Editing Short story (section)

== Length ==
In terms of length, [[word count]] is typically anywhere from 1,000 to 4,000 for short stories; however, some works classified as short stories have up to 15,000 words. Stories of fewer than 1,000 words are sometimes referred to as "short short stories", or "[[flash fiction]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thephoenix.com/Portland/Arts/63088-Who-reads-short-shorts/|title=Who reads short shorts?|author=Deirdre Fulton|date=2008-06-11|publisher=The Phoenix|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821224948/http://thephoenix.com/Portland/Arts/63088-Who-reads-short-shorts|archive-date=2009-08-21|url-status=dead|access-date=2013-06-06|quote="each of their (less-than-1000-word) stories"}}</ref>

Short stories have no set length. What constitutes a short story may differ between genres, countries, eras, and commentators.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory|url=https://archive.org/details/penguindictionar00cudd|url-access=registration|last=Cuddon|first=J.A.|publisher=Penguin|year=1999|edition=3rd|location=London|page=[https://archive.org/details/penguindictionar00cudd/page/864 864]| isbn=9780140513639 }}</ref> Like the novel, the short story's predominant shape reflects the demands of the available markets for publication, and the evolution of the form seems closely tied to the evolution of the publishing industry and the submission guidelines of its constituent houses.<ref name="Abrams1999">{{cite book|title=Glossary of Literary Terms|last=Abrams|first=M.H.|publisher=Harcourt Brace|year=1999|isbn=0-15-505452-X|edition=7th|location=Orlando, FL|pages=286–87}}</ref>

As a point of reference for the genre writer, the [[Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America]] define short story length in the [[Nebula Award]]s for [[science fiction]] submission guidelines as having fewer than 7,500 words.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://nebulas.sfwa.org/about-the-nebulas/nebula-rules|title=Complete Nebula Awards Rules Including the Ray Bradbury and Andre Norton Awards (Revised & Updated)|publisher=sfwa.org|access-date=2017-06-27}}</ref>