➡️ There are 19 major fiction genres and 5 major non-fiction genres.
➡️ Each type of book has differences in target audience, market appeal, expected word count, and price point
➡️ Knowing the conventions of each type of book helps you outline and write a great book for fans of your genre.
There are dozens of different book genres, from adventure fiction to self-help books. Many books also fall into multiple genres, and there are some well-known crossovers, such as fantasy and science fiction, or crime and mystery novels.
Each type of book has a different audience, ideal word count, and price point. If you’re thinking about writing genre fiction, it’s a good idea to know the conventions for your chosen genre before you start writing or planning your book.
Here’s everything you need to know about the different types of books.
Here’s a rundown of every main book genre, including 19 fiction and 5 non-fiction book types:
Fiction
Non-fiction
All readers have different tastes, so it’s tricky to determine which book genre is most popular. However, taking a look at the all-time bestseller list (excluding religious texts) may shed some light on book genre popularity:
*Figures taken from Wikipedia in April 2022. Rounded to the nearest million books sold.
With nearly half of these bestsellers falling into the fantasy genre, this is arguably the most popular type of book among readers. This is backed up by the popularity of series like Harry Potter, Lord Of The Rings, and A Song Of Ice And Fire.
Let’s take a look at each of the major types of books in more depth, with key information for writers looking to explore each genre.
Adventure novels whisk readers off to faraway lands. Unlike fantasy novels, they tend to stay in the real world (although there’s often a lot of crossover between these genres). Children’s novels often fall into the adventure category, since they’re designed to spark imaginations.
Adventure story bestsellers:
Number of adventure books available on Amazon: 60,000+
Average word count: 96,000 words
Average price for a paperback adventure book: £8.99
Classics encompass a range of genres — but they always stand the test of time. Classics include centuries-old stories like Homer’s Odyssey, but also more modern novels that have drawn significant acclaim and attention, such Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and George Orwell’s 1984.
Classic fiction bestsellers:
Number of classic books available on Amazon: 60,000+
Average word count: 96,000 words
Average price for a paperback classics book: £6.88
From murder mysteries to true crime stories, crime is an enduringly popular genre. It tells terrifying stories of wrongdoing, and the search for justice. This genre can be very lucrative, with many authors becoming household names, such as Agatha Christie, Val McDermid, and Harlan Coben.
Crime bestsellers:
Number of crime novels available on Amazon: 70,000+
Average word count: 89,000 words
Average price for a paperback crime novel: £8.94
Folk tales date back to ancient times, with Aesop being perhaps the most famous curator of these short-form stories. Many fairy tales are actually of unknown origin, but have survived through retellings down the generations. Modern fairy tale writers like Angela Carter often put a contemporary spin on traditional tales.
Fairy tale bestsellers:
Number of fairy and folk tale anthologies available on Amazon: 3,000+
Average word count: 30,000 words
Average price for a paperback book of fairy tales: £10.66
Fantasy books are probably the most popular modern book genre. Thanks to series like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, it’s particularly popular with young adult readers, although more and more fantasy novels are written for adults (George RR Martin, we’re looking at you). These stories take readers on a journey beyond the known world, to places conjured in the author’s imagination.
Fantasy bestsellers:
Number of fantasy books available on Amazon: 60,000+
Average word count: 109,000 words
Average price for a paperback fantasy book: £10.44
Authors like Hilary Mantel and Toni Morrison have popularised the historical fiction genre in recent years. These books give readers a glimpse into the past, with many stories set in times of great conflict and change.
Historical fiction bestsellers:
Number of historical fiction books available on Amazon: 70,000+
Average word count: 102,000 words
Average price for a paperback historical fiction book: £8.99
People never tire of being terrified — so horror novels remain some of the bestselling books in the world. While the genre has origins in Gothic stories like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, authors like Stephen King and R L Stine have modernised horror for adults and children alike. The genre has also spawned hundreds of popular horror movies.
Horror bestsellers:
Number of horror books available on Amazon: 70,000+
Average word count: 102,000 words
Average price for a paperback horror novel: £8.89
From dark dystopian satire like A Clockwork Orange to comedic memoirs, the humour genre spans a range of titles. Comedy writing is a real art, so this genre can be hard to pull off for new writers — but a funny book is truly unputdownable.
Humour bestsellers:
Number of humour books available on Amazon: 70,000+
Average word count: No data available
Average price for a paperback humour novel: £8.89
Literary fiction is reserved for books that don’t slot neatly into more traditional genres, although it can also be used to differentiate from lighter fiction. Most literary fiction books are character-driven rather than plot-driven, so they tend to be more introspective and meandering.
Literary fiction bestsellers:
Number of literary fiction books available on Amazon: 80,000+
Average word count: 98,000 words
Average price for a paperback literary fiction novel: £8.99
Mystery is often seen as a subset of the crime genre, but it’s so popular and enduring that it deserves a category of its own. Agatha Christie, master of the whodunit, is the second bestselling author in history, after William Shakespeare. Mysteries are full of suspense, and usually keep the reader guessing until the last moment.
Mystery bestsellers:
Number of mystery books available on Amazon: 70,000+
Average word count: 91,000 words
Average price for a paperback mystery novel: £8.99
Poetry is completely different to novels in form, structure, and style. It contains a wealth of genres in itself, from nonsense verse to war poetry. Poetry has fallen somewhat out of favour in modern book sales, though poets like Amanda Gorman and Ocean Vuong are repopularising the form.
