Short story book word count

Write your name, address, phone number, and email address in the top left corner of page 1. When writing a book, is there a minimum amount of pages that it should have. Alternatively, this is an acceptable length for a short work of nonfiction. Oconner is another example of a lengthy short story writer.

A plan for your book that includes a word count helps you not write too little or too much. Marquez has an average word count of 2,412 words and overall his short story lengths. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. When you only have a few pages to hook readers, paint a clear picture of the character, and tell a story, you end up mastering the skill of showing instead of telling the reason for this is because, in order to accomplish a successful and good short story, showing is a major part of that its far too difficult to write a great short story without. Basically, having an idea of how long you want your book to be helps you work smarter, not harder. When writing a book, is there a minimum amount of pages that. Less is more, just look at maurice sendaks where the wild things are. Mar 20, 2018 precise word count definitions will vary, but as a general rule of thumb, a short story is anything up to about 7500 words sometimes 10,000, with higher word counts typically called novelettes, and short novels called novellas. Before we go any further, stop thinking about pages. A step up from picture books, these are for kids who have just started reading by themselves. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. I was wondering if the short stories that i have written for the lancashire evening post would be of interest to you. Jun 03, 20 mix up the long stories and the short stories.

Funny you should ask is a humorous and handy column by literary agent barbara poelle. An average short story usually has at least 3,500 words and no more than 7,500. Of the 161 stories listed, 3081 is the median word count number in the middle and 4052 is the average word count. How to write a short story with 11 easy steps for satisfying. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. Can be publisher specific, ranging from 3,000 to absolute max 5,000. But those requests are extremely rare, as the majority will set a limit of 8k. Most print publishers prefer a minimum word count of around 70,000 words for a first novel, and some even hesitate for any work shorter than 80,000. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Within short stories, there is a further breakdown to define supershort stories as flash and microflash. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english.

Jun 23, 2014 a short story collection is a great way to release some shorts with a word count that makes the price reasonable. Stephen king word count 112263 274,672 bag of bones 203,3 black house 252,270 blockade billy 15,917 carrie 60,718 cell 121,931 christine 193,602 cujo 121,150 cycle of the werewolf 15,955 desperation 195,011 doctor sleep. The most important difference between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel is the word count. How many short stories make a collection writing stack exchange. How strict are word counts for writing contests and book. These are the short works that literary publications tend to publish most oftenmagazines like clarkesworld, ploughshares, and carve welcome short stories, though they sometimes publish longer works as well. What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book. Now that you know how to write a short story, its time to put these new skills to the test with some short story ideas guaranteed to produce something interesting and intriguing. Everything you need to know about novel word counts nathan. I am currently at 20k words between 16 stories, complete and 3 incomplete. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. The lottery ticket, approach to literature, an 3739 1952 word count.

Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or short, perkins says. Short story collections are notoriously had to place over the transom. Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. In outlining your book in 3 easy steps, editor shawn coyne says. Aug 05, 2019 certain publishers of very specific genres like love inspired, harlequin will require a set word count or range, but my first bit of advice is to plot out a strong, solid story using timetested structure, write the book with careful and expert crafting learn to be a great wordsmith and develop your unique voice, and ignore the constraints. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words. Viceversa, if your book is short, a smaller trim size can make it physically seem more substantial. Yet any piece of fiction climbing over the 110,000 word mark also tends to give editors some pause. Jul 14, 2015 the language used and the cohesiveness of the story with the story style is of course much more important.

It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline. I think that 60,000 words is probably a good minimum word count to aim for when you write an adult novel, 40,000 for a book for younger readers. Rather, the forms parameters are given by the rhetorical and practical context in which a given story is produced and considered so that what constitutes a short story may differ between genres, countries, eras, and commentators.

Average word count in a book book editing services. In this video josh gives a brief explanation on the different word counts for books. I try not to put two really long stories back to back. But publishers go more for whether they like something than what the word count is. Yes, having a book that is overly short or overly long for its genre will incrementally decrease your odds of finding traditional publication.

The stories should be easy to follow and have an average word count of 1,000 to 10,000 words, a range similar to an adult short story. Your character opens the mailbox to find their biggest fear inside. A day in the country, a treasury of short stories 5458 1947 word count. But i think word count is the easiest way to measure story length. So now you know how to differentiate between short story, novelette, novella and novel. There are general guidelines for each literary category. Jun 27, 2019 a story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. Although her average word count is 3,3 less than munro, oconner does have the second highest average. But perhaps an aspect of that story style and structure is more tightly linked with word count than one might generally expect. Thats approximately 300 pages of doublespaced type. Fleshing out an imagined historical world lends itself to a higher word count, so. Within short stories, there is a further breakdown to define super short stories as flash and microflash. What is the proper word count for a collection of short. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an epic.

How to format a short story manuscript writing academy. Creating a short story collection is a little different from creating a traditional novel, so here are a few things to consider. If youre counting the length of a short story by the number of pages that have been written instead of through word count, then it is important to know about standard formatting guidelines. Smashwords gives a precise word count for each and every b. The following are average wordcount ranges by genre. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count.

