Novellas?
- Thread starter Albedo of Zero
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What do you mean by a "real" market? Will anyone at all be receiving $400,000 advances for a novella (like Stephen King)? Probably not. But with the digital age having entered the publishing world, I can't see why novellas won't rise in popularity once again since a lot of logistical concerns about novellas are irrelevant to e-publishing.
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Novellas are a hard/almost impossible sell. At least according to the information here and on agent blogs. No one reps them, no one buys them.
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Great timing for this thread! I've been toying with a new concept that seemed like it might work well as a shorter piece. I was wondering if a novella was a good idea to write, or if they were less-desired.
What's everybody's definition of a novella anyway? 20K words? 40K? 60K?
Sort of in the same vein: are short novels at all desired? Like say, is there a market for novels closer to 70K as opposed to 100K? Or would that just be cast off as "too short"?
Edit: I'm asking in terms of traditional print markets, not e-books. I'm still desperately avoiding the notion of digital taking over everything!
What's everybody's definition of a novella anyway? 20K words? 40K? 60K?
Sort of in the same vein: are short novels at all desired? Like say, is there a market for novels closer to 70K as opposed to 100K? Or would that just be cast off as "too short"?
Edit: I'm asking in terms of traditional print markets, not e-books. I'm still desperately avoiding the notion of digital taking over everything!
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I think of novellas as being 25k-45/50k, and I think books that are closer to 70k could either go romance or YA, or else it's a little on the short side.
I have had a novella published (19500 words, so the shorter end of the definition) in my collection, which was published in 2003. I've sold stories of 10k, 11k and 14k as well. So there are markets out there, especially in SF, fantasy and horror.
I've seen YA novels as short as 35k, which I would call a novella in adult-book terms. (Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl is all of 27k, but that's exceptionally short for YA.)
I've seen YA novels as short as 35k, which I would call a novella in adult-book terms. (Elizabeth Scott's Living Dead Girl is all of 27k, but that's exceptionally short for YA.)
I buy alot of novellas. You only have to look around waterstones to see that there are litterally THOUSANDS of them.
Local literature is a big novella market - we have huge amounts of Irish and Scottish fiction in Belfast. YA and childrens books are usually novella length. Sci-fi novellas are hugely popular. High concept books, crossover books, the list goes on.
There is always a market for a good book.
Local literature is a big novella market - we have huge amounts of Irish and Scottish fiction in Belfast. YA and childrens books are usually novella length. Sci-fi novellas are hugely popular. High concept books, crossover books, the list goes on.
There is always a market for a good book.
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I sold a 25K novella which came out in hardcover this past December from PS Publishing.
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No representation, but I sold a novella to Lyrical Press 6 days after submitting it.
The market for novellas is a lot smaller, but it's there.
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I'm glad somebody asked this question, since I'm in a similar boat, being about a quarter of the way through writing a novella. I've been worrying minorly about finding a place to publish it (though part of that is it is currently rather a mix of genres, which I may change later in rewrites).
Also, I've always wondered, do Novella discussions belong under novels, or short fiction? They're sort of in between both, but don't have their own discussion board. And finally, there's lots of threads for other sorts of fiction (novels, short fiction, usually one in each genre forum, etc.) that give lists of publishers. Is there such a thread/sticky for novellas? And if not, is there a reason (e.g. they're lumped with something else) or can we start one?
Also, I've always wondered, do Novella discussions belong under novels, or short fiction? They're sort of in between both, but don't have their own discussion board. And finally, there's lots of threads for other sorts of fiction (novels, short fiction, usually one in each genre forum, etc.) that give lists of publishers. Is there such a thread/sticky for novellas? And if not, is there a reason (e.g. they're lumped with something else) or can we start one?
Wonderful thread everyone!
I was hoping to try selling my 1st novella (44K) once I get the rights back, and I was worried if I could get my WIP (currently 47K) to novel length without blatant padding.
I was hoping to try selling my 1st novella (44K) once I get the rights back, and I was worried if I could get my WIP (currently 47K) to novel length without blatant padding.
I can't speak for the short fiction moderator, but I happily welcome discussions of novellas in the Novel forum.
Oh, I'm so happy to have company. I wish all of you the best of luck on your novellas.
Mine is 21k, and I'm hoping it won't be too short.
Mine is 21k, and I'm hoping it won't be too short.
While we're all here, does anyone know any markets that would take on literary novellas?
Umm. Dark, violent, explicit literary novellas?
Umm. Dark, violent, explicit literary novellas?
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