I am currently almost finished with what was originally going to be a short story, but is now the length of a novella. I’m at a loss with what to do with it. I’m thinking I can either: 1. Cut the word count down (but I think doing so will ruin the story) 2. Submit it to publications that accept longer stories (One Story, Ploughshares, and similar…but I don’t know of many publications that deal with longer pieces) 3. Just throw it out there. Amazon, wattpad, or similar. 4. Lengthen it to a novel. I don’t know if people care for novellas. Has anyone written one? Or does anyone know what to do with one?
Maybe you could write a short story with a similar theme, or that's loosely connected in some way, and include them together into a single book. Or several short stories. But of course this is only if you're going for trad publishers and actual paper publication. I don't think there's any problem with releasing a novella in ebook form. I think you just reduce the price a bit. Though novellas might not be as popular as novels or shorts.
To provide proper advice, we'd need to know the genre and the actual word count, as Bruce Johnson mentioned above. Over the past few months I have been looking up fiction magazines to submit stories to on Duotrope, and though I don't have a novella myself to sell, I did notice that several of these magazines, and publishers, do accept novellas. Just did a quick search for publishers looking for works of 15K-40K words and selected "general" as the genre, and there are 36 results. If it works best at the length it ended up with, perhaps you do not need to extend or trim it to find it a home.
Thanks @Set2Stun. I knew I was under-utilising Duotrope, but you've clarified how I might broaden my submission targets. To the OP, awkward lengths can be a nuisance, finding oneself left to potentially damage the finished story or persist with what's there. If you're happy with it, I'd be inclined to try it as is, see how that goes before changing it. Another factor to consider is that you get one shot usually and any publisher that rejects is unlikely to welcome a modified version unless they ask for it. I have 2 that go well beyond most short story limits and will persist a bit longer with them.
The story, at this point, is roughly 16,000 words, and I think once it’s finished it will be over the 20,000 mark. I plan to finish it, revise as much as possible, trimming out as much fat as I can, but I don’t see it being much less than 20,000 words. To cut it down, I think, will do it injustice. I’ll do what I can and try to find somewhere to submit it. If that doesn’t work out I’ll probably post it in this forum to torture everyone
Binti is novella length and it did extremely well. Rare, but not impossible. I think it’s a shame there isn’t a bigger market for novellas.
submit it in the word count and how it sounds best to you without cutting anything from it, don't worry too much about whether to adapt it to a particular site, keep it as faithful to your vision
Novellas on difficult grounds because the cost of production for them generally isn't worth the sales in print, and as for a small story they're quite long to be rolled into most e-zines. Do you have other short stories to fall along with or around it? Would it fit as a good centerpiece to a story or vignette collection?
If it is set in or related to longer works, it could be used as a freebie on your site to help generate interest in your other works.
One thing I have noticed with e-books, say Amazon, is that novella size "books" are not only more feasible but actually practical.
