How to write and publish a novella: length, structure and KDP tips

What a novella is

A novella is a complete story that is shorter than a novel and longer than a short story. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. It is long enough for a character to change, and short enough that one plot can carry the whole book.

People quote different word ranges, and the edges do not match. Two widely cited award rules:

• The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association’s Nebula rules define a novella as at least 17,500 words and fewer than 40,000 words. A work of 40,000 words or more is a novel for that award.
• The World Science Fiction Society constitution, which sets the Hugo Awards, calls a novella a science fiction or fantasy story of between 17,500 and 40,000 words.

Those numbers decide which award a story can enter. They are not a publishing law, and they are not quite the same at 40,000 words. Other houses use their own bands. Pick a target you can hold for the whole draft, and treat any single figure as one convention among several.

KDP has no novella word count. You publish the book as a Kindle ebook and, if you want print, as a paperback. The practical limits are below: a paperback manuscript of at least 24 pages, and a price that meets the royalty rules.

Why a novella suits a first book

A first book has to keep the plot, the people, the timeline and the tone true at the same time. A novella gives you fewer of them to hold.

• You can finish. A complete shorter book you revise teaches you what an ending requires. A long draft that stops in the middle does not.
• You can see a break. With one plot, a logic gap shows. In a long novel it can hide for chapters.
• Revision stays possible. Reading the draft aloud, cutting a weak scene and checking the ending against the opening are realistic jobs at this length.
• Ebook and paperback both fit. The book is long enough to be a paperback, and short enough to read as an ebook in a sitting or two.

The story still needs a real change in the character and a real answer to the question the opening raises. It does not need a second plot, a large cast, or chapters that exist only to add pages.

Structure: one plot, few viewpoints, a tight arc

The shape that fits this length is simple. You can write it down before any chapter prose.

One main plot

Decide the one thing the book is about. Someone wants something, something stands in the way, and the ending shows what they do about it. Keep a side story only when it changes that plot: a secret that forces a choice, or a relationship that raises the cost of the ending. If you can lift it out and the ending still works, it belongs in another book.

Few points of view

Write from one person’s point of view if you can. A second viewpoint is enough when the reader must see something the first person cannot. A third usually means a second plot. Name the viewpoint at the start of a scene and stay there until the scene ends.

A tight arc

Start late. Open on the day the trouble becomes the character’s problem. The middle should make that same problem harder. The ending should answer the question the opening asked, including the cost. A useful sketch is four beats: where it starts, the moment they cannot go back, the worst turn, and the last choice.

Drafting

Draft in order. Later chapters have to remember who knows what, what was promised, and what a place looks like. A note of the ending is useful. The chapter prose still wants to run from the start, so each scene inherits the last one.

1. Write the target down. Pick a range, from the award bands above or from a publisher’s guidelines, and keep a running word count. Stop when the plot is finished. Do not add episodes only to hit a number.
2. Sketch the four beats in a few lines each, including the ending, before you draft.
3. Keep a promise list. Write down every question, missing object or threat the story plants. Cross it off when a later scene pays it off. At the end the list should be empty, or the leftovers should be cut.
4. Hold the cast, and leave the sentences for later. Give each person one or two traits you can see in action. Fix the order of events before you polish lines you might cut.

Revising

Revise in layers: the arc, then the people, then the sentences.

• Arc. If you can cut a chapter and still follow the plot, cut it or give it a job. The ending has to answer the opening.
• People and promises. A twist that needs someone to forget an earlier scene will not survive a reread. Anything still open on the promise list is a missing scene or a plant to delete.
• Sentences. Read the dialogue and the last few pages aloud. Cut repeated explanations.

If a tool drafted the chapters, this pass is still yours. Editing does not change how you answer Amazon’s AI question, covered below.

How Shadow Writer writes a novella

Shadow Writer on shadowwriter-ai.com helps you finish your novella. It writes in English today, with Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and German coming soon. You describe the story. It asks whose story it is, what they want and how it ends, shows a recap to confirm, then writes a plan, the chapters in order, and a continuity check that tracks whether setups pay off. You can read each chapter as it appears, change any line, or send a chapter back to be written again. The cover is made from the book’s own characters.

Those lengths are targets for the draft. The free English book is a novella of about 24,000 words in 12 chapters, which you can read in full in the browser. Download, print and the licence to sell unlock when you upgrade, for that same book. A paid novella is planned at 35,000 words across 18 chapters. The price list describes that row as 35,000–40,000 words and about 18 chapters. The planned totals, 24,000 and 35,000, sit inside the Nebula and Hugo bands above. They are Shadow Writer’s targets, not an award entry, and 40,000 words is already a novel under the Nebula rules.

On a paid plan a novella’s files are a Kindle EPUB, checked to be well-formed. EPUBCheck is not run on that download. You also get a print-ready interior PDF, an ebook cover, and a paperback wrap cover, which you download and upload to KDP yourself. A novella can be an ebook and a paperback. When puzzle books launch on Shadow Writer, they will be print only. Coloring books are coming soon and will be print only.

