Greetings and a question about length

[Wyll]

Hello all. Just another 30 year old Canadian who has been riting short fiction for the last 12 years as a hobby and to entertain friends.

Recently, I thought about taking the best of my work (a sci-fi series, of sorts) and prepaing it for publication. The really problem is the stories clock in at about 30,000 words each. This leaves me too long for the short story market and too short for the novel market.

Anyone have any idea where I may have a chance to see my work in print? I thought about combining 3 stories in a single work to get it over the 90,000 word mark, but that seems like a silly thought.

[mammamaia]

hard copy and/or online subscription... there are good deals on both... there, you'll find all you need to know on marketing your work...

here are the basics on length:

Novel: Generally any work of prose fiction over 45,000 words, ranging to about 150,000 words.

Novella/Novelette: Short novel averaging 7,000 - 40,000 words. These terms are often used somewhat interchangeably, although novellas tend to be longer, and novelettes shorter.

Short Story: Prose fiction of about 2,000 - 7,500 words.

Short Short: Prose fiction under 2,000 words.

Flash Fiction: (also known as sudden fiction or micro fiction) Prose fiction under 1000, 500, or even 99 words, depending on the market or guidelines.

i doubt you'll find a market for the length stories you have right now, or even for all three as one book, unless they're connected by a common theme... novellas by new writers aren't bought, since there's no market for them singly, and collections are usually by known authors... if you can pare them down to short story length, or develop them into full novels, they'll have a much better chance of being published...

hope this info/input is helpful... love and hugs, maia

[Wyll]

The advice was great. It helped stop making me feel like the length of my work put me in the red-headed bastard stepchild category of wannabe writers.

Much appreciated. Guess I'll just stick to posting my work on my website for now.

[rtilryarms]

My Wife reminds me constantly that the length is not as important as the quality.

And she said she will take me back when I get either one!

rt

[Cary]

Ive understood that works of that length were in the 'Novella zone'.(Mama,you are so smart!) Personally I wouldnt create length,If It were done only to satisfy a word count requirment.Wouldnt that change your work,significantly???? If anything,reduce a tiny bit,go for novelette!!!! Ive found that a good hard edit tightens things ya know.;)

[Wyll]

Thanks to all your good avice, I am just happy to discover that:

(a) My work can now be classified ("I write Novelettes", "What?", "Books for people who have short attention spans.", "Oh!")

(b) Length means nothing if you are happy with your work.

(c) It should only cost me half as much to self-publish compared to a novel *rimshot*.

Anyways, I thank you all for the advice. It really had helped put my work into prospective.