Animal Farm is about 30,000 words. Nobody has ever called it scrawny.
It’s one of my favorite books, and it’s thin enough to fit in a coat pocket. So is A Christmas Carol. So are The Old Man and the Sea and Of Mice and Men. Some of the most famous books ever printed are novellas, and they’ve sat on bookstore shelves for generations next to doorstop novels three times their size.
Short isn’t a defect.
A story that ends when it’s finished is a story the writer respected.
A writer in a creative writing group asked about this the other day. His upcoming book came in at 21,000 words, and he was leaning toward ebook only, because he thought a paperback that thin would look sad on a shelf. By the end of the thread, the comments had talked him into doing a paperback too. They were right, and the reasons are worth laying out for anyone with a short book.
How long is a novella?
Most definitions put a novella between about 17,500 and 40,000 words. That’s the range the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association uses for its Nebula Awards, and it’s become a common yardstick across genres. Below 17,500 you’re in novelette territory, and below 7,500 it’s a short story. Above 40,000, most people call it a novel.
So 21,000 words is a novella, near the shorter end.
It’s a real book. Readers who like short fiction look for exactly that length, and readers who don’t will skip it whatever format it’s in.
How many pages will a 21,000-word novella print to?
Roughly 80 to 100 pages at a typical fiction trim size, depending on the font, the line spacing, the margins and how many chapters start on a new page. That’s thin, and it’s well inside what print-on-demand services will produce.
Will the title fit on the spine? KDP says books under 79 pages shouldn’t have text on the spine, because the spine is too narrow to print it reliably. IngramSpark allows spine text on paperbacks from 48 pages. A book with no title on its spine disappears on a shelf, so you want to land safely above that line. You have honest ways to get there. A smaller trim size adds pages. Starting every chapter on a new page adds pages. So does a slightly larger font, and readers of every age appreciate one.
A 21,000-word novella clears the IngramSpark line easily and sits just above the KDP cutoff for spine text.
None of that is padding. It’s how most short books have always been set.
You can also add back matter that readers like. One author in the thread said he’d added about 2,000 words about himself and what writing the book was like. An afterword, a note on where the idea came from, a sample chapter from your next book, discussion questions for book clubs: all of it adds pages, and some of it sells your next book.
Which trim size works best for a novella?
Go smaller. A 5 by 8 inch or 5.5 by 8.5 inch trim suits fiction, and it makes a short book look like a deliberate, compact object. The 6 by 9 inch trim is the standard for a lot of trade nonfiction, and it’ll make a thin novella look thinner.
The exception is a series. If your other books are all 6 by 9, readers who line them up on a shelf will notice one that doesn’t match. One author in the thread made exactly that point. All of his books share a size, so his novella gets the same one, and that’s a sound reason to break the rule.
Should a novella be published as an ebook only?
You can, and plenty of authors do. Short ebooks are easy to price, quick to read and popular with subscription readers. One reader in the thread said she reads a lot of novellas through Kindle Unlimited and enjoys them, but won’t buy one that short unless she loves the author. Short ebooks sell best to readers who already know you or who are browsing a subscription where the book costs them nothing extra.
Whatever you choose, tell readers how long the book is. Put the word count or page count in the description. A reader who expected a 300-page novel and got 80 pages feels cheated and says so in a review. A reader who knew it was a novella and bought it anyway is happy.
| Factor | Ebook | Paperback |
|---|---|---|
| Who buys it | Readers who know you, subscription browsers | Signing crowds, local shop buyers, gift givers |
| Live events | You can’t sign an ebook | An easy impulse buy at a table |
| Typical price | $2.99 for the 70 percent royalty, or 99 cents | Set by print cost and the royalty you want |
| Reader magnet role | Free giveaway to newsletter subscribers | Can stay on sale in stores meanwhile |
Short isn’t a defect. A story that ends when it’s finished is a story the writer respected. – Richard LoweShare on X
Why should a short book have a paperback?
Because a lot of people still buy books they can hold.
Why make it hard for them to give you money?
Readers in that thread made the case better than I could. One author with two books of about the same length said his signings sell far more copies than his ebooks do, and you can’t sign an ebook. A reader said he loves short books and buys them in local stores, especially from local authors. Short paperbacks make good gifts, too. Airbnb hosts buy them to leave on a shelf for guests. Our own circles make it easy to assume everyone reads on a screen, and plenty of readers never do.
That matches my own experience. What has sold my books has been direct contact with readers, including live events where I sell from a table. Nobody at a table buys an ebook.
Our own circles make it easy to assume everyone reads on a screen, and plenty of readers never do.
They pick up the book, turn it over, read the back, and either buy it or put it down. A thin paperback at a table is an easy impulse buy.
The cost of a print edition is mostly your time. Formatting a paperback takes a few hours, and a cover wraparound is a small extra job for your designer. KDP will assign a free ISBN to a paperback, though the imprint then shows as Independently published. Authors in Canada can get ISBNs free from Library and Archives Canada. I publish through IngramSpark. It reaches Amazon and thousands of other retailers, and any bookshop can order a paperback listed there.
Can a novella work as a reader magnet?
Yes. Give the novella away to readers who join your newsletter, and it introduces them to your writing for free. Services like BookFunnel deliver the file, and I covered the common BookFunnel download problems and how to avoid them.
A magnet works best when it leads somewhere. A prequel or side story set in the same world as your series sends readers straight to book one. The writer in the thread said his novella is set in a different world from his novel.
That weakens the link. Readers who love the novella won’t find more of it.
Even so, a free novella still shows a reader how you write, and the paperback can sit on sale in stores while the ebook works as a giveaway. You don’t have to pick one job for the book.
How should you price a novella?
Lower than a novel, and in line with the length. On Amazon, ebooks priced between $2.99 and $12.99 qualify for the 70 percent royalty. Below $2.99, the royalty drops to 35 percent. Many authors price a novella at $2.99 for that reason, or at 99 cents as a deliberate loss leader into a series.
Paperbacks are set by print cost and the royalty you want. A short book costs less to print, so you can price it low enough to tempt an impulse buyer at an event and still make money on each copy. Look at what other novellas in your genre sell for and land near them. Check your print service’s list of supported trim sizes before you format, too, because not every size is available in every format or market, and the size changes the page count and the print cost.
My take
Publish the paperback. A 21,000-word novella prints to around 80 to 100 pages, and that’s a real book you can hand someone at a signing or sell in a local shop. It costs little to list. Pick a smaller trim size, add back matter, and tell readers up front how long it is. Price the ebook at $2.99 for the 70 percent royalty, or at 99 cents if it’s feeding a series. Don’t let the length talk you out of print.
Publish the short book
The worst thing you can do with a 21,000-word story is pad it to 50,000 to make it look respectable. Readers can tell, and the story suffers.
The second worst is hiding it in one format because you’re embarrassed about the thickness.
Put it out as an ebook and a paperback. Choose a compact trim size, add back matter that serves the reader, and tell people how long it is. The publishing and marketing hub covers the rest of getting a book into readers’ hands, and if you want help formatting, publishing or selling it, my self-publishing services cover every step.
Format choices are part of self-publishing. My book Publish Your Book compares five platforms and walks through getting a book from manuscript to sale.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Nebula Rules, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association
- Create a Paperback Cover, Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing
