Short story v Novella
- Thread starter RoryOmore
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SamScribble
Yeah, still just a guru
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- Oct 23, 2009
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One of my publishers tends to regard a short story as as a story with a beginning, a middle, and an end (although not necessarily in that order) told in no more than 5,000 words. Another says that, in the right circumstances, the upper limit might be closer to 20,000 words.
A novella they both see as something in the 15,000 to 40,000 word range.
But, on Lit, many authors write 'short stories' with many chapters. Personally, I'd class those as novels in serial form. But many, many people will no doubt disagree.
sr71plt
Literotica Guru
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- Jul 18, 2006
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For print, traditionally, short story has gone up to 20,000 words, novella started at 35,000 words and went to about 60,000, and novels were supposed to be at least 72,000 words. These numbers were set on book sizes based on the number of folios required. Between 20,000 and 35,000 words was a no man's land. Magazine/journal publishers weren't accepting anything above 20,000 words and book publishers weren't accepting anything under 35,000 words--and then only specialty publishers were accepting anything under 60,000 words (based on cost effectiveness to print/sell).
The electronic world (and the changing attention span of readers) has brought all that down. Short stories end somewhere around 5,000 words, there's a novellete category now between 5,000 and 15,000 words, novellas go from about 15,000 words to 40,000 words, and novels are above that. The numbers aren't has hard and fast as they were for traditional print, though, and different publishers will have different cutoffs. The e world doesn't have the limitations of traditional publishing (which had presses that printed in eight, sixteen, or thirty-two-page folios that were stitched together to make a book and that had various cost formulas that determined what could be profitable to produce and sell).
For Lit? Readers seem to believe that the more Lit. pages used, the better the story is.
The electronic world (and the changing attention span of readers) has brought all that down. Short stories end somewhere around 5,000 words, there's a novellete category now between 5,000 and 15,000 words, novellas go from about 15,000 words to 40,000 words, and novels are above that. The numbers aren't has hard and fast as they were for traditional print, though, and different publishers will have different cutoffs. The e world doesn't have the limitations of traditional publishing (which had presses that printed in eight, sixteen, or thirty-two-page folios that were stitched together to make a book and that had various cost formulas that determined what could be profitable to produce and sell).
For Lit? Readers seem to believe that the more Lit. pages used, the better the story is.
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