This word counts are only mentioned to give you a general idea about the length. The novella typically runs about a hundred pages, though it can run a bit longer. However, the nebulas, the annual award of the science fiction writers of america sfwa, include a category just for these works, defined as stories. Short stories generally range anywhere from 1,500 to 30,000 words whereas novels start from about 50,000 words. A novelette is longer than a short story, but shorter than a novella. When it comes down to it, though, its all about word count.
Sales copy tends to break down along short story, novella, and novel lines. Publishers and literary award societies typically consider a novella s word count to be between 15,000 and 40,000 words, although definitions vary. And according to writers digest, a novel can range from 55,000 to 300,000 words, a novella is 30,000 to 50,000 words and a. Of the 161 stories listed, 3081 is the median word count number in the middle and 4052 is the average word count.
It is not used very often in the modern age and the only difference is in the word count. But, he also mentions that the wizard of oz was 40,000 words. Publishers and literary award societies typically consider a novellas word count to be between 15,000 and 40,000 words, although definitions vary the english word novella derives from the italian novella, feminine of novello, which means new. As weve talked about before how well does short fiction sell in ebook form. When it comes to novella word count it 17,500 40,000 roughly. Dec 23, 2017 the best measure of length is word count, authors should start placing word count in the descriptions of their stories, it will help readers to determine whether they have time to invest in the reading not to mention make short story, novelette, novella and novel household names in the world of the reading and writing.
Novella award organisers have defined a novel as being a. Novella, novelette, pagecount and wordcount most people these days are used to two definitions for length in a story. But usually the novella is designated by word count, not page count. I think of anything under 50 manuscript pages as a short story. Shorter novels such as fahrenheit 451, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, the great gatsby, and slaughterhousefive are between 4050,000 words. Aug 20, 2018 a short storys classification often depends on place of publication. But while the length of a novel is to a large extent up to its writer, lengths may also vary by subgenre. Word count separates short stories from novelettes and novellas. If you wish to write a novel or something in word, theres the word count feature which tells you how many words there are.
Between a short story and novella is the longer short story, the novelette, ranges from 7,500 20,000 words. The difference between a short story, novelette, novella. For average word counts based on genre, see this handy reference. Try not to completely tether yourself to word counts. James bond, often referred to by his code name, 007, is a british secret service agent. A novella is longer than a novelette and is sometimes called a long short story or a short novel a novel is longer than a novella and is meant to be read over several days.
When word lengths are borderline, the author and publisher. This 90,000 word guideline for how many words in a novel is just that, a guideline. However, it will be on the short side, as the average length of a novel hovers around 50,00070,000 words. Jun 03, 2016 the most important difference between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel is the word count. Any debut novel over 100,000 words risks rejection from agents and publishers. For the sfwa, a short story is up to 7,500 words, a novelette is more. An interactive or playable story driven work which conveys narrative, character, or story background. They are often whimsical, and usually revolves around the themes of. Before the advent of ebooks, modern fiction writers concerned themselves chiefly with two lengths. Shorter stories use different techniques, and have different kinds of subjects, so the short mystery fiction society subdivides the shortest categories further for their derringer awards. The old man and the sea was about 25 to 30,000 words, tops. Many places have charts for word counts, which tell you at what point a story is a short story, novella, or novel. When youre paid by installment, theres rather an incentive to make the story drag on for as long as possible. The narrative of a novelette is usually highly focused, somewhat similar to a short story.
The number of words is important, particularly if the novelette is to be entered into competitions, but the concise yet complete aspect is what really sets them into a category of their own. And according to writers digest, a novel can range from 55,000 to 300,000 words, a novella is 30,000 to 50,000 words and a short story is 1,500 to 30,000 words. There are longer and shorter versions of each, but nothing in between. A novella is somewhere between a novel and a short story. A game must include at least one 1 credited writer in order to be eligible for the nebula for game writing. As with most art forms, the label is somewhat malleable. Feb 07, 2018 what exactly separates a short story from a novella from a novel, you ask. Jul 18, 2018 a novelette is a more modern term and is used to describe a book thats too short to be considered a novella, but too long to be regarded as a short story. The word count is usually between 7,500 words to 17,500 words. A novel is longer than a novella and is meant to be read over several days. The guidelines in this article can help you understand how short fiction is commonly. Page counts vary, as formatting influences page counts. Short fiction forms can generally be broken down based on word count. Word count is commonly used by translators to determine the price of a translation job.
They are often whimsical, and usually revolves around the themes of romance and sentimentality or sometimes both. Putting the book word count aside, each of the four types of books has its own appeal. Is your book a short story, a novelette, a novella or a novel. This list gets circulated a lot, but its essentially outofdate. May 22, 2017 in this video josh gives a brief explanation on the different word counts for books.
