posted
I've been writing a lot of short fiction lately, but I have a question. What is an publishable length for a short story? When does it go from flash fiction to short story to novella to novel, and all things in between? Please, Oh wise Muses of Literature, have mercy, and tell little old me. ~Sheena Posts: 1201 | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Generally, Flash is sub-1K. Some markets will accept flash in excess of that, but 1K is the typical limit.
A short story doesn't become a novella until somewhere beyond 10K. In the 15-20K region I think. Novels begin at about 50K (for a short novel).
I swear we just had this conversation in a recent thread. Anyways, them's the numbers as I understand them. There might be some slight differences in the amounts, or terminology (short-short vs. flash, novella vs. novellette) but a lot of that is kind of an academic exercise. The important numbers you need to look at are the limits for the publications you want to get into. Mags will have a defined word limit (sub-1K, 1K-5K, not exceeding 10K) that will be far more useful to you than the textbook definition of the lengths of a given piece of writing.
Duotrope is pretty good about finding out that kind of info.
posted
On a related note: If the publisher is asking for short stories, is there any danger in dipping to close to the 1k border?
Posts: 161 | Registered: Dec 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
What are the markets for Flash fiction? I hear about contests etc., but is there a serious, steady market for the form?
Posts: 340 | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
Cheyne, also take a look at Every Day Fiction. They're a market I tried (unsuccessfully) to break into. They pay zilch (well, $1) but they do publish a fair bit of stuff - a story, every day.
quote:All that matters is that it work as a short story.
I second this. If you are thinkng about writing flash-length, don't dismiss those pesky details like plot and character just because it's a short piece.
posted
I don't get back here often enough since I started the zine, but I saw people coming to Flash Fiction Online from this thread and had to see what was going on. Thanks for the link. I'd just correct "run by a hatracker" to "run by a bunch of Hatrackers." I couldn't do it without eight people who post here regularly. (Soon I'll have a staff page up to prove it. )
Another market to consider for flash (ostensibly a competitor of ours, but publishing flash is hardly a zero-sum game) is 365Tomorrows. If you write literary stuff, consider Vestal Review or Smokelong Quarterly. I believe we're still the only pro-rate flash-only market, and I think we're the only one contending for SFWA pro status (hopefully to be achieved by Dec 2008, then retroactive to our first issue), but these other venues publish some good fiction.
posted
The shortest short story I ever recall seeing was in a Larry Niven collection. (If it saw magazine publication, the book credits didn't say.) It ran like this:
quote:There are certain things mankind was not meant to know.
posted
My stories all tend to be either flash fiction or Novellette/Novella. I seem to hop over the short story completely.
Posts: 3687 | Registered: Jan 2007
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
