What Is a Book?
A book is any written or printed work on a particular subject. It can be fiction or non-fiction. It can be a 200-page guide to cell biology, a collection of poetry, a memoir, or a cookbook. The word "book" is a broad umbrella that covers almost anything between two covers (or on a screen, now that e-books and self-publishing platforms have changed the industry).
When I wrote my non-fiction books on startup growth and content marketing, those were definitely books. They covered specific subjects. They had chapters, frameworks, and strategies. Readers picked them up to learn something. Over 30,000 founders read those books, and what they wanted was practical knowledge they could apply.
That's the primary purpose of most books: to expand the reader's understanding of a specific topic. Textbooks, business guides, self-help titles, field journals, workbooks, reference manuals. All books. All focused on delivering information.
Authors write books to educate, explain, or persuade. The content can include text, images, graphs, charts, or any combination. What ties them together is that "book" just means a bound (or digital) collection of written material. It's the broadest category in publishing.
What Is a Novel?
A novel is a specific type of book. It's a long work of fiction, 40,000 words or more, that tells a complete story through characters, plot, setting, and theme. Most novels land somewhere around 60,000 to 90,000 words. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America maintains the format thresholds many publishers still reference, classifying anything 40,000 words or longer as a novel.
When I wrote my science fiction book, it was a novel. I built characters, some of them drawn from people in my own life. I took my dad, my mom, my brother, my sister, and extrapolated pieces of their personalities into fictional people living in a different world. I combined that with my deep interest in technology to create something that felt real even though it was made up.
That's what novels do. They create fictional worlds and populate them with characters whose actions, conflicts, and choices drive the story forward. The reader picks up a novel to be entertained, to feel something, to live inside someone else's experience for a while.
Novels come in every genre: science fiction, romance, crime, fantasy, literary fiction, thriller, horror. Writers like James Joyce (Ulysses), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (The Thing Around Your Neck), and Gabriel Garcia Marquez (One Hundred Years of Solitude) all wrote novels. Each one told a story. Each one used the structural features of fiction to do it: character development, rising action, conflict, and resolution.
Key Differences Between a Novel and a Book
Here's the simplest way to think about it: all novels are books, but not all books are novels. A novel is a subset of the book category. It's like saying all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.
Let me walk through the specific differences.
Content
Books can contain fiction or non-fiction. A history textbook is a book. A biography is a book. A poetry collection is a book. Novels are fiction. They tell invented stories with imaginary (or fictionalized) characters. Even autobiographical novels blend real events with fictional elements to create a narrative.
Purpose
Books are informational. You read The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene to learn about power dynamics. You read a biology textbook to study cells. Novels are for entertainment and emotional engagement. You read a novel to experience a story.
When I ghostwrote a book for the CEO of a major ambulance company about the patient experience, that was informational. It taught readers how the healthcare system works. When I wrote my fiction book, the goal was completely different. I wanted readers to feel something and to see the world through characters I had built.
Length
Books have no minimum word count. A poetry chapbook can be 5,000 words. A reference guide can be 300,000. Novels need at least 40,000 words to qualify as novels. Anything shorter is a novella (17,500 to 40,000 words) or a short story. Most published novels fall between 60,000 and 100,000 words. For more on structuring word count across your manuscript, our breakdown of how many words belong in each chapter is a useful reference.
Structure
Novels use storytelling structures: character arcs, plot points, rising tension, climax, and resolution. They may follow frameworks like the Hero's Journey or Dan Harmon's Story Circle. Books that aren't novels don't need any of that. A textbook is structured by topic. A self-help book is structured by principle. A cookbook is structured by recipe type.
I'm a big believer in storytelling frameworks. When I write fiction, I always start with an outline because proven structures help me tell a better story. If you're curious about how frameworks shape novels, you can explore our article on story structure.
Emotional Response
Novels are built to make you feel something. Fear, joy, heartbreak, suspense, wonder. That's the whole point. Non-fiction books can be engaging, sure, but they aren't designed to invoke emotional responses the way a novel is. Poetry collections are the exception here, and they're their own category.
Similarities Between Novels and Books
Despite the differences, novels and books share some common ground.
