The majority of short stories fall under this general definition, and may or may not include flash and even microflash. 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. Here is what 187 words looks like in microsoft word. Often a novellettelength work is difficult to sell. Dec 12, 20 the new york times top ten stories had the highest average word count, coming in at just over 2,000 words. The longest is the order of the phoenix with a word count of 257,000 words.
If the average length is 300 pages, youre looking at a 75,000 word manuscript approximately one reason its harder for a new author to sell a 140,000 word manuscript is the size of the book. The right word count depends on your answer to those two questions. Most young adult novels fall between 55,000 and 70,000 words. I am currently at 20k words between 16 stories, complete and 3 incomplete. A collection of any four would be about the length of a novel. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon. Im not sure if im pushing the word count over, been trying cut back the word count. Neither too long nor too short, this book length signals a novelists competency and knowledge of the publishing market to prospective agents and editors. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is the quality of your manuscript. The new york times come out on top, with an average of over 1,000 words for its ten most socially engaged stories in december. How many short stories are generally in a short story.
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. Yet any piece of fiction climbing over the 110,000 word mark also tends to give editors some pause. Short stories range from lower word counts of or 1500 words up to around 7,500 words or occasionally as high as 10,000. The premise of our discussion is, as lovecrafts experience and confidence grew in his writing, the length of his stories also grew cite. Stories in the new yorker range from 2,000 to 10,000 words according to the current fiction editor deborah treisman. Realize it over the maximum word count for erotic, science fictionfantasy genre. Bearing in mind if you opt for a shorter word count, you might not be able to print o. Word count does make a difference with traditional publishing, so you might need to come up with a creative solution for your stories. For childrens fiction, the general rule is the younger the audience the shorter the book, and for ya novels the average is 50,00070,000 words. The new yorker you will find a short description of how and what theyre expecting. Also known as microfiction, microstories, shortshorts, and nanofiction are usually less than 1,000 words. What is a good way to get the word count of a kindle book.
Search for word count totals in books word counters. The daily word counts of 19 famous writers word counter blog. Smashwords gives a precise word count for each and every b. Many of these books are written in rhyme or in a simple singsong meter that is catchy and fun. 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. The average word count for submissions varies from magazine to magazine. They average about 20,000 words, are characterdriven and fairly plotintensive. On the upper end, a novel over 110,000 words is considered an. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job. A minimum count for a nonfiction ebook is about 10,000 words, as long as the content is solid.
A short story collection is a great way to release some shorts with a word count that makes the price reasonable. The average nonfiction book is about 50,000 to 75,000 words, which is about 153 to 230 ebook pages. Both of these authors prefer length to brevity when it comes to their writing. Amazon estimates a page count in an ebook to be around 187 words. Average word count in a book book editing services.
O conner is another example of a lengthy short story writer. Bookend the 7,000 word story with two flash fictions, perhaps. While the stories of other peoples lives are fascinating, readers dont want to slog through anything that drags on and on. The average mean word count was about 53,000 words. Between the ages of four and eight, children have picture books read to them and also begin to read themselves. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a wordcount guideline.
This may particularly be the case in academia, legal proceedings, journalism and advertising. Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. 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. While average word length is 50,000 to 80,000 words, this genre has so much variety that word count depends on the book and its intended audience. Jun 20, 2011 the average word count for submissions varies from magazine to magazine. Can be publisher specific, ranging from 3,000 to absolute max 5,000. So, i made up my own word count list that suits me and all that i do. If we were to do it again next year, or even in three or five years, wed probably be including many of the same people. I try not to put two really long stories back to back.
Lets hop on the sherlock holmes train, and solve the mystery of the stories word count. Creating a short story collection is a little different from creating a traditional novel, so here are a few things to consider. Im seeing more and more small, indy publishers publishing collections, but i havent gotten my hands on many to see whats average for number of stories. Although her average word count is 3,3 less than munro, oconner does have the second highest average. 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. I will provide a chronological list, including publication dates or written if unpublished in his lifetime and words counts, of lovecrafts solo fiction. Writing middle grade a look at the numbers hannah holt. The word count is the number of words in a document or passage of text.
Within short stories, there is a further breakdown to define supershort stories as flash and microflash. Pay rates are often low, but for so few words, the rate per word averages quite high. When i started writing three years ago, the mg word count i kept hearing was no more than 30,000 words. Now im seeing a lot more mg books with up to 60,000 words, so i think the water has become a bit murky here. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words.
By most peoples standards, 40,000 words would be pretty short for a novel. Short story length with writing contests you will find word lengths that vary from up to 1,500 words for short shorts to up to 10,000 for short stories. 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. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. Average word count ranges from 70,000 to 100,000 words, although biographies of major celebrities or public figures can support a higher number. And remember, keeping to word counts is important, but what makes or breaks your chances with a publisher is. Sep 04, 2010 no min or max, an anthology is just a collection so anywhere from 3 up but id say no more than like 17 ish they are based on stories, not word count but a short story cant be over like 800 words or something.
