Is the novella rising from the ashes?

[Doc]

Today's Wall Street Journal had an interesting article taken from the Guardian. It suggests that because TV sound bites and commercials clogging TV drama along with digital device popularity, the attention span of readers has dwindled vastly. Therefore, writers should concentrate on novellas of a length that can be read in a single sitting in order to bring readers back to the literary market. This is what I recall from the article. My husband took the paper with him, so I can't offer exact words. Anyone have thoughts on a possible reemergence of the novella?

[Bubastes]

Under this logic, the short story market should be booming. :crosses fingers:

[SageFury]

People are getting more and more visually dependent, if anything comics and manga will be booming.

But not everyone watches tv and movies is never going to take over because its 2 hours then over when a story can wrap u along for hours =)

[dempsey]

Under this logic, the short story market should be booming. :crosses fingers:

ohpleaseohpleaseohpleaseohplease

[Shady Lane]

See that link in my sig? Pretty novella. You want to click, yes?

[KTC]

Please make it so!



Kevin, who is holding a finished novella manuscript in one hand and typing with the other.

[Devil Ledbetter]

Please make it so!



Kevin, who is holding a finished novella manuscript in one hand and typing with the other.Ha. I read this thread title and immediately thought KTC hopes so. I see I was right.

[DarkLight]

I wouldn't be surprised if the novella made a good comeback because of this. Especially since, in today's busy world, we don't always have time to read huge books. I like to pick up short books and novellas when I have a really busy schedule...plus, with all the modern conviniences eveything has become so easy. Naturally, that would make really long books intimidating for some people. I mean, cause then you actually have to work. Well, hopefully the novella will make a comeback. I've got one covered up in dust somewhere, very incomplete but something I'd like to get back to. But does that mean long books will take a sales dive? Hope not. I doubt it will. There will always be reader's thirsting for a nice long adventure or a theme driven plot, I think. Either way, whatever length fits the novel works, and if both lengths can have great sales, more power.

Good Luck, KTC. Yoda. Yeah.

[Erin]

I think novellas are getting popular for these reasons. Look at the size of full length novels that are published today versus 5+ years ago. In romance for instance, single titles used to be 100K average...now days that's moving to 80K-90K. Everything is short and it's not just to save a buck in publishing. Time crunch and attention span have a lot to do with it. I think the erotic romance market (especially the ePubs) helped bring novellas to the forefront, i.e. Ellora's Cave publishes a lot of novellas.

[Chumplet]

Remember the Reader's Digest Condensed Books? Three books in one. My mom ate them all up. I'm hoping, too.

[veinglory]

I don't see it. The novella and the novel are only about 50c different (based on the few I see on the shelf like the Blace Lace novellas). So I don't think people would see it as value unless print novellas were sold as anthologies. Which they are, and still less popular than novels. hmmm.

For ebooks novellas make more sense because they do sell about as well or only a bit less so you make more per word.

[KTC]

Best novella ever: TOO LOUD A SOLITUDE by BOHUMIL HRABAL.

http://www.tooloudasolitude.com/

[HourglassMemory]

If the reader's attention span is dwindeling, I'll write long stories, Which is what I'm doing.
If people have short attention span I'll try to teach them that they can find cool stuff in long things also.
I don't want to nourish something that I think is sad.

[KTC]

I don't look at the price of a book. I never have. If I look at it and decide I want to read it, I buy it. I have a shelf full of novellas. Some worth a lot more than some of the tomes I have.

[Danger Jane]

I sure hope so :|

I really like novellas and short novels, honestly. Epics, even ones I know I'll love, intimidate me. I find myself counting: Ten percent done. Fifteen percent done. Twenty percent done...

Until I'm about halfway in, and I've forgotten counting.

I am very partial to my novella and I am sad that probably it'll have to wait for publication til I make a name for myself.

[Will Lavender]

I don't see it.

I don't, either.

I'm in the bookstore every day (literally), and you see virtually no novella collections anywhere visible. Doesn't mean it can't happen, but if it does it will not have anything to do with a dwindling attention span. The novels that sell big -- legal thrillers, high-concept thrillers, women's fiction -- are often lauded as "page-turners." People who read these books read them on planes, over the length of a vacation. They aren't worried about the attention span.

