Time To Write a Novella? – The Short Fiction Renaissance

So, you want to write a novel?

There is often a lot of debate about how long a novel should be, which also depends on what genre you are writing, and the debate is too wide and complex to go into here. (If you’re curious, a great post on novel lengths can be found here). But, for the most part, I think it is taken as read that your novel, certainly for a first time author writing a general novel, should probably be pushing 100,000 words.

That’s a lot of words!

No wonder writing a novel is such a big undertaking. If all you’ve ever written is short stories, blog posts, articles and essays at school, then you’ve probably only written a few thousand words on any one thing. Creating a world, people and events to fill 100,000 words, and it’s seriously daunting. No wonder so many writers have unfinished novels sitting in their drawers or in a folder on their computer.

So why not write a novella? One step up from a short story, not quite a novel. Again, there is much debate over how long a novella should be. For the sake of argument, a wide range would be from between 20,000 to 50,000 words. Something longer than a short story but that can be read in one sitting is another good way to look at it.

The Problems with Novellas

Unfortunately, novellas are a hard sell to publishers. There are a few main reasons for this:

1. For a publisher, a novella is too short to justify the cost of printing.
2. On the flip side, novellas are too long for short story anthologies.
3. Traditionally, not enough people want to buy them.
4. They’re hard to market.

This makes the novella a form that has long been avoided by a lot of writers trying to get published, especially first-time writers.

Now, Here’s Why You Should…

In one word: ebooks.

With the rise of the ebook has come about an increase in the number of writers self-publishing their work, be it through Amazon or another publishing service such as Smashwords or Lulu.

The novella is the perfect length for an ebook. Writers can get around the traditional obstacles that publishers face with novellas, and get their novella onto people’s Kindles directly. Also, in terms of actually getting people to buy your work, it is easier to price your novella at a lower price, that people expect ebooks to cost, rather than a traditional novella published in print, that would probably go on sale for a similar price to a novel, despite being much shorter in length.

But, Do People Want to Read Novellas?

I think so, yes. In our lives there is an increasing number of responsibilities and things taking our attention and our time, and novellas are a wonderful way to read substantial stories without sacrificing the time it takes to slog through a longer novel. They also feel like you’re reading a novel too, in a way, you can can get into novellas in the same way.

At the recently Worldcon event (previously The World Science Fiction Convention), there was a panel that discussed the future of short fiction. Stephen H. Segal, of Weird Tales Magazine predicts we are entering “the golden age of novellas”. For more on what was discussed, check out this really interesting article over at i09.

So, get writing! 30,000 words, go on.

——————————————————————————————————————————

What do you think? Is this the perfect time to write a novella? Do you like reading them? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

Images courtesy of lauraxoloo and ManyChapter.