The same site writes novels and novellas today. Children's books, business books, poetry, picture books, comics, coloring books, gaming books and puzzle books are coming soon.

Pricing a novella on KDP

KDP does not publish a recommended novella price, and this guide will not invent one. Set the price in KDP and read the royalty estimate on that page before you publish. No income is promised. Results vary. The rules below are the constraints. Your file’s page count and file size decide the rest.

The ebook

KDP offers a 35% royalty option and a 70% royalty option. Amazon’s eBook list price requirements say that since July 7, 2026, the 70% option on Amazon.com needs a list price between $2.99 and $12.99. The 35% option allows a wider range of prices.

The Digital Book Pricing Page, updated April 21, 2026, explains the arithmetic. At 35%, the royalty is 35% of the list price excluding VAT, with no delivery deduction. At 70%, it is 70% of the list price excluding VAT, minus delivery costs, and only in listed territories. On Amazon.com delivery is $0.15 per megabyte, minimum $0.01, and KDP rounds the file up to the nearest kilobyte. Read the estimate KDP shows for your EPUB.

If Amazon matches a lower price elsewhere, the 70% royalty is based on the price Amazon sells at, less taxes and delivery costs. If that matched price falls below the 70% minimum, you earn 35%. Keeping the same list price in every store avoids most of that. Our guide to where else to sell an AI-written book covers the stores that create the mismatch.

The paperback

A paperback is a separate format on the same KDP book. Amazon’s paperback submission guidelines say the minimum page count is 24 pages. KDP counts pages from your manuscript and rounds up to an even number. The maximum depends on ink, paper and trim size. Upload the interior PDF and the wrap cover that match the trim, paper and bleed you select.

Print royalty is not the ebook royalty. Amazon’s paperback royalty page gives the formula: “(Royalty rate x list price) – printing costs = royalty”. On Amazon.com the rate is 60% when the list price is $9.99 or above, and 50% when it is $9.98 or below. Printing cost depends mainly on page count, ink and the marketplace. A large trim (wider than 6.12 inches or taller than 9 inches) costs more per page than a regular trim. Bleed does not change the printing cost. KDP will not let you set a list price below the minimum that covers printing. On Amazon.com the maximum list price is $250.

Amazon’s own example is a 333-page paperback listed at $15: “(0.60 x $15) - $5.00 = $4.00”. That example is their arithmetic, not a price for a novella. A shorter book has a different printing cost. Use the figure KDP shows for your page count.

Ebook and paperback together

Use the same title, subtitle and author name on both formats. If you choose the 70% ebook royalty, Amazon requires the ebook list price to be at least 20% below the list price on Amazon of any physical edition. Set the paperback price first, then check that the ebook still sits inside the $2.99–$12.99 band and at least 20% under the paperback.

An ebook on KDP does not need an ISBN. A paperback needs its own. The step-by-step, including the free KDP ISBN and what it cannot do outside Amazon, is in how to publish an AI book on Amazon KDP. KDP Select, if you enroll, applies to the ebook for 90 days and leaves the paperback free to sell elsewhere.

Tell KDP the book is AI-generated

If you publish a novella written with Shadow Writer, you tell KDP it is AI-generated. Amazon’s Content Guidelines say: “We require you to inform us of AI-generated content (text, images, or translations) when you publish a new book or make edits to and republish an existing book through KDP.”

Amazon’s line is about who created the content. If an AI tool created the text or the images, that content is AI-generated, “even if you applied substantial edits afterwards.” If you wrote the text yourself and only used a tool to edit or to brainstorm, Amazon calls that AI-assisted, and it says you do not have to disclose AI-assisted content. A Shadow Writer novella is the first kind. The drafting model writes the chapters and the cover-art model makes the cover. Editing the prose afterwards does not move it into the assisted category.

On the form, answer yes for the text. Answer yes for images if you use the Shadow Writer cover. Answer no for translation: the book is written in English and is not translated. Where the form asks which tool you used, name Shadow Writer AI. The answer is private to Amazon. It is not printed in the book. Shadow Writer can add an optional line on the copyright page, off unless you turn it on, and that line does not answer KDP’s question for you.

The questions, including what to say after a heavy edit, are in the KDP AI disclosure guide. You are still responsible for the book: rights, accuracy and the content guidelines all still apply.

For how KDP defines AI-assisted vs AI-generated, see AI-assisted vs AI-generated on KDP.

Where this comes from

Checked October 2026. Award lengths are from the SFWA Nebula rules and the World Science Fiction Society constitution (Hugo Awards). KDP rules are from Amazon’s help pages on content guidelines, ebook list prices, digital book pricing, paperback royalties and paperback submission, read on 17 October 2026. Shadow Writer’s lengths are the targets in its own product: about 24,000 words and 12 chapters for the free English book, and 35,000 words and 18 chapters for a paid novella. Confirm the linked pages before you publish. Shadow Writer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon, SFWA or the World Science Fiction Society.

Checked October 2026 against those official pages. Shadow Writer is an independent tool and is not affiliated with Amazon. This article is general information, not legal, tax or pricing advice.

Last updated 23 October 2026.