What is the average word length of....?

Question

A full novel
A novella
and a short story

I know that a full novel is 80,000 words +, but what is the minimum word length of a novella, or the maximum word length of a short story before it is considered a novella? I need clarification!!

Answer 1

Here are some guidelines for book lengths:

Short Story up to 10,000 words (really short story or article 500 to 2,000 words; really short story or long article 2,500 to 5,000)

Novellette up to 25,000 words (or 10,000 to 20,000 or 25,000)

Novella up to 60,000 words (20/25,000 to 60,000)

Novel 75,000 (or 80,000)-120,000

Books of 120,000-150,000+ words are recommended to be broken up into parts or a series. A single book of this length tends to become longer than an attention span can take. It can also be difficult to properly fill a plot after too long.
(Epic has no real limit but usually more than 200,000)

Stage Play 90 to 120 pages

Movie Script 110 to 250 pages

Answer 2

This will vary depending on the publisher, so always check before you submit your work.

Here are the guidelines from Echelon Press:
Novel: 50,000- 120,000 words
Short story/novella: 6,000- 50,000 words

Vintage Romance Publishing, LLC considers a novella to be 25,000 words or less. Kensington considers a novella to be 20,000-25,000 words. This range seems to be common among many publishers.

Here are the guidelines from The Scriptorium, a webzine for aspiring writers:

Novel: 45,000-150,000 words
Novella/Novelette: 7,000 - 40,000 words
Short Story: 2,000 - 7,500 words
Short Short: under 2,000 words
Flash Fiction (also known as sudden fiction or micro fiction): under 1000, 500, or even 99 words, depending on the market or guidelines.

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Answer 3

The best advice is for you just write until you finish tellling your story. Let the editor work out the length. As always, there will be come cuts ands it all comes out in the he wash. I tend to come in at about 140 thousand words. Someone like James Patererson uses a larger font and short chapters with a lot of half empty pages, so his books appear much longer. Just tell your story. Let your editor worry about the length.If the publisher likes the story, the length won't matter all that much. Look at The Historian. Pax - C

Answer 4

Typing speed tests are based on a 5 letter word.