How many words make a publishable book?

[Alexa12345]

First it depends on what do you want to write. For example for a novel there is no word limit.

If you really want to know more concrete details i advice you to contact a writer that you think is good in what he/she does. Good luck.

[Perrywinkle47]

depends upon the topic as well..

[Funnyjokes]

I think if it is masterpieces no matter how many words it has.

[Perrywinkle47]

true..

[Johnson117]

As for the number of words, I guess geniuses who wrote the well-known masterpieces hardly ever thought of that

Bang on

JSCarlsam got it about right, there's obviously no hard and fast limit but less than 30,000 words starts looking like a bit of a stretch.

True of "grown-up" books but not so true of kids' books, where you get far more variety. Think how short The Worst Witch and The Twits would be - i.e., slender volumes with large print and illustrations - versus something like Redwall, which is about an inch-and-a-half thick with far more words per page.

Harry Potter was a bit of a game-changer. People who rejected the manuscript of The Philosopher's Stone said it was too long. Seems ridiculous nowadays, when you think how fat some of the later ones were!