A focused nonfiction book that solves one problem for one group of people can be around 25,000 words — about 110 printed pages.
That’s long enough to deliver a real result.
It’s short enough for a busy woman to finish.
For the kind of focused practical nonfiction I recommend to most first-time authors, you don’t need 65,000 words.
The magnum opus trap
The old way says your first book should contain everything you know. Your whole testimony. Every lesson. Every Scripture that ever ministered to you.
So you sit down to write a 65,000-word masterpiece, and you freeze. Who wouldn’t?
If you’ve got a magnum opus in mind, put it in your back pocket. Put it on the shelf. It may be your ninth book, the way Becoming a Vessel God Can Use was mine. Your magnum-opus-everything-I-know book is almost never your first.
Why shorter books win
Here’s an insider secret: the easiest way to write fast is to write less.
And short books don’t just help you. They help your reader.
- She finishes it. A finished book gets recommended. An abandoned book gets forgotten on the nightstand.
- She gets the result. A narrow topic delivers one clear outcome instead of fifty vague ones.
- She has the time. I wrote for years for women reading in the bathroom with 15 minutes before someone banged on the door. They didn’t need more pages. They needed the right ones.
- You finish it. A 25,000-word book is a project you can complete. A 65,000-word book is a project you talk about at dinner parties for a decade.
Write a series instead
You don’t have to say everything in one book. Write the first book in a series.
Before my first traditionally published book, I self-published four little booklets on very narrow topics about working from home with small children. Each one solved one problem. Together they built a readership.
That’s still how I’d do it. Readers who love book one go looking for book two. A shelf of short, focused books builds more trust than one giant book nobody finishes.
If you have more material than fits, you don’t have a long book. You have a series.
Short is not shallow
Short doesn’t mean thin. It means every page earns its place.
When you’re drafting, the goal is to get as many words on the page as you can. When you’re editing, the goal is to get rid of as many words as you can. Most self-published books skip the second half of that sentence. Don’t.
The real reason your book feels too short
Your book isn’t too short.
Your topic is too big.
Narrow it down with How to Choose a Book Topic, and the length will stop worrying you.
Quick answers
How many pages is 25,000 words? Roughly 110 pages in a standard paperback, depending on trim size, font and layout.
Is 20,000 words enough for a nonfiction book? Yes, for a focused how-to book or devotional, as long as it delivers the result the title promises. Devotionals especially run short — see How to Write a Devotional Book.
Will readers think a short book is low value? Not if it solves their problem. Readers judge a book by whether it worked, not by how heavy it is.
Still wondering whether your book is too big, too broad—or just stuck?
Take my free 90-second What Kind of Writer Are You? quiz. You’ll discover your writer type, your biggest strength, the hidden trap slowing your book down, and your one next step.
Take the 90-second quiz →
Not sure what kind of writer you are? Take my free 90-second quiz — What Kind of Writer Are You? — and discover your writer type, the hidden trap stalling your book, and your one next step.