Both are delivered through the same medium: printed pages, e-books, and audiobooks. The publishing industry treats them similarly in terms of distribution and formatting.
Both are divided into chapters or sections. Whether you're reading a novel or a textbook, the content is organized into digestible parts. If you want to understand how this works in practice, our guide on the typical number of chapters in a novel breaks it down.
Both serve as sources of information, though they do it differently. Books deliver facts and frameworks. Novels deliver insights about the human experience through story. I've learned as much from reading great fiction as I have from reading business books. Just in a different way.
How to Use the Right Term
This trips people up more than it should. Here are the rules.
If someone wrote a work of non-fiction on a specific subject, like history, business, science, or self-help, it's a book. Calling The 48 Laws of Power a "novel" would be wrong. It's not fiction. It doesn't tell a story.
If someone wrote a long work of fiction that tells a complete story, it's a novel. And because all novels are books, you can also call it a book without being incorrect. Saying "I'm reading a great book" about a novel is perfectly fine.
Where it gets tricky: autobiographies and memoirs. These are non-fiction (they describe real events), but they use narrative storytelling techniques. They're called books or memoirs, not novels. Unless the author has fictionalized significant portions, in which case you might see the term "autobiographical novel."
The bottom line: use "novel" when you're talking about fiction. Use "book" for everything else, or as a general catch-all. You'll be right every time.
Why This Matters for Writers
If you're working on your own writing, knowing whether you're writing a novel or a non-fiction book changes everything. The planning is different. The structure is different. The skills you need are different.
When I plan a novel, I start with characters and scenes. I break the entire thing down into an outline, chapter by chapter, scene by scene, before I write a single word. My best books came from two-month sprints of writing five hours a day, sticking to a plan. That level of structure is what makes a novel achievable instead of overwhelming. If you need a starting point for your outline, our guide on how to create a solid novel outline walks through the process.
For a non-fiction book, I start with the subject and the framework. What are the core principles? What examples prove them? What should the reader walk away knowing?
Both require discipline. Both require sitting down every day and writing. I recommend setting aside a consistent block of time, whether that's 5 to 8 AM or whatever works for you, and protecting it. Writer's block comes from overwhelm, and the cure is breaking the work into smaller tasks. If you're struggling with that, our article on writer's block has practical advice.
Whether you're writing a novel or a book, the key is the same: plan, outline, and then execute. You'd rather have a finished manuscript than an unfinished one sitting in your drafts for the next three years.
The difference between a novel and a book isn't complicated once you see it clearly. A book is in the broad category. A novel is a specific type of book: fiction, story-driven, at least 40,000 words. Every novel is a book, but most books aren't novels. Use the right term, and you'll sound like you know what you're talking about. Because now you do.
Related Resources
FAQ
Here are answers to the most common questions about novels and books.
What makes a book a novel?
A book becomes a novel when it tells a fictional story of at least 40,000 words, with structured narrative elements such as characters, plot, setting, and theme. Most novels are 60,000 to 100,000 words. The fiction element is what separates novels from other types of books.
Are non-fiction books ever called novels?
Generally, no. Non-fiction books describe real events and provide factual information. The exception is the "autobiographical novel," where an author takes real-life events and fictionalizes them. But standard non-fiction (biographies, textbooks, guides) are called books, not novels.
Is a novel always longer than a book?
Not necessarily. Novels have a minimum threshold of around 40,000 words, but many non-fiction books are much longer. A comprehensive reference guide or textbook can exceed 200,000 words. "Novel" refers to a type of content, not a length category.
Can a collection of short stories be called a novel?
Technically, no. A short story collection is its own format. However, some authors write "novel-in-stories," in which interconnected short stories form a larger narrative arc. These blur the line, but a standard collection of unrelated short stories is not a novel.
How many pages does a typical novel have?
Most novels run between 200 and 400 pages, depending on word count, font size, and formatting. A 70,000-word novel in standard trade paperback format is roughly 280 pages. But page count varies by genre.
What's the difference between a novel and a novella?
A novella is shorter than a novel but longer than a short story. It runs between 17,500 and 40,000 words. Novellas tell complete stories but with fewer subplots and characters than a full novel. Famous examples include Animal Farm by George Orwell and The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.