what is the average length (in words) of a typical novel?
Some people say 80,000 – 100,000 is average. It isn’t really well defined, but there is no maximum. Since one of your keywords is science fiction, you might be interested in the rules for the Hugo award: For the Hugos, written fiction is divided by length into four categories: Novels (usually any full-length book, but defined by the rules as any work over 40,000 words); Novellas (from 17,500 words to 40,000); Novelettes (from 7,500 to 17,500 words) and Short Stories (7,500 words and under). Several magazines indicate which category a story falls into, but collections and web sites often do not. Not to worry — give it your best guess where a story fits, and the Hugo Administrator can relocate a nominated story to its proper category. There is even a 20% gray area. The idea is that if a story is within 20% of the boundary and gets most of its nominations in the “wrong” category, the Hugo Administrator is allowed to leave it in the category that most of the voters felt it belonged in, de
