Do publishers consider novellas just as they would consider novels, or is it a whole other department all together. Any other info on the whole novella thing would be great. Rm
Rippa Mate, You would have to check the individual publisher guidelines. Some publishers accept novella length works, others do not. Novellas are kind of the inbetween step-child, and the number of markets that accept them, while they exist, are less common. Often when a market that accepts short fiction also accepts novella length, they accept fewer per issue and/or those novellas that they do accept have to be exceptional as compared to the short fiction. It seems that e-markets are more open to novellas than print markets...and novella vary in length and what a market will consider within that length varies. A place to start your search for markets would be Duotrope. Then select the genre and length (novelette - 7501 to 15,000 or novella - 15,001 to 40,000) and see what comes up. I have other search sites listed on my website which you can link to if you go here: Market Search Websites Those should give you a good start in your search. Good luck. Terry
the bottom line here is that you'll be severely limiting your chances of being published if you write novellas, rather than short stories or full-size novels... so, why would you spend all that time and effort on something that has the least chance of being sold, when you could be working on what has the greatest?
Thanks for that TWErvin2 oh this is just a one off thing, im writing for a competition and was just curious to know about the markets out there if i happened to have this novella at hand, its really more of a novelette competition but anyway... Above all though its about practice, to improve my actual novel, which will have a "greater" chance at being sold.
It also depends on the age group that it will likely be market to, though. There aren't a lot of them, but you can find books in the youth sections that are under 30k words, and of course there are lots of kids' novels that are technically novellas. Orca Books has a whole series that is intentionally extra short. I haven't found a single book by Lurlene McDaniel, and she's published a lot of them, that looks like it's over 50k words. Mammamia is the expert and in general I would agree with her on this one. On the other hand, the story ends when it ends. If you try to make it longer for the sake of making it more publishable, you might be reducing its chances in other ways because it could become to verbose or tedious. Lots of people said that the fifth Harry Potter book was all right, but would have been better if it had been 100 pages shorter.
from what I've seen novellas are just short novels, but are also really just the same thing. I've heard even 200 page books referred to as a novella. Things like Ender's Game and Fahrienhiet 451 have all been called novella.s
I was under the impression Novellas were anything up to 80k words (although, admittedly wikipedia says >40k) and that they made up quite substantial parts of certain genres. The first piece of writing Stephen King got published (despite having completed novels before) was Carrie and that's was classified by him as a novella (see On Writing), so I don't think they should be completely discounted. Also, I always liked something about novellas, they're pretty much extended short stories and can make excellent travel companions. Personally, 80k words is a very pleasant length to read. I think there's too much of a tendencies to write 100k+ novels filled with waffle, when a nice 80k would have produced an excellent, fast moving and often gripping story. (all of that is of course based on my continued belief, despite wiki, that 80k is the upper limit for a novella) But, that's just me
The SFWA in its Nebula awards lists a novella as 17,500 up to 40,000 words. SWFA Nebula Awards Rules The Hugo Award also lists Novella as between 17,500 to 40,000 words. Hugo Award Categories Terry
Answers that question then! Thanks Terry, I shall amend my thinking!! Wonder where I got 80k from in the first place?!?!
Hey I am curious as to what contest you were entering. As far as Novellas go I have written a couple. One was for a contest and the other was just for kicks. After reading A biography on Card though I am thinking about extending them both to novel length stories. He said that is what he did with Ender's Game. I really feel like they would make good novels because I felt as If I had to shorten it to fit within word guidelines.
If you felt that way, then extending it is probably the best thing to do. I've seen so many novels that started out as short stories or novellas. Of the ones I've read, they always worked out well.
@ TP13 - Its a Australian competition, and I see your from location, you're in Dallas, America somewhere i presume, which unfortunately counts you out... unless, Australia somehow merges with Australia - It was merged once when John Howard was prime minister...
When Rudd became prime minister and joined KYOTO... and moved out of iraq @TP13 - It didn't merge with it self, it merged with america...
ah i see my error, my bad... it should say: Thankfully we're in a writing forum, otherwise the world would have ended from my confusing error.
