Short Stories Are up to 15,000 words. I think the definition I remember best is that a short story is any story that can be read in one sitting.
Novelette? 10-20k Novella up to 50,000 words Novel anything longer than a short story is a novel, but I think the definition you are looking for puts it at over 50,000 words. For most publishable novels, you are looking around 75-125k+ words.
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A story can be any length. However, a manuscript submitted for publication should fall within the guidelines set by the publisher. Decide who your market is, and adapt the story length to suit their requirements.
Posts: 2026 | Registered: Mar 2005
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When I was starting out, as I recall, one of the markets wanted short stories to be between four thousand and six thousand words. Somehow, ever since then, five thousand has seemed the ideal length for a short story, though I rarely hit within that zone exactly...
Posts: 8809 | Registered: Aug 2005
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The only thing I would add to Eric's post is that there seems to be two definitions for very short works. I've seen Short-short defined as 1500 words and under, and I've seen Flash defined as under 1000 words. I've also seen novels defined as works over 60,000 words. Know your market.
[This message has been edited by Spaceman (edited November 22, 2005).]
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