Any work of fiction with a word count between 7,500 and 19,000 is generally considered a novelette. Writers often publish short stories in magazines in their entirety. A novel reissued in expanded or modified form shall not be eligible unless previously withdrawn in accordance with the rules. Indeed, the english word novel derives from an italian word. Aug 05, 2019 a short story could provide material for a single programlength television episode, a novella for a movie, and a fulllength novel for a miniseries. What are the major differences among novel, novella and. Do check your comparable titles recent debuts onlyto make sure your story. Is your book a short story, a novelette, a novella or a. Hefty bestsellers are being eclipsed by lighter reading. But the word count of a chapter matters if you want your story to flow right. Each form has a specific structure and varies by word count. Learn the differences between novelettes, novellas, and.
Mar 02, 2014 categories row80, scarlet thread sunday tags fiction word count, how long is a novel, how long is a novelette, how long is a novella, how long is a short story, julie glover, julie glover author, novel vs novella, short story length, word count, word count length post navigation. With the advent of digital publishing, the terms novella and novelette have taken on a new significance in the 17th century, the word novel referred to a booklength story shorter than a romance. Not that it is by any means impossible to expand or contract as needed for a different match, but that will give a sense of how much material is in each. A short story, novelette, or novella based on a previouslypublished version of the work shall not be eligible. But when it is below 17,500 words starting from 7,500 words it is considered as a novelette. Jul 21, 2017 according to writers digest, a novel can range from 55,000 to 300,000 words, a novella is 30,000 to 50,000 words and a short story is 1,500 to 30,000 words. But in case you are wondering, here is a guideline for story lengths. Of course, when youre writing the first draft of your story, you want to just get your words out on paper. As such, a novella is considerably longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. Word count for famous novels organized word count for famous novels, in ascending order by number of words. Publishers set the bar nowadays those breakdowns matter very little if you cant place 40,000 words as a novel. A novella is longer than a novelette and is sometimes called a long short story or a short novel.
Put simply, the sweet spot for a novels word count is generally said to be around 8090k. Coyne uses the nanowrimo wordcount length of 50,000 words for his examples, calling 50,000 words a good foundation to build upon. And the longest work of fiction is a novel between 70,000 and 100,000 words. The primary reason as to what makes a novel a novel, a novella a novella etc.
Science fiction and fantasy novels typically have a word count between 90,000 to 125,000 words. Do short ebook novellas sell better than longer novels. A story that is over 40,000 words is generally considered a novel. The sweet spot, according to donald maas, is 100,000 to 115,000 words.
A novella typically starts at about 20,000 words and tops out at 50,000, which is the minimum length for a short novel. The shortest novels written by 20 authors you shouldve. The novella lies between the short story and the novel in terms of length and scope. Aug 29, 2014 involvement of multiple subplots and various characters are not usually included in a short story. 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. Works in the game writing category shall have no word count requirements. When i started writing you could only sell a historical romance if it was 90,000 words or more. For the sfwa, a short story is up to 7,500 words, a novelette is more than 7,500 and up to 17,500 words, a novella is more than 17,500 and up to 40,000 words, and a novel is 40,000 words or more. Were discussing short stories with the indy nanowrimo group this afternoon, and i thought it might help to have a word count chart similar to the one i did for famous novels back in november. A novella is a fictional piece between a short story and a novel with anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000 words.
Notice that the longer short stories border on the length of novellas and the longer novellas border on the length of novels. Word count separates short stories from novelettes and. The difference between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel july 7, 2016 september 14, 2016 vijaykumarkerji before we discuss the difference, i would like to write about how to begin writing because at some point, you need to start writing. The definition of novelette is any short, fictional work of prose narrative. Flash fictionwhatever the editor says it is, but usually under 1,000 words. What is the difference between a novelette, novella and novel. Each genre and subgenre has its own word count range. Sometimes, you will hear that certain kinds of fiction are more commonly found in a specific form than longer or shorter ones, but the dominating difference among prose types is word count. Some authors write short stories and create compilations or collections of their stories. I enjoy writing novel length fiction, but those 100,000 word beasts do take a while to pen. Its nice to whip out a short story or a novella here and there, both because it makes you feel. So now you know how to differentiate between short story, novelette, novella and novel. Traditionally, short stories were meant to be read in a single sitting. Most publishers prefer 3,000 8,000 words, so aiming for the 45k mark is pretty safe.
