Literary magazines have strict word count limits that submissions must adhere to.įrom the point of view of a literary agent or New York City publishing house, they seldom waste their time with novellas. However, the main reason word count is important is when you’re trying to get published. Word count norms are the standards for a reason. Word count is crucial because readers don’t want to read stories that are too rushed or too slowly paced. Are you writing a short story or a novella?.Also, you definitely get bragging rights if your submission gets accepted.Īll these publications have strict word count limits, which is one of the main reasons word count is so important. Publishing a short story in one of these publications is an excellent first step towards a traditional publishing deal. Short stories are still an in-demand market. The best method for getting your short story published is generally looking for a literary magazine or a publication specifically meant for publishing short stories.Īre there literary magazines looking for short stories? If you’re wondering where to submit short stories, there are tons of literary magazines and other publications actively searching for short story writers, many of whom pay the authors: You could try to get your short story published in a short story collection with other authors, but those don’t sell incredibly well. Short stories and novellas are difficult to market for self-publishers and traditional publishing companies alike. Short stories and novellas are different from long novels in the following ways:

New writers should aim for a reasonable number of words for their novel length based on what makes sense for their narrative. More than 10,000 is a novelette, followed by a novella, then a full-blown novel.Įxact word counts are not hard and fast rules, but a rule of thumb - just an average length. A tale of fewer words than that is considered flash fiction. A short story is any story between 1,000 and 10,000 words.

Samples of short stories to write