Are Novella Anthologies Viable?

Hello Everyone,

I was a frequent participant on this forum a number of years ago, but have completely forgot my login details since that time, so I just started a new account. I'm glad to be back.

Growing up I was always inspired by the pulp fiction stories of the early twentieth century, and there are still many things that appeal to me about them now. It's what really got me into writing novellas—I always loved the fact that you can pick one up, even one from a long running series, and have a great experience without having to commit a massive amount of time to doing so, or having to understand the expansive mythology that may lie behind the story. They're very much standalone.

In short, I'm currently writing an anthology that features three novellas about the same character. They're essentially episodic adventures, and while the character certainly develops through his stories, they're very much standalone.

I'm very torn on this issue. On the one hand, it's absolutely what I want to write. No question. But on the other, I get the impression that such works are not particularly marketable in the present day. It also seems a massive risk for someone who has never been published before. Most of the advice that I've found concerning anthologies assumes that they're going to feature completely unrelated stories from multiple writers, and even then they're spoken of as something that's extremely hard to sell except for an established author.

Can anyone offer any thoughts on this matter?

frimble3 said:

If it's 3 stories from the same author, about the same character, why go to the trouble of calling it an 'anthology', which, as a reader, makes me think of something different? Short stories, for one thing, either by a group of writers, or one writer, but in either case, someone well-known enough that it's a known quantity.
Why not just call it a novel, and, instead of chapters, call the three divisions 'episodes', or similar? 'Chapter' implies parts of a whole, while 'episodes', or 'events', suggests incidents in a character's life. Indeed, you could follow up with other 'episodes' at a later date.

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Hmm. I never thought of that. I thought that "novel" implied a single story of a particular length. And yes, I actually have twelve further stories already outlined, and so I'd like to produce multiple volumes ultimately. I don't tend to bring up such long term plans though, because I feel like it's tempting fate. I was actually going to subtitle this first book "Volume 1".

Maggie Maxwell said:

By my understanding, and I may be wrong in which case this is a learning experience, an anthology is a bunch of stories from different people tied by a single thread, while a group of shorter fiction from a single author is a collection. As for your account, reach out to AW Admin. They're usually pretty good about getting people matched back up with lost accounts.

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Hmm. Google suggests that you may be right about that.

It's alright—I can't even remember what e-mail address or username I used for that account. The only thing I've lost of any value was access to the forum for getting feedback, but I don't need that these days.