Perkins agency in new york says its much easier to market a firsttime novelist s book if the word count falls between 80,000 and 100,000 words, or roughly 300 doublespaced, typed pagesthe average novel length. Also remember because there are a bunch of new novel imprints opening their doors, a novella is 40k or less. Dec 17, 20 what is the basic word count for flash fiction, short story, novelette, novella, novel, saga. I found some disagreement about the ideal length of mystery novels. Theyre a pretty new category, and youll likely have a hard time publishing these if you dont already have a market. When converting character counts to words, a measure of 5 or 6 characters to a word is generally used for english. 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. Ya manuscripts can have a word count anywhere from 55k to 90k. But again, dont worry about this until you get there. An average short story usually has at least 3,500 words and no more than 7,500.
Theres an even narrower story optionthe novelettethat has a word count between 7,500 and 17,000 words. Some markets dont recognize the novelette as a separate category, lumping it in with novellas or short novels instead. It should be enough to communicate your message effectively. Sep 24, 2014 novel vs novella those of you who are much interested in fiction would not mind finding out the difference between novel and novella. However, there is not much agreement in these points. Difference between novel and novella compare the difference. Essentially, novelettes fall into the gap between short stories and novellas. What is the difference between a novella and a short story. What is the basic word count for flash fiction, short. A novella is usually between 20,000 and 50,000 words. Mar 29, 2018 a novella is a work of written, fictional, narrative prose normally longer than a short story but shorter than a novel.
Oct 26, 2018 in short, a novelette is more focused than a novella and more complete than a short story. This book type can be ideal for new writers who want to experiment with writing longer stories yet cant yet commit to writing a full novel. There are no hardandfast rules when it comes to what word. I know this book is a shade under 20,000 words, so now i can say with certainty that any ebook listed on kindle with around 100 pages, has a word count of less than 20,000. Differences between novel and novella difference between. Im not sure the designation novelette really means much when it comes to ebook publishing. Flash fiction 500 5,000 words short stories are between 5,0007,000 words. Hard times isnt a particularly short novel, as novels goits about the standard lengthbut its less than a third the length of many of his more famous novels 104,821 words to david copperfield s 357,489, bleak. A short story is usually anything from 1,000 to 8,000 words, but many are often longer. A novella must be able to stand on its own as a book, but the exact word count is not set in stone. Novel, novelette, novella and short stories agamya. While word count is never determinative of quality, it helps determine which category your book falls into. Therefore, the word count of a novel is crucial if you want your book to be fit for publication.
Word counts may also be used to calculate measures of readability and to measure typing and reading speeds usually in words per minute. A western for readers who think they dont like westerns, featuring intriguing characters, improbable friendships, strong women, and difficult choices. Learn the differences between novelettes, novellas, and novels. In short, a novelette is more focused than a novella and more complete than a short story. Mar 19, 2015 unless you are specifically looking to write a novella or a short story, you should be more concerned with telling the story than the word count. The most important difference between a short story, novelette, novella, and a novel is the word count. Based on this list compiled by nicole humphrey cook.
However, standards established by organizations such as the science fiction writers of america provide some guidance. In general, the count for most novels should fall between 80,000100,000 words for almost any genre. I did a quick check of one of my own ebooks, which is a short novella, and saw that kindle calculated it to be 110 pages long. What is the basic word count for flash fiction, short story, novelette, novella, novel, saga. Novella, novelette, short story, and flash fiction defined when it comes to fiction, a short narrative can be found in many forms, from a slim book to just a few sentences. Some places will say that after 40,000 words, it is a novel. Novelettes have a lower number of words than a novel or novella, but a higher word count than other forms of prose fiction like short stories or microfiction.
The average novel is usually between 80,000 and 100,000 words. Big, epic stories get anywhere from 120,000 to 200,000 words. A reasonable word count for a nonfiction book would be between 30,000 to 50,000 words. Culture books news novella award organisers have defined a novel as being a piece of fiction between 20,000 and 40,000 words. A novella is a work of narrative prose fiction, longer than a short story but shorter than a novel. Fiction is a form of literature that presents written stories on imaginary people and events. List of james bond novels and short stories wikipedia. I loved this short novel about two unlikely companions because it reminded me of favorites like lonesome dove, these is my words, andperhaps surprisinglythe road. Nov 12, 2018 aspiring writers should understand the difference between a novella, novelette, and short story. What is the basic word count for flash fiction, short story. A short story contains 35007500 words, while a novel contains 40000.
99 145 44 263 700 911 333 254 741 599 639 1123 869 540 1317 1316 836 27 126 355 1264 895 1478 49 918 542 835 938 937 346 802 1399 1315 869 819