HOW LONG SHOULD YOUR FICTIONAL BOOK BE?

My short story, The Curious Case of William Alexander Redwood, shall soon be released on April 3, 2017. It stands at exactly 5,896 words on Microsoft Word, without taking into consideration the title, copyright page, dedication, etc.

However, as I wrote it, I began asking myself; how do I define my novel by word count? How long should a short story be? A novella? A novel? A saga? To know this also helps me as an author to better price my books. For example, my urban fantasy novel, A Change of Heart, Book One of The Royal Blood Chronicles, stands at exactly 124,920 words. This could therefore not be priced the same as my short story clearly, as I put years and years into it unlike the short story which took me less than a week.

So for clarity's sake, as well as working out my own pricing strategy, I shall explain these book lengths and how I would price them accordingly.

Flash Fiction (100 - 1,000 words)

These are the really quick and short stories that can be written in under 5 minutes, some a bit longer, but can never take more than 10 minutes to type. They are extremely popular as they are easiest to write. Here are some of my Takhayyal Flash Fiction. I like flash fiction as they keep my creative juices flowing. My pricing for this type of story length is FREE.

Short Story (1,000 - 7,500 words)

The Curious Case of William Alexander Redwood falls under this story length. These are normally found in short story collections and digital magazines such as Evil Girlfriend Media. As is the case with my short story, I would price this type of work at $0.99. However, these are also a good source of income if taken up by a magazine which pays for your story, with the added benefit of exposure.

Novelette (7,500 - 20,000 words)

This type of story length is a tricky one. It's too long to be called a short story and too short to be called a novel. Most magazines would find these too long for them to print and publishers, on the other end of the spectrum, would find it difficult to sell. What some authors do however, is compile two / three novelettes to make one novel. I am yet to write one, but I see myself pricing this around $1.99

Novella (20,000 - 60,000 words)

I would say that a vast majority of book lengths in the electronic publishing age sit from around this range to the next one in the list. This is possibly due to the fact that online readers may prefer to read books of this length. Still, traditional publishers would be hard pressed to accept a book of this length, unless now we're talking of children's books. Again, I am yet to publish one of this length but would probably price it at around $2.99. However, a notable mention is Tor, where a novella to them sits in the range of 20,000 - 40,000 words.

Novel (60,000 - 100,000 words)

Some traditional publishers start this out from a range of 70,000 - 80,000 words so there is still some room to play around with this book length. This however is the most common book length when it comes to fiction. Once more, I haven't published a book of this length (I really need to write more for each book length clearly!) but if I did, my pricing would be around $3.99

Epics and Sagas (Over 100,000 words)

FINALLY, another book length I've written! (I've managed 50% of the book length types at 3/6) A Change of Heart, Book One of The Royal Blood Chronicles, sits nicely here at 124k words. These are mostly the epics, the sagas, the historical fictions that have generations in one book. These are the bad boys of books. The ruthless mama jammas that take a hold of you and won't let go until you're done! Think Stephen King's The Stand, George R.R. Martin's The Song Of Ice And Fire Series, Bryce Courtenay's The Power of One and Jeffery Archer's The Fourth Estate. As you can see, these are some of my most favourite books and it was an easy fit for me to emulate and write one of my own. My pricing for this is $5.99

There you have it! Now you too can go along and write your own book in the length of your choice.

Now mind you, these are only my views, my prices, my thoughts. Some may have different book lengths, others different prices, but these are what work best for me.

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6 Types of Book Length

Mark Benjamin