What do people make when an AI writes the whole book? These are the totals for the books our authors finished up to November 1, 2026. The method and its limits are below.
Key findings
- Romance is the biggest genre: 274 of the 537 books with a genre label (51%) name romance, and 461 of all 1,120 new books (41%) have a romance label or ask for romance in the brief.
- Most books are short: 784 (70%) were requested at 12,000 words or fewer. Our free trial includes one 10,000-word Small Book, which helps explain this.
- 112 books (10%) reached 50,000 words or more; 98 passed 80,000 and 32 passed 100,000.
- The median finished book has 12,833 words, and one book in ten has more than 48,587.
- One book in six is part of a series: 181 books (16%) belong to 102 series by 72 authors. 83 books continue an earlier book.
- 115 of 663 authors (17%) finished more than one new book, and 14 finished ten or more.
- Authors who wrote a second book started it a median of 1.1 days after their first.
- Fiction made up 82% of new books (915), nonfiction 15% (168) and books mixing both 3% (37).
- 91% of books were written in English (1,020). French (37), Spanish (26), German (11), Polish (8) and Italian (6) followed.
- Slow burn was the trope named most often, in 123 of the 910 briefs for fiction and mixed books (14%); our own example prompts also suggest it.
Requested length
Authors choose a length before the book is written. 104 asked for a novel of more than 70,000 words.
| Requested length | Books | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 12,000 words | 784 | 70.0% |
| 12,001 to 35,000 | 87 | 7.8% |
| 35,001 to 70,000 | 145 | 12.9% |
| 70,001 to 110,000 | 75 | 6.7% |
| Over 110,000 | 29 | 2.6% |
Books per author
| New books finished | Authors | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 548 | 82.7% |
| 2 to 4 | 78 | 11.8% |
| 5 to 9 | 23 | 3.5% |
| 10 or more | 14 | 2.1% |
Tropes in briefs
We counted trope phrases in the 910 briefs for fiction and mixed books. Some briefs began from example prompts or one-click suggestions on our site, including slow burn and small town, so these counts show what authors kept in their brief rather than unprompted demand.
| Trope | Briefs | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Slow burn | 123 | 13.5% |
| Dragons | 44 | 4.8% |
| Small town | 39 | 4.3% |
| Witches | 35 | 3.8% |
| Forced proximity | 30 | 3.3% |
| Forbidden love | 30 | 3.3% |
| Enemies to lovers | 28 | 3.1% |
| Dark romance | 24 | 2.6% |
| Morally grey | 24 | 2.6% |
| Found family | 24 | 2.6% |
| Werewolves or shifters | 24 | 2.6% |
| Vampires | 23 | 2.5% |
Also in at least five briefs: Christmas (20), second chance (20), mafia (20), fake dating or relationship (19), chosen one (18), age gap (13), one bed (12), billionaire (12), fae (9), why choose (7), marriage of convenience (6) and bodyguard (5).
How we counted
- Source. Completed books in the ImagineYourBook database, counted once on November 1, 2026 at 15:35 UTC. The earliest book still on record was started on March 15, 2026.
- Sample. 1,144 completed books: 1,120 new books by 663 authors and 24 rewrites of existing manuscripts. The figures describe the new books.
- Exclusions. Staff, test and team accounts. Books from deleted accounts are gone and not counted. Groups of fewer than five books are not shown.
- Length. Requested length is the target chosen before writing; finished length is the word count of the completed manuscript.
- Romance. A genre label containing romance or romantasy, or the words romance, romantasy or love story in the brief. A brief that rules romance out would still count. 583 books have no genre label, so labels alone would undercount.
- Tropes. Phrase matches, such as "enemies to lovers" or "fake dating", in briefs for fiction and mixed books. Briefs that still contained unfilled template placeholders were left out.
- Series. Books saved in a series. A book continues an earlier one when it is placed after the first book or was written as its sequel.
- Privacy. Only totals left the database: no brief text, titles, names or email addresses.
- Who made this. ImagineYourBook runs the service and published this page. The figures describe its authors, not all AI-assisted writing.
How to cite
ImagineYourBook.com, AI Book Statistics 2026: What 663 Authors Made, data to November 1, 2026. https://www.imagineyourbook.com/research/ai-book-statistics
Press questions: admin@imagineyourbook.com. Our earlier report, The Prompt-to-Book Economy 2026, compares AI book generators.