Could we talk about what is expected in different types of fiction? I know that I should always check guidelines before I submit to a publisher or magazine, but maybe knowing what is expected in general would help. Short stories: 1,000 to 7,500 words. Novella: 20,000 to 50,000 words. Novel: 50,000 to 110, 000 words. I also have heard that publishers expect the chapters to be all about the same length, especially for romances. Does anyone know how many chapters are usual? I understand that there should always be a plot point in the last 1/3 of the book where the romance seems to be over. I believe that at lest two wrong solutions are expected before the final solution in a mystery. Please post what you know. I am trying to get up a sort of check list of what is expected in different types of writing. Something that goes beyond just the submission guidelines to the expected form of a story.
Probably varies by publication. 20,000 seems low to me. I'd have said 40,000 - 60,000. Too wide a range to be useful. 50,000 - 60,000 would be fine for a YA novel. For first time adult novels, 80,000 - 100,000 is the usual. Once a novelist has been successfully published, the limits get loosened. I wouldn't know if there are any special considerations for romances, but I have never heard of an expectation that chapters be of uniform length. Frankly, that wouldn't make any sense.
ditto all of that! none of those 3 shoulds/expecteds make sense to me... i can't imagine where you could've gotten those ideas... check a dozen different publisher's guidelines... do that and you'll see what the expectations/requirements really are and how widely they may vary from one to another...
I agree with what the other folks on here are saying. Those seem like very limiting guidelines and they are not etched in stone.
