New to the world of writing.

Manudurand · Jul 21, 2017

Hello.

As the title says I'm a newcomer to this new area and have no idea what to do next, I've just written a novella (37k word count) but I have a problem defining its exact genre, I have seen that one important step is to get a person to proofread and remove any typos and grammatical errors (forgot how it was called), literary agents are currently out of my range (made the grave mistake of query by not having a proper, lengthy novel) , self-publishing is not my kind of path to take, there is something called "small press" which looks like my only option but still I have to research more about it.

Should I keep writing and expanding the novella until I reach 100k count or it is feasible to turn it into 3 novellas? As I said, I'm very naive about this business so any insight would be appreciated.

pschmehl · Jul 21, 2017

I wrote a Christian novella of 23k word count. It's been an uphill battle trying to get reviews. I was told by agents that novellas don't sell. I was also told that Christian fiction doesn't sell well.

Padding what you've written is probably a bad idea. If you don't want to self-publish, you may be forced to either pad it or write another and try to sell the two as a collection. Unless you've been published before, selling novellas is tough.

blacbird · Jul 21, 2017

pschmehl said:
I wrote a Christian novella of 23k word count. It's been an uphill battle trying to get reviews. I was told by agents that novellas don't sell. I was also told that Christian fiction doesn't sell well.

There certainly are a number of publishers who specialize in Christian literature (Zondervan immediately comes to mind). But it is something to be pitched to a particular audience, and not likely to be taken on by the big dudes in the general publishing world.

caw

Manudurand · Jul 22, 2017

pschmehl said:
I wrote a Christian novella of 23k word count. It's been an uphill battle trying to get reviews. I was told by agents that novellas don't sell. I was also told that Christian fiction doesn't sell well.

Padding what you've written is probably a bad idea. If you don't want to self-publish, you may be forced to either pad it or write another and try to sell the two as a collection. Unless you've been published before, selling novellas is tough.

After talking to a friend, I think padding could be my only last resort and can open my chance to query literary agents properly, only wish I didn't query 110 agents in the past (¿is this unfortunately permanent damage?), also I assume my novella falls to the category "commercial fiction", ¿is 80-85k word count enough or should I aim to 100k for that kind of genre?

Treehouseman · Jul 22, 2017

It may be best to write another work from the beginning. If the story works as a 40K novella, it might not work as a 100K novel.

Novellas can be serialised in literary magazines - the editor may split it into 10K chunks. Mind you, the people who get this option usually sell a few short stories first, and have a track record in publishing. Other than that, there's really nowhere to sell them. All the novellas I've seen have been in collections (Like Stephen King's Four Seasons(?) or in Magazines.

Unfortunately the only way to get experience is to do experience.

80-100K is the sweet spot for commercial genre. With the cost of books these days, people want their money's worth. However Mysteries may be on the low *80K end of the scale if that's where you want to go.

mccardey · Jul 22, 2017

Manudurand said:
After talking to a friend, I think padding could be my only last resort and can open my chance to query literary agents properly, only wish I didn't query 110 agents in the past (¿is this unfortunately permanent damage?), also I assume my novella falls to the category "commercial fiction", ¿is 80-85k word count enough or should I aim to 100k for that kind of genre?

Padding is not what you want to do - it doesn't make a good book, it makes an overly-flabby book. But that's not to say that this book is lost - it might be that you've written the major character arc or the major story, and now you could go an create a secondary arc to complement it.

Also, genre does make a difference to word-count - what kind of genres do you think this fits into? I know you said you weren't sure, but this thread or this infographic might help.

Finally - best advice would be to go to the newbie's thread, say hello, and join the community for the long haul - when you get 50 substantive posts up, you'll be able to post an excerpt in Share Your Work, and then people will have a better idea what you're dealing with.

Welcome to AW :Sun:

Manudurand · Jul 26, 2017

A bit late to respond..

By reading the links I conclude is definitely Commercial Fiction, about the padding, I think I can make it a novel without compromising the story, I wish I could get the 50 posts mark to access the Share your Work subforum but I'm not the social type, maybe I will make some threads in the future to get some answers.

Thanks for the welcome, though.

mccardey · Jul 26, 2017

You can always go and critique in the Share Your Work threads - they are the very best way to build up post-counts, and to ensure that people will return the favour when you do put your own work up.

P.K. Torrens · Sep 22, 2017

Try adding some interesting subplots that enrich your story's world. Maybe one or two more POV's with their own story to tell that ties into your main plot.

New to the world of writing.

Saving up for a typewriter