Genre guide · Fiction
Short Story Collection: word count & book length
How long a short story collection book should be, which trim sizes suit it and what that means in printed pages. Typical length: 40,000–80,000 words.
40,000–80,000 wordstypical length
19,405works in Open Library
About short story collection
A book of standalone stories, often linked by theme or setting. Individual stories usually run 1,000–7,500 words.
Printed length in recommended trim sizes
| Trim | Pages at 11 pt | Spine (white) |
|---|---|---|
| 5.5 x 8.5 in Digest | 162–320 pages | 0.36–0.72 in |
| 5 x 8 in | 192–382 pages | 0.43–0.86 in |
Page counts for these lengths
Tips for this category
- Start each story on a recto (right-hand) page for a polished collection.
- Credit prior publication of individual stories on the copyright page.
About Short Story Collection
A short-story collection is a book of short stories and/or novellas by a single author. A short story collection is distinguished from an anthology of fiction, which would contain work by several authors (e.g., Les Soirées de Médan). The stories in a collection may or may not share a tone, theme, setting, or characters with one another.
From the Wikipedia article “Short-story collection”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Most-published short story collection works in Open Library
| Title | Author | First published | Editions |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Christmas Carol | Charles Dickens | 1843 | 3,196 |
| Gulliver's Travels | Jonathan Swift | 1726 | 1,810 |
| The Call of the Wild | Jack London | 1903 | 1,700 |
| The Hound of the Baskervilles | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1900 | 1,309 |
| The Time Machine | H. G. Wells | 1895 | 1,146 |
| The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes [12 stories] | Arthur Conan Doyle | 1892 | 1,134 |
| The Legend of Sleepy Hollow | Washington Irving | 1820 | 1,017 |
| Dubliners | James Joyce | 1914 | 997 |
| The Cricket on the Hearth | Charles Dickens | 1846 | 774 |
| The Canterbury Tales | Geoffrey Chaucer, John E. Cunningham | 1478 | 722 |
Open Library lists 19,405 works under this subject.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a short story collection book be?
Typically 40,000–80,000 words. A book of standalone stories, often linked by theme or setting.
What trim size is best for short story collection?
Common choices are 5.5 x 8.5 in Digest, 5 x 8 in.
Sources & data
- Subject statistics from Open Library.
- Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).