The Fullmetal Alchemist manga became so popular, that there have even been novels written involving characters from the series. These are separate stories from the manga, original works created by Makoto Inoue, who worked side by side with the original creator, Hiromu Arakawa, when writing them. Arakawa created new art for the covers, as well as a few illustrations accompanying each story. The first five have been translated into English by Viz Media.

There have also been three novels written based on some of the Fullmetal Alchemist video games. These have not been translated into English.