Another chapter/novella/category/word count question

NoJo · Sep 20, 2018

I really should know this after all these years here but I don't:

I have a 22,000 word long story and don't know the best category for it. It has natural section breaks in it. The word count for a section ranges from under 1,000 words to over 3,000. The theme is very much SF, so the obvious category for it is in Sci Fi/Fantasy.

Looking at Novels and Novellas, which is the other category choice I'm considering , I was surprised to see that stories there usually get posted in chapters and not, as I had originally thought, as a single, long submission -- so they don't really have a different set of lower and upper limits for length than any other category. So it's just a question of personal choice and reader expectation?

SimonDoom · Sep 20, 2018

NoJo said:
I really should know this after all these years here but I don't:

I have a 22,000 word long story and don't know the best category for it. It has natural section breaks in it. The word count for a section ranges from under 1,000 words to over 3,000. The theme is very much SF, so the obvious category for it is in Sci Fi/Fantasy.

Looking at Novels and Novellas, which is the other category choice I'm considering , I was surprised to see that stories there usually get posted in chapters and not, as I had originally thought, as a single, long submission -- so they don't really have a different set of lower and upper limits for length than any other category. So it's just a question of personal choice and reader expectation?

22,000 words is not that long. Since a Lit page is 3750 words, give or take, your story will be somewhere around 6 Lit pages. So it makes sense to file it as a single story rather than in chapters.

You don't mention what other categories of sexual activity are involved. But if the dominant theme is Sci Fi throughout the story, it probably makes sense to publish it there.

But if, for example, it's a story about incest in a Sci Fi setting, I'd suggesting publishing it in Incest/Taboo, because that category gets by far the most readers.

NotWise · Sep 20, 2018

NoJo said:
Looking at Novels and Novellas, which is the other category choice I'm considering , I was surprised to see that stories there usually get posted in chapters and not, as I had originally thought, as a single, long submission -- so they don't really have a different set of lower and upper limits for length than any other category. So it's just a question of personal choice and reader expectation?

You might put a story in Novels and Novellas if it contains content that would otherwise put it in more than one category, or if it doesn't otherwise fit into a category.

I put a story into Novels and Novellas last month because it was a romance, but with characters that probably wouldn't have been acceptable in the Romance category. I knew it was a fairly low-traffic category, but I was still surprised at the low number of views it got. Giving it a sexier title/description probably would have helped. Publishing it in chapters instead of a single chunk might have helped, too.

If you can fit your story in SF&F then you might want to do that. You'll probably get more traffic.

8letters · Sep 20, 2018

NoJo said:
I really should know this after all these years here but I don't:

I have a 22,000 word long story and don't know the best category for it. It has natural section breaks in it. The word count for a section ranges from under 1,000 words to over 3,000. The theme is very much SF, so the obvious category for it is in Sci Fi/Fantasy.

SF/F stories tend to run bigger than stories in other categories. I'd think a 22K word story would fit nicely in that category.

ElectricBlue · Sep 20, 2018

What they say^^^^: Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Always best to stay with the primary theme and, as Simon says,* submit it as a single story.

* He knows I've been waiting to say that

.

NoJo · Sep 21, 2018

Thanks for your advice, guys, it's what I wanted to hear.

I think the word count is going to end up close to 25,000 words, (not all different words of course -- I think "suddenly" and "vast" make up about half of the word count)

Another chapter/novella/category/word count question

NoJo

Happily Marred

SimonDoom

Kink Lord

NotWise

Desert Rat

8letters

Writing

ElectricBlue

Connoisseur

NoJo

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