Story Word Count

The entire content of this Erotic Fiction subforum, especially eBooks from Kindle Store consists of "eBooks" containing only one short story.

While there is no set standard for Story Length, simple Page counting is open to abuse, with larger font size, wider margins, and inserting blank pages between chapters being, the most common, it's telling that Kindle Store list page numbers, but not the more reliable word count.

Here's my preferred definitions, but being an avid Science Fiction, and Fantasy reader, these tend to the upper limits, as world building is usually required to establish the setting, as  a result I expand the Novel into four length categories, rather than just one.

Word Count
Micro Story ≡ Under 5,000 Words
Short Story ≡ 5,000 To 20,,000 Words
Story (Novelette) ≡ 20,000 To 50,000 Words
Long Story (Novella) ≡ 50,000 To 80,000 Words
Short Novel ≡ 80,000 To 140,000 Words
Novel ≡ 140,000 To 200,000 Words
Long Novel (Epic Novel) ≡ Over 200,000 Words

Caveat:
Most word count standards use “Short Story”, but then switch to publisher promoted marketing terms to make “Story”, and “Long Story” sound more “Epic”. I don't use the more common publisher created terms, they are included (In parenthesis) for reference.

BBCode
[SPOILER="Story Size"]
[CENTER][SIZE=7][B]Story Size[/B][/SIZE][/CENTER]
The entire content of this Erotic Fiction subforum, especially eBooks from Kindle Store consists of "eBooks" containing only one short story.

While there is no set standard for Story Length, simple Page counting is open to abuse, with larger font size, wider margins, and inserting blank pages between chapters being, the most common, it's telling that Kindle Store list page numbers, but not the more reliable word count.

Here's my preferred definitions, but being an avid Science Fiction, and Fantasy reader, these tend to the upper limits, as world building is usually required to establish the setting.

I expand the Novel into three sections, and matches the Story sections. This makes much more sense to me than the marketing terms publishers use.

[SIZE=6][B]Word Count[/B][/SIZE]
[B]Micro Story ≡ Under 5,000 Words
Short Story ≡ 5,000 To 20,,000 Words
Story ([/B]Novelette[B]) ≡ 20,000 To 50,000 Words
Long Story ([/B]Novella[B]) ≡ 50,000 To 80,000 Words
Short Novel ≡ 80,000 To 140,000 Words
Novel ≡ 140,000 To 200,000 Words
Long Novel ([/B]Epic Novel[B]) ≡ Over 200,000 Words[/B]

Caveat:
Most word count standards use [B]“Short Story”[/B], but then switch to publisher promoted marketing terms to make [B]“Story”[/B], and [B]“Long Story”[/B] sound more [B]“Epic”[/B]. I don't use the more common publisher created terms, they are included here (In parenthesis) just for reference purposes.[/SPOILER]