Duotrope a free writers resource listing over 3950 current fiction and poetry publications caps their search for short story publishers at 7,500 words, which means most publishers are looking for stories of less than that length. Perkins agency in new york says its much easier to market a firsttime novelists book if the word count falls between 80,000 and 100,000 words, or roughly 300 doublespaced, typed pagesthe average novel length. Professionals in the publishing business use word count for the size of stories, because rega. The darling, book of the short story, the 261271 1948 word count. She is completing her masters in writing at swinburne university of technology. In terms of word count, there is no official demarcation between an anecdote, a short story, and a novel. Kelly hart is a proofreading contractor for book cover cafe and has been a slush reader for andromeda spaceways inflight magazine. If youre writing your first novel, the general rule of thumb for novel writing is a word count in the 80,000 to 100,000 range. In this edition, she answers a readers question about word counts for writing contests, book submissions and short story calls. The hunger games has a word count of 99,750 and my utility calculates it at 98,916.

For the first three childrens book categories listed above, you are better off editing your word count down as low as possible. Precise word count definitions will vary, but as a general rule of thumb, a short story is anything up to about 7500 words sometimes 10,000, with. But while the length of a novel is to a large extent up to its writer, lengths may also vary by subgenre. Your chapter length has to work well with the overall word count of the book short chapters create an even distribution of both content and action. Include the title of your story and your author name.

Word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Creating a short story collection celebrating independent. Short and punchy books are 40,000 to 60,000 words, but many nonfiction books are lengthy. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words. The actual word count for harry potter and the sorcerers stone is 78,792 and my utility calculates 77,876. A short story collection is a great way to release some shorts with a word count that makes the price reasonable. Putting the book word count aside, each of the four types of books has its own appeal. It turns out a better book in the end as well, which means your readers enjoy it. A short novel, typically one that is light, romantic, sentimental, a narrative piece or. Learn all the differences between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel.

For the book hatchet, the actual word count is 41,672 and i give you 41,212. Nonfiction books also vary tremendously in word count. Here are 20 short story ideas to take your writing to the next level. The approximate word count, to the nearest hundred. Traditionally, short stories were meant to be read in a single sitting. Most publishers expect to receive a manuscript that is doublespaced, using a standard 12point font like times new roman, with paragraph indentation of. Dec, 2015 when writing a book, is there a minimum amount of pages that it should have. Thats the level where publishers may suggest dividing a story into multiple volumes.

Word count for famous novels organized by hawthorn mineart, under books, writing. Flash fiction 500 5,000 words short stories are between 5,0007,000 words. When i do try to push my stories to longer lengths, often it feels like im just padding them out for the sake of the word count and nothing more. Although brief, short stories absolutely have the potential to pack punches and leave lasting impressions. A short story contains 3,5007,500 words, while a novel contains 40,000 320,000. Stephen king word count 112263 274,672 bag of bones 203,3 black house 252,270 blockade billy 15,917 carrie 60,718 cell 121,931 christine 193,602 cujo 121,150 cycle of the werewolf 15,955 desperation. Bookend the 7,000 word story with two flash fictions, perhaps. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. This includes the adventure of the devils foot, a story about an obscure poison plant and a mans greed, and his last bow which tells of sherlock holmes help in the second world war. Try to fill in the blanks around the 1, 7, 14 and 21 with a variety of lengths. Some are as short as 50,000 wordsthe perfect book for a beach vacation. Under 500 words can be described as flash fiction between and 8000 words is a short story also, most short story competitions will stipulate their required word length for entry between 5000 and 10,000 words is a long short story. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime.

Most print publishers prefer a minimum word count of. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Their word limit is 1,500 words, so they are quite. May 22, 2017 in this video josh gives a brief explanation on the different word counts for books. Writers digest recommends 80,000 to 89,999 words as a 100% safe range for literary, mainstream, womens, romance, mystery, suspense, thriller and horror. They are short books, usually with a lot of illustrations. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook. Search for word count totals in books word counters. Many of these books are written in rhyme or in a simple singsong meter that is catchy and fun. Short stories are often defined as any story under 7,500 words.

I publish my books first on smashwords and then, after they pass vetting for the smashwords premium catalog, i publish them on amazon as well. The 7story collection consists of 67,596 words and consists of delightfully mysterious stories. Lewis the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, roald dahls charlie and the chocolate factory. Microfiction and flash fiction are the tweets of the fiction world. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. Jun 03, 2016 the most important difference between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel is the word count. That said, if your book is around 40,000 words, youre in good company. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid.

And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is. The language used and the cohesiveness of the story with the story style is of course much more important. Precise word count definitions will vary, but as a general rule of thumb, a short story is anything up to about 7500 words sometimes 10,000, with higher word counts typically called novelettes, and short novels called novellas. Apr 23, 2018 standard word count ranges for various genres. Fleshing out an imagined historical world lends itself to a higher word count, so historical fiction tends to be closer to 100,000 words. You might find your story strengthening as the excess words drop off. The word counts of some famous novels for comparison. Both of these authors prefer length to brevity when it comes to their writing. In all cases, you can find an author who has successfully pushed the envelope one way or another. Sep 16, 2019 the 7story collection consists of 67,596 words and consists of delightfully mysterious stories. When writing a book, is there a minimum amount of pages. Between the ages of four and eight, children have picture books read to them and also begin to read themselves. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages.

Word count for famous novels organized commonplace book. But while the length of a novel is to a large extent up to its writer, lengths may also vary by. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. Typically a writer will have published most or all of the stories in other venues and then work with an agent to market the collection.