Bestselling poets:
Number of poetry books available on Amazon: 30,000+
Average word count: No data available
Average price for a paperback poetry collection: £10.19
Plays are written to be performed rather than read, but they’re still seen as a key literary genre. This is largely due to the enduring popularity of Shakespeare’s plays, as well as other theatrical greats like Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire and Oscar Wilde’s Salome.
Bestselling playwrights:
Number of playscript books available on Amazon: 60,000+
Average page count: 90-130 pages
Average price for a paperback playscript: £11.36
Everyone enjoys a good love story — which is why romance novels are one of the most popular types of books. Romance authors Barbara Cartland and Danielle Steel are the third and fourth bestselling fiction writers, with more than 2 billion book sales between them. Even non-romance novels often have a romantic arc at their centre, proving that love and relationships are central to many great stories.
Romance bestsellers:
Number of romance books available on Amazon: 60,000+
Average word count: 91,000 words
Average price for a paperback romance novel: £8.99
From Stan Lee to Ursula K Le Guin, there’s no shortage of famous sci-fi writers. The genre has grown in popularity thanks to the boom in science fiction films based on books, such as Dune and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sci-fi is often combined with fantasy, and there are some similarities between these types of books. But sci-fi books are usually bound by the laws of science as we know them in the real world.
Sci-fi bestsellers:
Number of sci-fi books available on Amazon: 60,000+
Average word count: 98,000 words
Average price for a paperback sci-fi novel: £8.16
Short stories are often found in anthologies or collections, which can be by the same or a variety of authors. Like poetry, short stories tend to be less popular with modern readers, though they remain popular with writers.
Short story bestsellers:
Number of short story collections available on Amazon: 60,000+
Average word count: 30,000 words
Average price for a paperback short story collection: £10.19
Thrillers are your typical page-turner. Full of action and suspense, thrillers can also often cross genres, particularly with crime and mystery. John Grisham, Stieg Larsson, and Gillian Flynn are some of the most popular thriller authors writing today, with Flynn’s Gone Girl among the top three bestselling books in the genre.
Thriller bestsellers:
Number of thriller books available on Amazon: 60,000+
Average word count: 91,000 words
Average price for a paperback thriller novel: £8.99
War is a truly formative experience, on an individual, national, and international level. Perhaps that’s why stories of war fascinate readers the world over, and remain such an enduring theme in modern fiction. War stories are often (though not always) a subset of historical fiction.
War bestsellers:
Number of war novels available on Amazon: 40,000+
Average word count: 102,000 words
Average price for a paperback war novel: £8.99
Women’s fiction describes books that centre on the experiences and actions of female characters. It’s a somewhat controversial term — some people don’t like generalising fiction on a gendered basis — but it’s a common way for publishers to market these books. Women’s fiction encompasses books as wide-ranging as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americana to Jojo Moyes’s Me Before You.
Women’s fiction bestsellers:
Number of women’s fiction novels available on Amazon: 60,000+
Average word count: 94,000 words
Average price for a paperback women’s fiction novel: £8.99
Despite being targeted at 13-18 year olds, young adult books have sold more than perhaps any other genre in recent years. This is thanks to hugely popular series like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Twilight. YA books often have a secondary genre, too — Harry Potter and Twilight, for example, are fantasy novels, while John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars is a romance.
YA fiction bestsellers:
Number of YA fiction novels available on Amazon: 70,000+
Average word count: 70,000 words
Average price for a paperback YA fiction novel: £9.39
Memoirs and autobiographies are popular among self-publishing writers who have incredible life stories to share. Many famous figures also write autobiographies, or hire a ghostwriter to write one on their behalf, giving fans a glimpse into their lives.
Autobiography and memoir bestsellers:
Number of autobiography books available on Amazon: 70,000+
Average word count: No data available
Average price for a paperback autobiography: £9.99
There are millions of real-life stories out there just waiting to be told. Unlike autobiographies and memoirs, which the author writes about themselves, biographies tell the story of someone else’s life. These are often famous people — Irving Stone’s Lust For Life, for example, is a biographical novel about Vincent Van Gogh — but they can also be people you know, or lesser-known individuals of interest.
Biographical bestsellers:
Number of biography books available on Amazon: 80,000+
Average word count: No data available
Average price for a paperback biography: £9.99
Essays are much more academic than other forms of writing. They tend to follow a thesis set by the author, and elaborate on their perspective on a particular topic or theme. Essays can be book-length (such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s We Should All Be Feminists), or they can be part of an essay collection (such as James Baldwin’s Notes of a Native Son).
Essay collection bestsellers:
Number of essay collections available on Amazon: 60,000+
Average word count: No data available
Average price for a paperback essay collection: £9.07
Self-help books are probably the most popular modern non-fiction genre, since they offer the promise of self-improvement and healing. (This also tends to make them a little more expensive than other genres). Books like Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends and Influence People have become part of the modern self-help canon.
Self-help book bestsellers:
Number of self-help book available on Amazon: 70,000+
Average word count: No data available
Average price for a paperback self-help book: £12.27
Most writers naturally gravitate towards writing the kind of fiction they enjoy reading. Learning more about your preferred genre helps you understand the market for your book, which is important when it comes to self-publishing your work.
Now you know a little more about your chosen genre, it’s time to plan your new book. Find out how to write a book outline — it’s a failsafe way to plan a book in any genre.
For the average price per paperback we calculated the average price of the top 10 featured books in the category.
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