Novellas

I don't think the span of time covered makes much difference to the length of the novel. Dean Koontz's "Intensity" pretty much spans just one day, and it's a decent sized novel.

45K can be a tough length to sell. It's longer than most novellas--which are hard to sell, too--and a lot shorter than commercial novels for adults.

Padding for the sake of padding won't make it saleable, of course. If you can't trim the story down to novella/novelette territory, review the story for possible relevant subplots to add, or places where the current plot could use some expansion. (And check what's the lower limit for the genre, too.)

seun said:

Is the definition of a novella a short novel? Where is the line between a novella and an underwritten novel? I ask because my WIP is probably going to be around 45,000 words which is obviously not long enough to be a novel. I'm 20,000 words in and was wondering about padding the story out to make a novel but now don't think I will. It's a personal, intense story for the MC that only covers a few days so there isn't much room or point to padding.

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Well, 45K is a novel. The novella length ends at either 30K or 40K, depending on genre.

And while 45K may be a tough sell, it's certainly not an impossible one. The Bridges of Madison County came in at 36,000 words, and it stayed on the bestseller lists forever. And at 52,000 words, Sparks' The Notebook wasn't a heck of a lot longer.

seun said:

Interesting. I'm sure I read somewhere the minimum for a novel is 60,000 words. Is that wrong?

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The definition for "novel" is somewhat fluid and depends on the genre and the target audience.

Certain SF awards define the length for a novella as 17.5K up to 40K--after that, it's considered a novel. However, outside of middle grade and YA categories, most SF novels tend to be much longer. (And these days, the upper limit for YA novels is pretty much the same as for adult novels, thanks to Harry Potter.)

Other genres have different ranges, so do different publishers inside those genres. Plus there are always exceptions. Hence all the qualifiers in my post.

Beth Bernobich said:

The definition for "novel" is somewhat fluid and depends on the genre and the target audience.

...Snipped.

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I think it also depends upon the publishing house's own guidelines. I've noticed certain publishers' submission requirements, novel lengths and novella lengths have a tendency to be slightly different from house to house.

Sean D. Schaffer said:

I think it also depends upon the publishing house's own guidelines. I've noticed certain publishers' submission requirements, novel lengths and novella lengths have a tendency to be slightly different from house to house.

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Right. That's why I mentioned that same thing in my post.

seun said:

Interesting. I'm sure I read somewhere the minimum for a novel is 60,000 words. Is that wrong?

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Yes, that's wrong. Different publishers ask for different lengths according to exactly the kid of novel they want, and the audience it's aimed at, but there's is a specific length for every type of fiction.

short short--1,000--2,000 words.

Short Story--2,000--7,500 words.

Novelette--7,500--15,000 words. (7,500--17,500 words in SF and fantasy.)

Novella--15,000 to 30,000 words. (17,500--40,000 words in SF and fantasy)

Novel--anything over 30,000 words. (Anything over 40,000 words in SF and fantasy.)

These are not set because of contests or awards. The lengths were set many, many decades ago because of how magazines are put together; the way space can be divided into a magazine of a certain size while still allowing a number of different story lengths.

But there's also a content factor. While there are similarities, each of these lengths requires a different skill set. A short story is not written quite the way a novelette is written, a novelette is not written quite the way a novella is written, etc.

It goes back to tech old saw that a novel is not just a really long short story. It's true, and a novelette and a novella are not just long short stories, either.

Beth Bernobich said:

Right. That's why I mentioned that same thing in my post.

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Sorry about that. I guess I read your post wrong.

are the lengths very much different for YA? For instance, I think my WIP will clock in around 30somethingK words when I'm done with it, but that seems to be a pretty dead zone as far as length goes...

Mdlle. Nancy said:

are the lengths very much different for YA? For instance, I think my WIP will clock in around 30somethingK words when I'm done with it, but that seems to be a pretty dead zone as far as length goes...

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My impression is that the lower limit for YA is closer to 40/45K than 30K, but you will want to double check with the guidelines for individual publishers. Middle grade novels are still on the short side.

seun said:

I think I'll finish the story and see how the edit goes before I focus too much on anything else. It probably will end up around the 45K mark. If that's enough to tell the story, then OK. I'm not too fussed about potential publication at the moment as I don't have an agent

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Yeah, that's the best move, I agree.

And if you end up with a 45K novel that you're happy with, consider researching small speciality presses that publish in that range.