I have self published an 18,000 word novella & it has done fairly well.(This was my first attempt at writing) I would like to find a traditional publishing house to try & market my story, but I'm not sure if I should try to query my novella & it's sequel or make the 2 books into one? My sequel is about 2 months from being completed. Any help would be appreciated!!
Should I extend a self published novella or write a sequel?
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Not a lot of traditional houses will take a self pubbed story. Did you have one specifically in mind that does? From what I've heard other agents say, they wouldn't consider a self pubbed story unless it did over 5,000 copies sold. I think publishers want even higher copies sold.
Is yours in that ballpark? If so, you might be better off querying agents who've said it was OK to sub self-pubbed works. They would be the best people to get your book in the hands of publishers that want a self-pubbed book.
Why not self pub the sequel too? It seems like if the first one has a good following the sequel will be successful too.
Good luck
No, I'm not doing THAT well. (ha, ha) I guess I self published to see if I could do it...write & gain interest I mean. Since I did that, I thought maybe I'd take my book off of Amazon & B&N to try & take it to a traditional publisher. But I know publishers would rather have a full length novel instead of a novella, so was going to combine the 2 stories into one to make it more marketable. But maybe I should just stick with the self publishing since it is going well. Thank you for your quick response!!
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I think it's entirely possible that if the book was rewritten to be a full-length novel, it would be so different from the self-published version as to constitute another book. You're talking about quadrupling the word count, after all.
The other option would be to write a new book entirely and try that one instead.
The other option would be to write a new book entirely and try that one instead.
Novella is an awkward length to market for agents. There's no money in them so most won't touch them.
That is what I've read about novellas. I wrote it, self pub'd it, then 2 weeks later came up with a complete sequel for it that picks up right where the 1st story left off! I even had an idea for a prequel! I think I rushed myself into publishing to soon. If I would've waited, I wouldn't have this problem. Patience is not my M.O. Thank you, all!
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If they are all novella length then you have yourself a decent sized novel right there. Write your other stories and make one go of them. Just be up front about the middle bit being self-published as a novella, never keep tht info to yourself. The pub will find out any way and that won't look good.
this...although if you're going to have to devote "75% of the time" already, for a product you're uncertain agents would consider because of the self-pub portion, the analytical part of me says better to just start a new one you're certain they could accept, as opposed to 3/4 effort with a huge question mark over it.