviously playing the long game. This list of 40,000-word novels should be subtitled: “How to write a book they’ll teach in high school English.” It’s like a who’s who of the English curriculum: Fitzgerald, Vonnegut, Hinton, Bradbury, hell, probably Nicholas Sparks… I mean, who knows? Clearly, even though we’re getting down to the end of this list of word counts of favorite novels, there are still heavy hitters in the lower range.

Slaughterhouse-Five	Kurt Vonnegut	49,459
The Notebook	Nicholas Sparks	48,978
The Outsiders	S.E. Hinton	48,523
The Horse and His Boy	C.S. Lewis	48,029
The Red Badge of Courage	Stephen Crane	47,180
The Great Gatsby	F. Scott Fitzgerald	47,094
Prince Caspain	C.S. Lewis	46,290
Fahrenheit 451	Ray Bradbury	46,118
The Tombs of Atuan	Ursula K. Le Guin	45,939
The Last Battle	C.S. Lewis	43,333

Books that are 30,000 words long

As an aspiring children’s literature writer, I’m pleasantly surprised and inspired to learn that Roald Dahl’s classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is only 30,644 words long. You can manage that in a month, for sure! It’s also interesting to note that James M. Cain’s noir novel Double Indemnity is only 30,072. And at 30,000 words, most 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.S. Lewis	38,421
The Stranger	Albert Camus	36,014
Old Yeller	Fred Gipson	35,978
The Time Machine	H.G. Wells	32,149
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Roald Dahl	30,644
Double Indemnity	James M. Cain	30,072

Books that are 20,000 words long

And here we are at the last category I’ve included: novels that are 20,000 words long. When you read Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and George Orwell’s Animal Farm, you’re reading some of the shortest novels (really, novellas) you’ll find in bound books, yet these alarming, still-shocking stories show you can make a huge impact in just a few words.

Animal Farm	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 Motorcycle	Beverly Cleary	22,416
The Metamorphosis	Franz Kafka	21,180

What’s the word count of your novel? What are some of your favorite short novels or long novels? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on writing and readings books of all lengths.

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