Today's Wall Street Journal had an interesting article taken from the Guardian. It suggests that because TV sound bites and commercials clogging TV drama along with digital device popularity, the attention span of readers has dwindled vastly. Therefore, writers should concentrate on novellas of a length that can be read in a single sitting in order to bring readers back to the literary market. This is what I recall from the article. My husband took the paper with him, so I can't offer exact words. Anyone have thoughts on a possible reemergence of the novella?
Is the novella rising from the ashes?
- Thread starter Doc
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2008
- Messages
- 147
- Reaction score
- 35
- Location
- In the Darkness
- Website
- www.radicaldreams.com
People are getting more and more visually dependent, if anything comics and manga will be booming.
But not everyone watches tv and movies is never going to take over because its 2 hours then over when a story can wrap u along for hours =)
But not everyone watches tv and movies is never going to take over because its 2 hours then over when a story can wrap u along for hours =)
- Joined
- Dec 3, 2007
- Messages
- 2,962
- Reaction score
- 629
- Location
- Bay Area, CA
- Website
- www.geardrops.net
Please make it so!
Kevin, who is holding a finished novella manuscript in one hand and typing with the other.
Kevin, who is holding a finished novella manuscript in one hand and typing with the other.
I wouldn't be surprised if the novella made a good comeback because of this. Especially since, in today's busy world, we don't always have time to read huge books. I like to pick up short books and novellas when I have a really busy schedule...plus, with all the modern conviniences eveything has become so easy. Naturally, that would make really long books intimidating for some people. I mean, cause then you actually have to work. Well, hopefully the novella will make a comeback. I've got one covered up in dust somewhere, very incomplete but something I'd like to get back to. But does that mean long books will take a sales dive? Hope not. I doubt it will. There will always be reader's thirsting for a nice long adventure or a theme driven plot, I think. Either way, whatever length fits the novel works, and if both lengths can have great sales, more power.
Good Luck, KTC. Yoda. Yeah.
Good Luck, KTC. Yoda. Yeah.
- Joined
- May 3, 2007
- Messages
- 1,638
- Reaction score
- 364
- Location
- California
- Website
- www.erinrichards.com
I think novellas are getting popular for these reasons. Look at the size of full length novels that are published today versus 5+ years ago. In romance for instance, single titles used to be 100K average...now days that's moving to 80K-90K. Everything is short and it's not just to save a buck in publishing. Time crunch and attention span have a lot to do with it. I think the erotic romance market (especially the ePubs) helped bring novellas to the forefront, i.e. Ellora's Cave publishes a lot of novellas.
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2006
- Messages
- 3,348
- Reaction score
- 854
- Age
- 67
- Location
- Ontario, Canader
- Website
- www.chumpletwrites.blogspot.com
Remember the Reader's Digest Condensed Books? Three books in one. My mom ate them all up. I'm hoping, too.
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
- Messages
- 28,750
- Reaction score
- 2,937
- Location
- right here
- Website
- www.veinglory.com
I don't see it. The novella and the novel are only about 50c different (based on the few I see on the shelf like the Blace Lace novellas). So I don't think people would see it as value unless print novellas were sold as anthologies. Which they are, and still less popular than novels. hmmm.
For ebooks novellas make more sense because they do sell about as well or only a bit less so you make more per word.
For ebooks novellas make more sense because they do sell about as well or only a bit less so you make more per word.
If the reader's attention span is dwindeling, I'll write long stories, Which is what I'm doing.
If people have short attention span I'll try to teach them that they can find cool stuff in long things also.
I don't want to nourish something that I think is sad.
If people have short attention span I'll try to teach them that they can find cool stuff in long things also.
I don't want to nourish something that I think is sad.
I don't look at the price of a book. I never have. If I look at it and decide I want to read it, I buy it. I have a shelf full of novellas. Some worth a lot more than some of the tomes I have.
I sure hope so :|
I really like novellas and short novels, honestly. Epics, even ones I know I'll love, intimidate me. I find myself counting: Ten percent done. Fifteen percent done. Twenty percent done...
