I wrote a book, but it's only about 15,000 words long. It would make a good YA story, it's a science fiction, but where should I look to publish it? I've looked at several publishers websites and they're all looking for 50,000 words or over. At this point I'm so busy I can't write 50,000 words...Plus I write the first draft out long hand and my notebooks are small (It makes me feel like a real writer). I'm just starting out here, what should I do? Who's publishing the short stuff these days?
My book is short...
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Something that length could be published as a chapbook. YA novels can be shorter than adult ones, but not that short. I'd check out short-fiction markets, depending on what genre the story is.
Yeah, 15,000 words is still short story length for a lot of markets. I think 20,000 is the upper limit, after that it's hitting novella length. Novels are usually 50,000+ words. There are lots of places to publish short stories, and duotrope is a great place to start researching for one, like someone else mentioned in this thread.
7,500 is the upper length for short stories. After this, it's a novelette. Novellas start at 17,500, and novels at 30,000 for most genres, and at 40,000 for SF & fantasy.
A 40 thousand word Fantasy story, is there really such a creature? Outside of graphic novels that is?
dittoing the fact that 15K is a novelette, according to the Nebulas/Hugos. Some magazines publish shorts of this length, I believe.
The only books that are 15K in length are middle grade novels for kids round about age 7-9.
The only books that are 15K in length are middle grade novels for kids round about age 7-9.
A 40K fantasy story would be an awkward creature indeed. Someone has probably published two of them together in one book before. 40K is just the cutoff between novella and novel, for award purposes.
Sure. Not a million of them, but they pop up here and there.
But 40K is a novel in SF & Fantasy for two reasons. 1. You have to draw the line somewhere. 2. Most length definitions are what they are because of magazines, and SF & fantasy magazines have a long history of serializing novellas and novels. In order to do this, length is a serious factor, and these definitions were set to give writers good, usable guidelines for what magazines wanted to serialize.
Out in the real world of book publlishing, a novel is, of course, anything a publisher says it is, whether it's 30K or 500K.
I got my numbers from my college professors. Our differing numbers are a good demonstration that word length is often determined by genre and what sells, and that there isn't a standard. What it'll be called will depend on who publishes it, and you'll have to check and see the common word lengths for the genre you want to publish in and the markets you're looking at.
johnnysannie
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Actually, the numbers I gave are standard, have been for pretty much a hundred years. Almost everyone out there follows them, with the only exception being a few thousand words on the novella and novel.
They're standard for the same reason that proofreaders' marks are standard. You have to have some system that allows everyone, everywhere to stay on the same page, that allows everyone to ask for the same thing without having to go into too many details each time.
I usually round off, but maybe that's a bad idea.
Under 100 words -- Micro fiction.
Under 1,000 words -- Flash fiction.
1,000-1,999 words --short-short.
2,000-7,500 words --short story.
7,501-15,000 words --novelette. (7,501-17,500 in SF & Fantasy.)
15,001-29,999 worsa --Novella. (17,501-39,999 in SF & fantasy,)
30,000 to infinity -novel. (40,000 to infinity in SF & fantasy.)
Now, it's common for any magazine to use shorthand and write "We use stories up to 25,000 words" or something similar. But thiis just shorthand.
There's another, very important reason, for these length guidelines. Just as a novel is not simply a very long short story, and can't be written the same way, neither is a novella just a long short story, nor is a novelette just a very long short-short.
Each has its own requirements, and its own method of telling. No matter how well you write it, a 25,000 word short story is going to be boring as hell. A 25,000 word novella, however, may be the most exciting form of fiction there is.
College professors are not a good source for accurate information about writing or publishing.
I meant college professors who teach writing, who are very good sources of information on both writing and publishing, seeing as how they do both those things quite often.
James is right, those lengths he listed are standard and have been for a long time.
ETA: Just because a magazine accepts fiction up to a word limit higher than 7,500 does not mean those longer stories become short stories. It just means those magazines publish novelettes and novellas (if their upper limit is that high) as well.
ETA: Just because a magazine accepts fiction up to a word limit higher than 7,500 does not mean those longer stories become short stories. It just means those magazines publish novelettes and novellas (if their upper limit is that high) as well.
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Not even college professors who teach writing are good sources about much of anything in the publishing world. Especially college professors who teach writing. They are, in fact, most often the worst possible sources, and generally get everything wrong.
College professors who teach writing, and who teach publishing, generally have zero real world experience. Even those who have sold fiction, and even those who actually publish things through a college magazine or college book publisher, generally know very little to nothing about writing or publishing.
