QUOTE (Abstruse @ Jul 20 2010, 10:26 PM)

I can't speak for the RPG industry, but for the publishing industry in general, a short story typically runs 5000-15000 words. Anything over 25,000 words is considered a novella and anything over 50,000 is considered a novel.
Not quite.
Flash fiction 100-1000 words
Short story 1000 - 7499 words
Novelette 7500 - 17,499 words
Novella 17,500 - 40,000 words
Novel ... Depends on the genre. SF&F starts at 70,000 and goes up to 120,000 (with best selling authors getting as many words as they want).
QUOTE (Abstruse)

Anything under novella-length (short stories) will be paid per word, with rates ranging from $.005 to $.05/word.
Not true anymore. @=) There are markets paying more than that, and up to .25 cents a word for SF&F. They are far and few between, but they do exist. I just submitted to one. Of course, there are markets that pay nothing at all for your work. I believe the guys who do Knights of the Dinner Table accept writing for their mag that isn't always paid for (you just get a copy of the mag). I could be misremembering, though.
QUOTE (Abstruse)

This applies only to fiction writing. I don't have much knowledge about non-fiction writing, so I can't say for sure about that. And RPG writing tends to run halfway between the two in terms of writing, but seems to run closer to non-fiction in how it's handled in the industry.
Non-fiction is mostly the same. Your pro markets pay either flat fees for articles (that can be divided by word count down to .05 or more cents a word) and semi-pro gets the rate I listed in another post. Or you can have your non-paying markets. Or, if it's a big memoir or biography, advance and royalties once the advance earns out.
Flat fees per projects are common in fiction, non-fiction and RPG markets. Additionally, it's becoming more common in fiction markets to pay pro-rata royalties (a percentage of a percentage) for anthologies and other "joint" works rather than per word or per project.
EDIT: I apologize. I didn't see this topic was supposed to be moved to another thread until after I posted. Do mods want me to move this?