Why are novellas rare in publishing?
Have you written a novella, but don’t really know where to go with it for publication? Novellas aren’t nearly as popular as they were in publishing today. Some famous novellas include Voltaire’s Candide, Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, and Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis. Even if novellas aren’t as popular as novels, there’s still a market for them and a way to work around the word length requirements.
What is a novella?
A novella is different from a novel or a short story due to its word count. Novellas are anywhere between 10,000 and 40,000 words (but even this varies in the industry). This makes them longer than a short story, but too short to be considered a book. Some publishers even recognize a shorter story option—the novelette—that is between 7,500 and 17,000 words.
Word count fluctuations
In the first half of the 20th century, the short story was the dominant length of fiction. Today, however, the opposite is true, and many short story writers struggle to find success or recognition if they don’t write novel-length works.
Word counts not only vary from genre to genre, but also from era to era. High fantasy, for instance, has been famous for its lengthy word count ever since Tolkien. It’s not uncommon for a single high fantasy novel now to be over 400,000 words, whereas Tolkien’s entire Lord of the Rings trilogy came in at 480,000 words. The Chronicles of Narnia books varied between 39,000 to 64,000 words, whereas the Harry Potter books were 74,000 to 257,000 words.
In general, popular genre fiction, such as thrillers or mysteries, and commercial fiction are longer than literary fiction, as all genres of fiction became more popular in the second half of the 20th century.
Why novellas were popular
One explanation for the novel fluctuations has to do with the early serialization of novels. By splitting up the publication of a story into magazine issues or pamphlets, the content of the novel had to change. Many stories ended with cliffhangers to keep readers interested in the next installment.
Additionally, in the early 20th century the economics of publishing shifted toward the newsstand. On newsstands, magazines couldn’t take up too much space, so short stories dominated. When it came to publishing houses, novelists were paid per book, not per word, giving even less economic incentive to write longer works. For more information about the history of novellas, check out this article.
The shift to novels
When market paperbacks were introduced, the novella slowly disappeared. Although it costs less to produce a novella due to its length, other aspects such as marketing, transportation, and stocking, costs the same. Publishers didn’t make as much of a profit on novellas as they did with novels. However, most people find a market for novellas when they self-publish, publish an e-book, or work with hybrid publishers because it’s less expensive and quicker to read for audiences.
To get some insight into what it’s like writing novellas, check out this interview with four novella authors.
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