If the person you're listening to isn't a real world editor, a real world publisher, or a professional writer, don't believe anything you're told unless they provide you with sources linked to those who are.
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Not to derail the topic, but I'm curious what makes what.
I've heard in another thread (UJ's) say short story is a one-liner joke while novels are something a bit more...
So what's your (plural here) definition that sets short stories apart from novelette/novella? And vice versa.
More complex theme? Multiple POV? Side stories?
I humbly wait to learn.
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Here's another look at word counts in genres from Seton Hill's Writing Popular Fiction Program (in Greensburg, PA where actual authors help mentor students wanting to be writers). They state in their manual that even these word counts are general:
Romance: 55,000 to 100,000
SF/F: 80,000 to 125,000
Mystery: 60,000 to 100,000
YA: 45,000 to 90,000
I think they're basing their numbers on what's generally seen and accepted in the publishing world. Notice how SF/F are the largest...
Personally, I've got a fantasy novel that was initially around 46,000 words and after some revising, got it to 50,000, but I still feel it's horrifically short (based on all our numbers and what you see in the market) and I'm not sure what agent would want to bite. (Naturally, it's been on the back burner for quite some time).
But everyone else here is right in that 15,000 is way too short. It needs to be expanded or you'll have to figure out how to market it elsewhere.
Romance: 55,000 to 100,000
SF/F: 80,000 to 125,000
Mystery: 60,000 to 100,000
YA: 45,000 to 90,000
I think they're basing their numbers on what's generally seen and accepted in the publishing world. Notice how SF/F are the largest...
Personally, I've got a fantasy novel that was initially around 46,000 words and after some revising, got it to 50,000, but I still feel it's horrifically short (based on all our numbers and what you see in the market) and I'm not sure what agent would want to bite. (Naturally, it's been on the back burner for quite some time).
But everyone else here is right in that 15,000 is way too short. It needs to be expanded or you'll have to figure out how to market it elsewhere.
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Hi Gambit,
I'd recommend tossing the manuscript up on the shelf for a month or two while you work on something else. My first drafts tend to be slim, and I always end up adding to the word count in later editions.
I feel your pain, b/c I've got a 14,000 word manuscript sitting on my shelf that I've been wanting to dig into for about six months now...
I'd recommend tossing the manuscript up on the shelf for a month or two while you work on something else. My first drafts tend to be slim, and I always end up adding to the word count in later editions.
I feel your pain, b/c I've got a 14,000 word manuscript sitting on my shelf that I've been wanting to dig into for about six months now...
Not to derail the topic, but I'm curious what makes what.
I've heard in another thread (UJ's) say short story is a one-liner joke while novels are something a bit more...
So what's your (plural here) definition that sets short stories apart from novelette/novella? And vice versa.
More complex theme? Multiple POV? Side stories?
I humbly wait to learn.
I'd never compare a short story to a one line joke. I would say that s hort story is more like a snapshot, and a novel is more like a movie, though short stories often make better movies.
I've heard several comparisons that make sense to me, such as the difference between a portrait of Lincoln, and a painting of the battle of Gettysburg. No matter how big you make the portrait, it's still just the face of one man, and has only one story to tell. But the painting of the battle of Gettysburg has depth and a thousand storie sto tell.
Butmaybe teh simplest comparison is that of string and rope. No matter how long you make a piece of string, it's still just a piece of string. To make a rope, you have to add a LOT of pieces of string, and wind them all togtheer perfectly in order to make it strong.
The difference between a short story, a novelette, a novella, and a novel is the difference between progressively thicker and stronger ropes. If all you do is make the short story longer, you still have nothing more than a long piece of string, when what you want is a rope.
That's a problem if you want to publish. Researching the market, preparing your manuscript for submission, sending stuff out, all these things take time, just like it takes time to write.
I think, though, if you look at your schedule, you can find time to fit it in. As for word count, I think that's been sufficiently covered. Good luck!
Of course you can write 50,000 words. Or 500,000 words. Being busy has nothing to do with it. If you can write ten words, you can write 100,000 words. It just takes more days, not more time each day.
Why waste your effort by writing something too short to sell when you can write something longer simply by taking more time to write it?
As for the notebooks, either buy bigger notebooks, buy more of the same size and use one per chapter, or buy a three ring binder.
I write my first drafts in longhand, too, but a "real' writer doesn't use busy as an excuse, and certainly doesn't use small notebooks as a reason for not writing to length.
Yeah I was gunna say novelette or something similar. It is a pretty long short story if it is one.
Look over it before you send it to get published and ask yourself if there's something missing, or if you would benefit from adding another scene or two. If you can't think of anything try getting it published as a novella.
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