In a pickle

Citymouse,

Yes! This is exactly what I'm going through!

I've written just over 30,000 words, and the climax has just climaxed. I had originally thought of a story line that would be a great sequel, and so I considered merging them--but that doesn't really work. The struggle in my novel starts on page one and ends where it ends, and trying to tack more to the end of that won't work.

So now I'm in subplot land.

Great thread, thanks for it!

There is definately a market for novellas, and some of them do extremely well, especially in western and sci-fi genres.

I did something similar, Citymouse.

When this book was no more than a concept, before it was even fully outlined, I knew how it had to end. The whole scene played out in my head, and I knew some of the back story that would lead up to it. It was great, it was funny, and...it came way too soon. Writing past that point is no good. That's the end.

So now I'm going back and filling in, but honestly, most of what I did this morning is crap and will be taken back out again. I can maybe squeeze a little more into the story, but the problem is that time figures prominently, and I can't just add in more time somewhere in the middle, nor can I add more to the end without going past my climax point. So I'm stuck.

My impression is that the novella is a bit of an orphan form. A few of the pro magazines will do them, but the huge space expenditure means they'll strongly favor well-established writers. Look in the "Don't send" lists of agents -- you'll often see the novella there. Anthologies might be another outlet. For most, I'd imagine the "well-established writer" criterion would also hold.

A collection of novellas? Maybe, though I don't see much difference between that and a collection of short stories, marketing-wise. Stephen King has put out some fine novella collections, like Four Past Midnight. Again, he's Stephen King.

So I guess I'd check out the periodicals/anthologies that will consider novellas and also publishers who consider them, then go the usual submission route.

I can't think of any sub-hundred page books that have hit it big of late. I was thinking The Christmas Box, which is actually around 130 pages. Brokeback Mountain was originally published in The New Yorker, then republished in a short story collection, Close Range. It was published again as a 64 page standalone book as an explicit tie-in to the movie (Nov. 2005). So, not an example of the novella standing on its own without extraordinary circumstances coming into play.

King's novellas are as big as other people's novels.

There's a definite market for shorter works in ebooks.

I find they also are good for those of us with short atte-

ooh, shiny!

Mine's over a hundred pages, but that's largely because of conversations and my habit of starting each new speaker on a new line.

I just went and took out everything I'd tried to wedge in, leaving me with 34,723 words, but I'm still not finished and there's a lot of editing to be done; some parts need to be filled in and others will, no doubt, need to be cut. The story will probably come in right around 40,000, too short for most agents.

Damn. I was really hoping that this one would be the one to land me an agent. I've had a bad experience with a small press and want to avoid small presses in the future. But maybe E-publishing will be the way to go with this one.

Anthologies mostly buy stories from established writers, but they sometimes take relative newcomers.

scarletpeaches said:

King's novellas are as big as other people's novels.

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Wow!! That is incredible. If a novella for him is a novel for us, what would a novel for him be, an epic?

Well he writes thumping great doorstoppers. Have you seen "Under the Dome" (which, incidentally, always makes me think of the Simpsons movie)?

It's about eleventy bajillion pages long. I swear, the hardback could brain you if someone dropped it on your head.

My husband came home, and I told him about the low-word count problem.

"Oh," he said, "Why not just put 'Book Two' and put a sequel along with it?"

I hadn't thought of that. I did have a sequel in mind for this book, back when I thought it would be about 40,000 words longer than it turned out. It's a direct continuation of the first, starting only days later.

I've seen quite a few fantasy novels divided into "books" this way, but what do you guys think? Would that be agentable? Or should I just finish this as a novella, forget the sequel, and start my next project?

Speaking as someone whose first story was done at 19K, and the next one finished out at 36K, I second the e-publishing suggestion.

Your story will probably be priced according to its length, and from what I can tell digging through anecdotes and the occasional sales numbers, the two to three dollar price point actually results in more sales than full length books might get. (Ask me about that in a year - by then I will have some first hand knowledge!)

In print a novella feels thin and light, and though it costs nearly as much to produce as a more typical length book, people feel ripped off if you price it according to its production cost.

On an e-reader, heft doesn't matter - all that counts is that the story has a beginning, middle, and end.

Kathleen,

I hadn't thought of the pricing angle. That's a good point.

After my bad experience with a small press, I decided that from that point forward if a novel wasn't good enough to snag an agent, I didn't want it published under my name. Because of that, I haven't looked into e-publishing at all.

I guess I'll be spending some time in B,R&BC and at Predators and Editors over the next few weeks, and seriously considering e-publishing for the first time.

scarletpeaches said:

Well he writes thumping great doorstoppers. Have you seen "Under the Dome" (which, incidentally, always makes me think of the Simpsons movie)?

It's about eleventy bajillion pages long. I swear, the hardback could brain you if someone dropped it on your head.

Click to expand...

Holy cow, you were absolutely right! I am looking at it on Amazon.com right now and it's 1,074 pages long!!


I looked at It and it's...holy cow, 1,104 pages! I'm considering buying these books and other King books because I'm a big fan, but I reckon it's going to take me a long time to finish reading them! Phew!

For the first time in years, I'm lost on AW.

Wow. Any tips on how to find an e-publisher that takes women's fic with a twist of humor?


ETA: I just remembered the index to publishers at the top of B,R,&BC.

slcboston said:

I find they also are good for those of us with short atte-

ooh, shiny!

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lol

MagaliFuentes said:

Holy cow, you were absolutely right! I am looking at it on Amazon.com right now and it's 1,074 pages long!!


I looked at It and it's...holy cow, 1,104 pages! I'm considering buying these books and other King books because I'm a big fan, but I reckon it's going to take me a long time to finish reading them! Phew!

Click to expand...

That's nothing. Try Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy: 1500 pages!

In hardback!

Useful for this:

aruna said:

That's nothing. Try Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy: 1500 pages!

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Ho-ly cow!!

scarletpeaches said:

In hardback!

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I could knock someone out with that one really easily. Not that I want to...but I could.

aruna said:

Useful for this:

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Word.

MagaliFuentes said:

Wow!! That is incredible. If a novella for him is a novel for us, what would a novel for him be, an epic?

Click to expand...

MagaliFuentes said:

Holy cow, you were absolutely right! I am looking at it on Amazon.com right now and it's 1,074 pages long!!


I looked at It and it's...holy cow, 1,104 pages! I'm considering buying these books and other King books because I'm a big fan, but I reckon it's going to take me a long time to finish reading them! Phew!

Click to expand...

I'm not sure "big fan" means what you think it means, if you were unaware of the length (even roughly) of King's novels...