[Stew21]

Ha. I read this thread title and immediately thought KTC hopes so. I see I was right.


I thought the exact same thing.
:)

I have a tendency to write short, novella length first drafts, but I always really do need to add things to make the story complete. Just because of the pain of adding 20-30K more words, I can so appreciate this!

[astonwest]

Just in time for my novella to come out this fall...
mwahahahahaaaaaaaaa
:)

Maybe agents will start rethinking their rejections of my query earlier this year as well...

One can dream.

[BiggerBoat]

Personally, I like novels in the 60-90k range. Long enough to tell a satisfying story with developing characters, and short enough to not outstay its welcome. Novellas have usually felt like an extended short story to me, and not as satisfying as a short novel (and often not as satisfying as a good short story).

But, there are examples of novellas like "I am Legend", which I think is genius.

Are novellas being marketed on book shelves? Not in collections but as single volumes? I haven't really seen anything that short in the SF/F or Mystery sections that I frequent.

[SageFury]

90-100K novels will never die just because many people like me love to read developing characters that you can connect with. I like feeling I'm apart of their journey... Short stories could never satisfy me, they finish way before I am ready to let go of the characters =P

[Danger Jane]

Personally, I like novels in the 60-90k range. Long enough to tell a satisfying story with developing characters, and short enough to not outstay its welcome. Novellas have usually felt like an extended short story to me, and not as satisfying as a short novel (and often not as satisfying as a good short story).

But, there are examples of novellas like "I am Legend", which I think is genius.

Are novellas being marketed on book shelves? Not in collections but as single volumes? I haven't really seen anything that short in the SF/F or Mystery sections that I frequent.

Yeah, but most frequently in literary fiction, I think. For whatever reason, short novels and novellas are a tougher sell. SF/F tends to be one of the longest genres, too.

[mscelina]

Novels become novellas, and short stories become flash.

I think there's an 'instant gratification' factor in readers right now, who are used to the quick results of a sit com or the cyberworld. Which, of course, proves my inability to consider my market since I write EPIC fantasies...

Might need to get my brain checked.

[SageFury]

Yeah, but most frequently in literary fiction, I think. For whatever reason, short novels and novellas are a tougher sell. SF/F tends to be one of the longest genres, too.

SF/F tends to be the longest because of how much education the reader most go through to understand the world they are reading about... unlike the others where its this world and obviously they have somewhat a handle on how it works =)

Thats why I love fantasy so much, leave this crappy world for an exciting and full of possibilities one. =)

Novels become novellas, and short stories become flash.

I think there's an 'instant gratification' factor in readers right now, who are used to the quick results of a sit com or the cyberworld. Which, of course, proves my inability to consider my market since I write EPIC fantasies...

Might need to get my brain checked.

Actually the way around the process is manga, long epic fantasies stretched into episodes =)

[KTC]

I think this is becoming something else.

There is room in the marketplace for both the novel and the novella. What has always been will always be.

[KTC]

I will read a 1000 page novel and put it down to pick up an 80 page novella. What I look for is investing time in a good story. I don't give a dead monkey's finger how many pages that story covers.

[David I]

I love novellas. I think there is a good argument that they are the pinnacle of the prose artform.

But that's possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard--and I've heard some dumb things from the Guardian. The fact that TV addicts have short attention spans isn't relevant. All that it means is that real readers have more influence on the average... which suggests the exact opposite of what they are suggesting.

Books are getting longer, not shorter. Check out past bestsellers, like Fleming's James Bond novels. They are over in a heartbeat. Zillions of mysteries and sci-fi books used to run 55-65 k words, and end up in paperbacks of 200-220 pages.

Then move to Grisham and King and company, who carried the average up into 80-120 k words (King thinks 180 k is about right...)

I know everybody cautions you to write short for your debut novel. But some publishers won't look at things below 80 k words--which used to be "long".

I wish novellas were set for a massive expansion. But I think most people who read at all nowadays like to read. The market isn't catering anymore to parking-lot attendents who read novels and magazines because TV wasn't available in their little booth. They have TVs and portable DVD players--and so do most of the airline passengers.

Most readers nowadays open a novel because they want to luxuriate in a book--not because TV or the internet aren't available.

The Guardian is hilariously wrong. But, on matters literary, that's not unusual...

