How Long Should A Story/Book Be?

I've been thinking about the Heart story collection that I might have sold -- and how long each story should be (since I haven't had any feedback from my editor yet).

And you get the above question "How Long Should A Story/Book Be?" from new writers. The answer is, of course, as long as it takes to tell the story. That said, there are, of course, publishing considerations. Know the limits of the publisher to whom you are submitting. I can't really turn in a book longer than, say, 125K words at the max.

My best advice is tell the story you want to as well as you can. Then tighten, and if it needs to be shorter, cut -- and cut any subplots to the bone.

So I think I'll follow my own advice. I've been thinking that Genista's story should be shorter, over a couple of days, so I'm going to ditch the scene that I took to critique (probably). As for Arbusca Willow's story (Saille T'Willow's mother, and he was the matchmaker hero in Heart Dance), I will fiddle with it a bit, but it should fall in the 14-15K range, I believe.

I'll be emailing my editor regarding the story length and maybe it will be something like 10K, 15K, 25K, and 50K...not sure, since this is a new thing for me.

May you enjoy your day.
Robin