Until I'm about halfway in, and I've forgotten counting.
I am very partial to my novella and I am sad that probably it'll have to wait for publication til I make a name for myself.
I really like novellas and short novels, honestly. Epics, even ones I know I'll love, intimidate me. I find myself counting: Ten percent done. Fifteen percent done. Twenty percent done...
Until I'm about halfway in, and I've forgotten counting.
I am very partial to my novella and I am sad that probably it'll have to wait for publication til I make a name for myself.
I don't, either.
I'm in the bookstore every day (literally), and you see virtually no novella collections anywhere visible. Doesn't mean it can't happen, but if it does it will not have anything to do with a dwindling attention span. The novels that sell big -- legal thrillers, high-concept thrillers, women's fiction -- are often lauded as "page-turners." People who read these books read them on planes, over the length of a vacation. They aren't worried about the attention span.
Last edited:
I thought the exact same thing.
I have a tendency to write short, novella length first drafts, but I always really do need to add things to make the story complete. Just because of the pain of adding 20-30K more words, I can so appreciate this!
Last edited:
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
- Messages
- 6,561
- Reaction score
- 1,206
- Location
- smack dab in the middle of nowhere
- Website
- astonwest.com
Just in time for my novella to come out this fall...
mwahahahahaaaaaaaaa
Maybe agents will start rethinking their rejections of my query earlier this year as well...
One can dream.
mwahahahahaaaaaaaaa
Maybe agents will start rethinking their rejections of my query earlier this year as well...
One can dream.
Personally, I like novels in the 60-90k range. Long enough to tell a satisfying story with developing characters, and short enough to not outstay its welcome. Novellas have usually felt like an extended short story to me, and not as satisfying as a short novel (and often not as satisfying as a good short story).
But, there are examples of novellas like "I am Legend", which I think is genius.
Are novellas being marketed on book shelves? Not in collections but as single volumes? I haven't really seen anything that short in the SF/F or Mystery sections that I frequent.
But, there are examples of novellas like "I am Legend", which I think is genius.
Are novellas being marketed on book shelves? Not in collections but as single volumes? I haven't really seen anything that short in the SF/F or Mystery sections that I frequent.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2008
- Messages
- 147
- Reaction score
- 35
- Location
- In the Darkness
- Website
- www.radicaldreams.com
90-100K novels will never die just because many people like me love to read developing characters that you can connect with. I like feeling I'm apart of their journey... Short stories could never satisfy me, they finish way before I am ready to let go of the characters =P
Yeah, but most frequently in literary fiction, I think. For whatever reason, short novels and novellas are a tougher sell. SF/F tends to be one of the longest genres, too.
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2007
- Messages
- 20,006
- Reaction score
- 5,353
Novels become novellas, and short stories become flash.
I think there's an 'instant gratification' factor in readers right now, who are used to the quick results of a sit com or the cyberworld. Which, of course, proves my inability to consider my market since I write EPIC fantasies...
Might need to get my brain checked.
I think there's an 'instant gratification' factor in readers right now, who are used to the quick results of a sit com or the cyberworld. Which, of course, proves my inability to consider my market since I write EPIC fantasies...
Might need to get my brain checked.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2008
- Messages
- 147
- Reaction score
- 35
- Location
- In the Darkness
- Website
- www.radicaldreams.com
SF/F tends to be the longest because of how much education the reader most go through to understand the world they are reading about... unlike the others where its this world and obviously they have somewhat a handle on how it works =)
Thats why I love fantasy so much, leave this crappy world for an exciting and full of possibilities one. =)
Actually the way around the process is manga, long epic fantasies stretched into episodes =)
I think this is becoming something else.
There is room in the marketplace for both the novel and the novella. What has always been will always be.
There is room in the marketplace for both the novel and the novella. What has always been will always be.
I will read a 1000 page novel and put it down to pick up an 80 page novella. What I look for is investing time in a good story. I don't give a dead monkey's finger how many pages that story covers.
- Status