[KTC]

That's kind of what I meant by this is becoming something else. Yeah...it was a dumb thing to suggest the novel is going to die and be replaced by the easier swallowed novella. It seems there is an article on the dying novel artform every other week.

[Erin]

90-100K novels will never die just because many people like me love to read developing characters that you can connect with. I like feeling I'm apart of their journey... Short stories could never satisfy me, they finish way before I am ready to let go of the characters =P

This is my thinking too. I don't read novellas or short stories. I love the longer works. That's what drove me to start reading fantasy, and older historical fiction. I love continuing urban fantasy series for this reason too. The longer, the better for me!

[JohnDavidPaxton]

The original post was too long and I didn't read it but I hope the points about attention spans are oh look it's a dog.

[BiggerBoat]

BTW, here's the link to the original blog post which was referenced by the WSJ:

Can the Novella Save Literature? (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/01/can_the_novella_save_literatur.html)

Seeing as though the short story format isn't exactly seeing a resurgence (at least in print), I don't anticipate that the Novella is suddenly going to be the next big thing.

Also, I'm not exactly sure that literature requires saving. Not yet, anyway.

[Fox The Cave]

It definetly has a good point - people these days do have a shorter concentration span, unfortunately i'm in with that crowd. I'm not good at reading for long stretches of time, and I know I usually prefer a novella or short story to a full blown novel.

[veinglory]

Do people these days have short concentration spans? Or is this just the usual 'kids these days' rhetoric? It seems to me that brains are brains, people are people. They don't change that much. JK Rowlings is writing 3 inch thick books for children, so if they are sufficiently motivationed it seems they can concentrate just fine.

[astonwest]

Do people these days have short concentration spans? Or is this just the usual 'kids these days' rhetoric?It would be, if it was just the kids that people say have short attention spans. I think many adults are the same way.

[veinglory]

I think they always have been. Long winded literature was never popular with the majority as far as I know....

[SageFury]

I don't think its short attention spans, more like the world is moving so fast there is no time for long stories these days... most people I know have 2 jobs and kids to watch...

People wonder why I like my fantasy world so much =P

[veinglory]

It seems to me like most people have more leisure time now than ever before. Now we have regulations limited hours works per week and statutory holidays. It is easy to believe people or life is different now but in basic things like having time and being able to focus on something for a few hours at a time... I doubt it.

[Danger Jane]

I think they always have been. Long winded literature was never popular with the majority as far as I know....

Yeah...I mean, there were tons and tons of novels published contemporaneously with the epic classics we so love today--and those were often a lot shorter.

And think of Dickens. He published in serials. Our attention spans haven't changed all that much. We have more and less things to focus on. Novels aren't dying in favor of anything else.

(Still, if novellas were easier to market, I'd be super glad...)

[Saanen]

It seems to me like most people have more leisure time now than ever before. Now we have regulations limited hours works per week and statutory holidays. It is easy to believe people or life is different now but in basic things like having time and being able to focus on something for a few hours at a time... I doubt it.

People do have more leisure time than ever before, but we also have more distractions too. I can sit down to check my email and update my blog, and the next thing I know four hours have flown by and it's time to get ready for bed. I could have read a novel (or at least a big chunk of one) during that same time. Instead, I have a to-be-read pile that's threatening to topple over and cause a small localized earthquake. That's my fault, but it doesn't change the fact that I don't want to start a 1,000 page epic unless it's by an author whose books I love and eat up. I know I won't finish it otherwise.

I do like novellas, both to read and to write. But for fantasy at least, there are almost no markets for them. I'd like to see that change. One of my favorite books is a very slim volume called The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe, which can't be much more than 30k, if that. I adore it. And I own it in a nice little hardback edition too, actually. I'm willing to shell out a little more money for novellas than novels, because I know I'll read them.

[RG570]

Writing advice from the wall street journal.

hmm, somehow I don't think so.

[astonwest]

I do like novellas, both to read and to write. But for fantasy at least, there are almost no markets for them. I'd like to see that change. One of my favorite books is a very slim volume called The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists by Gideon Defoe, which can't be much more than 30k, if that. I adore it. And I own it in a nice little hardback edition too, actually. I'm willing to shell out a little more money for novellas than novels, because I know I'll read them.

I like them as well, both reading and writing...the trouble being that agents won't give you a second glance in most cases.