The Dead Zone
Speaking of novellas, I have two of those suckers I haven't marketed very stringently. I think I've sent each one out once. The novella form kind of seems like a literary dead zone.
Short story -- sure, market it to lit magazines. Novel -- okay, market it to book publishers. Frankly, I just don't know what to do with these things. Neither one seems capable of expansion into a novel, or being condensed into a short story. They're pretty happy at their current lengths, at least in my opinion.
So I wanted to open this up as a question. Does anyone have experience with novellas? Namely, does anybody know of any good novella markets?
It kind of seems like the only way to publish a novella is to be someone like Stephen King, who could sell his grocery list for a huge cash advance anyway. I suspect that the mainstream press wouldn't like novellas much, because they'd be hard to sell.
Thanks for reading,
LLB
Short story -- sure, market it to lit magazines. Novel -- okay, market it to book publishers. Frankly, I just don't know what to do with these things. Neither one seems capable of expansion into a novel, or being condensed into a short story. They're pretty happy at their current lengths, at least in my opinion.
So I wanted to open this up as a question. Does anyone have experience with novellas? Namely, does anybody know of any good novella markets?
It kind of seems like the only way to publish a novella is to be someone like Stephen King, who could sell his grocery list for a huge cash advance anyway. I suspect that the mainstream press wouldn't like novellas much, because they'd be hard to sell.
Thanks for reading,
LLB
posted by LadyLitBlitzin at 2:38 PM
2 Comments:
A couple of years ago, novellas were all the rage (if your name happened to be Joyce Carol Oates or Saul Bellow). I'd like to know how they did on sales.
My guess, for mortal writers, is to perform open-heart surgery on the fuckers. Extract excerpts (or should the be excerpt extracts?) Try to sell them as short-stories until you can market your own laundry list.
Good luck, I can't seem to work as a short order writer either.
Ah, I see we are of the same opinion. Yeah, I guess I should totally do that -- well, the one I submitted the other day is a step in the right direction. I definitely agree -- I think you'd have to have a "name" as opposed to being a mortal writer as you say to sell a novella to any market.
LLB
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