THE DATA

Do longer science fiction books win more awards?

Do award voters reward big books? Among the science fiction novels in our library, 26% of books of 500 pages or more won at least one award, against 17% of books under 300 pages. Readers rate longer books higher too.

26%of recognized novels of 500+ pages won an award

17%of recognized novels under 300 pages won an award

★ 3.95average rating for novels, against ★ 3.81 for novellas

How often each length wins

Every book here was at least a finalist. This is the share of each length group that went on to win at least one of the four awards.

Under 300 pages17% won (236 novels)

300 to 399 pages18% won (259 novels)

400 to 499 pages24% won (171 novels)

500 pages or more26% won (105 novels)

How readers rate each length

Average web-aggregated rating, for novels with at least 100 ratings.

Under 300 pages★ 3.88 (43 rated)

300 to 399 pages★ 3.89 (87 rated)

400 to 499 pages★ 3.98 (75 rated)

500 pages or more★ 4.03 (65 rated)

Bars start at 3.5 stars to make the differences visible.

Which award likes the longest books?

The median length of each award’s winning science fiction novels.

Hugo384 pages (65 winners)

Nebula335 pages (48 winners)

Locus415 pages (56 winners)

Arthur C. Clarke386 pages (39 winners)

Short and great

Length is not everything: plenty of winners run under 300 pages. See our guide to short award-winning science fiction.

About this data

Award records come from the Science Fiction Awards Database and cover the Novel and Novella categories of the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards and the Arthur C. Clarke Award. Ratings are web-aggregated averages, counted only for books with at least 100 ratings. Everything updates automatically as new results are added. You are welcome to cite this page; please link back to it.