TOO SHORT FOR A NOVEL, TOO LONG FOR A NOVELLA. WHERE TO SEND IT?

ldlago · Dec 29, 2020

I recently completed a story, approximately 41,000 words. I picked up a copy of "Novel & Short Story Writer's Market" and came to the conclusion that the in-between length is difficult to sell. I looked all over online until I found something better suited to shorter works, stories that can be readily adapted into screenplays, Screencraft's Cinematic Book Contest. Has anyone ever submitted there? Any luck?

mccardey · Dec 29, 2020

No, I haven't but - do you want it as a screenplay? Perhaps you could just set it by for a while and then come back and see if there's something more you can do with it?

ldlago · Dec 29, 2020

mccardey said:
Perhaps you could just set it by for a while

I submitted it a few months ago. Quarterfinalists will be posted on January 6th. I had screenplay in mind as I wrote, but wanted to get inside the characters' heads a bit more.

mccardey · Dec 29, 2020

ldlago said:
I submitted it a few months ago. Quarterfinalists will be posted on January 6th. I had screenplay in mind as I wrote, but wanted to get inside the characters' heads a bit more.

Oh, okay. Well - too late now, but generally I would not do this without a lot of legal backup. (In general - not in this specific case, I don't know these people. I have worked in film, though)

Good luck - I hope it works out for you

desdenova · Dec 29, 2020

Interesting. I recently researched this very topic for a novella I'm in the middle of writing. I expect it to end up at around 40k as well. I did find a number of options... note though that in my case it's an urban fantasy piece, so I had that in mind as well when looking.

These are all paying markets.

So here's what I've found (it might be useful for others as well):

-- Dancing Star Press
17-40k
https://www.dancingstarpress.com/submissions/

-- Distant Shore Publishing
20-70k
http://distantshorepublishing.com/submissions/

-- The Fantasist
15-40k
http://thefantasistmag.com/submissions-guidelines/

- Twelfth Planet Press
17-40k
http://www.twelfthplanetpress.com/submissions

There are also these two, though I could not find their word count range:

-- Black Bed Sheet Books
https://blackbedsheetbooks.com/submissions/

-- Erewhon
https://www.erewhonbooks.com/submissions

Additionally, there's also Nouvella... though I'm not sure if they're still active. I don't think they do genre fiction, so this could work for literary pieces (assuming they're still active):

http://nouvellabooks.com/

Couldn't find their submission guidelines though...

ldlago · Dec 30, 2020

desdenova said:
These are all paying markets.

Thanks so much for the list. It's good to have options.

jpoelma13 · Dec 30, 2020

If the story really is that difficult to sell, you could consider revising it to be shorter or longer.

ldlago · Dec 31, 2020

mccardey said:
I would not do this without a lot of legal backup.

I posted (or thought I did) a response to this line. Somehow it never appeared. What I said was that Screencraft's submission guidelines recommend that you copyright your work before submitting it, so I did. It's a highly competitive contest. I'm trying to hold my expectations down, but it would be nice to at least make the quarterfinals. It's possible that this comment was moved under a different heading. I'll have to check.

ldlago · Dec 31, 2020

jpoelma13 said:
If the story really is that difficult to sell, you could consider revising it to be shorter or longer.

Thanks for the response. The story has many historical references and required a considerable amount of research. Despite its shorter length, it took a long time to write. I'm certain I won't be making any changes. I left the story open ended, the main characters banged up but still breathing. Should I get positive feedback from Screencraft, I may write a sequel or adapt it into a screenplay either on my own or in collaboration. Right now, I'm working on something else, something requiring far less research. I needed to do something completely different. It's good to step away sometimes.