How long is the typical short story supposed to be. Most middle grade novels are between 40,000 and 69,000 words long. Theres an even narrower story optionthe novelettethat has a word count between 7,500 and 17,000 words. In 2011, the lists average length peaked at 467 pages. The science fiction and fantasy writers of america specifies word lengths for each category of its nebula award. The word count at big five publishers had a slightly narrower range. Because of their intrigue and mystery, these stories will just fly by trust us, we know the feeling. The fact that this article the length of a decentsized short story managed. However, the numbers will show you how much time and effort conan doyle devoted to the stories over the years. May 14, 2018 literary agent paula munier says a 90,000 word count is the sweet spot for debut fiction. For the story has its own life, its own duration, and is written out of the passion you have to tell it. Nonfiction wordcounts sit between 70,000120,000 words. Within short stories, there is a further breakdown to define super short stories as flash and microflash. For example, atonement has a word count of 123,378 and my utility comes up with 110,765 words.
Of the 161 stories listed, 3081 is the median word count number in the middle and 4052 is the average word count. Generally, 50,000 would be considered the minimum word count, and ideally a novel should be over 70,000 words. Sep 16, 2019 because of their intrigue and mystery, these stories will just fly by trust us, we know the feeling. Novelist jane smiley suggests that length is an important quality of the novel. Many of their most popular stories of the month on social media were breaking news stories of high profile deaths, including. Jul 15, 2018 it depends on how long you want the book to be. If yours is too short, restructure it and add more tightly written stuff. When you look at the submissions pages of some magazines e. Ive seen short story anthologies that are in the range of novella length all the way up to more than 150k words.
However, very few novels these days are as short as that. 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. What is the average word count for short story submissions. Jun 03, 20 mix up the long stories and the short stories. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. If youre working on a novellength book, aim for 50,000 words at the very least but its better to aim for 90,000. Naturally, a poem or a chapter less childrens book would follow different rules. Personally, i think 40,000 words is way to small for a novel and have read some publishers wont accept anything under 80,000ish. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or. Paragraphs have no specific sentence or word count. The average wordcount for adult fiction is between 70,000 to 120,000 words. Better to have solid, clear information than rambling to make a page count. I agree that it seems like for a debut author, the agent really looks at that word count. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel.
Sharp objects has a word count of 80,565 and my utility calculates it at 80,7. So should i stay with this word count, or try to bring the word count down. Although marquez has an average word count of 2,412 words and overall his short story lengths are quite consistent at the high 2000s, he also has a flash fiction of only 994 words. They can be as short as one sentence, especially when using dialogue. But depending on the ereading device and the font size setting, it varies significantly between a phone, a tablet, or a kindle. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers. 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. One of these days may be short, especially when compared to death constant beyond love, but that doesnt make it any less popular than his other stories. Like a general fiction novel, a good target word count for a memoir is 80,000 words.
Word counting may be needed when a text is required to stay within certain numbers of words. The following are average wordcount ranges by genre. Of course, rules are made to be broken, especially in literature. Never pad your manuscript just to meet a word count guideline. These are basic learning books that creatively teach colors, numbers or simple, fun stories for bedtime. It seems like ya novels are getting longer and longer nowadays, but maybe my attention span is getting shorter. But those requests are extremely rare, as the majority will set a limit of 8k. Obviously, a complete collection is a complete collection, but i feel like i have a few stories that could be added or removed to maintain the integrity of the collection.
How many short stories make a collection writing stack exchange. Bearing in mind if you opt for a shorter word count, you might not be able to print on the spine should you set up a print document. 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. 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. If a page is 500 words on an ipad, and 250 words on a kindle, it might be only 120 words on a phone. What is the proper word count for a collection of short. Your guide to book word counts fiction and nonfiction. Try to fill in the blanks around the 1, 7, 14 and 21 with a variety of lengths. Many, yes, but there are exceptions due to the layout and font size of a particular book. Average nonfiction word counts biographies and memoirs.
Or you could consider putting three continuing adventures of the same characters or stories of related characters into one volume and call the divisions book one, book two, and book three. Some stories are complete at 70,000, while others need 90k, or 100k, or 125k. The complete stories average around 1500 words, with the longest at around 2500 and the shortest at 311 yeah, not really a short story, but the next shortest one is 1,100. Onethird of the novels that come into the agency are rejected because theyre too long or short, perkins says. The average short story should run anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 words, but they can be anything above 1,000 words. Novella or young adult novel 7,500 words to 17,500 words.