Word Counts

Word counts are huge. They matter a lot. I know a lot of us just want to write what we want to write and how ever long it take is however long it takes, and sometimes that is fine. But we can't advertise a novel when it is only 25,000 words long. Or call an 80,000 word book a Novella. It is good to know these terms so we not only can talk about our work correctly, but so that we can also follow general guidelines when getting ready to submit our work. Or if you are self publishing its  helps to know the general word counts your audience is expecting too.
So what is the story with word counts anyway? Here is a brief rundown of what you need to know.
Lets give you a list that you can work with when thinking about the length of your story:

• Micro fiction is 300 words or less.
• Picture books are often 100 to 1000 words.
• A vignette is usually only a scene or two and is most often between 800 to 1,000 words
• Flash fiction is under 1,500 words: can be only a handful words up to that top word count, a usual word count is around 500 words.
• A Short story is usually above 1,000 words, but the average is around 5,000 to 10,000 words
• A Novelette is most often between: 1,000 words and 20,000 words
• Beginning reading chapter books for kids range around 5,000 to 15,000 words
• A Novella is between 10,000 words to 49,999 words
• Middle grade books for kids range between 20,000 to 55,000 words usually
• A Novel is considered a novel at 50,000 words and up.
• Young Adult books have a huge range between 20,000 to 150,000 but usually the target word count is around 75,000 words.
• For full length novel Adult books it depend greatly on your genre, I'd say your average is 80,000 but it honestly depends on what genre you are writing. For example if you are writing horror they range from 40,000 to 80,000. Romance 50,000 to 90,000 (though a lot of people do write novella's in this genre and do 20,000 to 50,000 really well) or Fantasy they say can be 50,000 to 150,000 it is just so dependent on that genre and the requirements of that publisher.

OTHER IMPORTANT THOUGHTS
I will tell you that if you google this these numbers do shift around so this is just to give you a basic idea. These are general ranges, that will change depending on your genre, for example if you write fantasy you usually are at the top of the range because you need room for world building. Yes there are always exceptions to the rule. I am sure you can think of books that are published that go outside of the norm for the word count requirements but if you are trying to get published it is always a good idea to start inside the rules first.
     It also depends on the contest you are entering and the requirements of a publisher. For example you might see the average range for a middle grade book is 20,000 to 50,000 but the publisher you are looking at only wants books above 40,000 words if you submit one at 20,000 words that is a red flag for them. Check if they have word count requirements.
ALWAYS look at the word count requirements for the contest you are entering or the usual word counts that the publisher you are looking at as as well as everything else that they require. You don't want to miss out on an opportunity just because you didn't have the correct word count.

Anyway I hope that quick rundown helps you out!
Happy Writing
Cassie
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*word counts were googled and gathered from various locations