The Novella is Back and Thriving

For many years, novellas were second-class citizens in literature.  They appeared in literary journals or anthologies, but literary fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel had a hard time finding a home.  Stephen King wrote several novellas and published them in collections such as Four Past Midnight, but then he was Stephen King, right?

Novellas continue to be published by literary journals, but they now have a second chance at life--and at mass distribution.  With the eBook revolution, short fiction is popular.  People are reading short stories and novellas on digital platforms in record numbers. People want a quick read, and sales indicate that they like short fiction on their Kindles, Nooks, or cell phones.  They don't want to read War and Peace on a small electronic device.   Short fiction for sale in the Amazon Kindle Store ranges from ten pages to one hundred pages.

Traditionally, novellas were longer than fifteen thousand words but shorter than sixty-five thousand words, the latter word count being the benchmark among editors for what they would entertain as a novel.

Novellas have an important place in the history of letters.  It's good to see they are once again being read in larger numbers.

~ William Hammett

Index of Articles

Believe in Your Work
Children's Nonfiction: It's Now More Popular
The Craft of Writing
Daily Transit Public Ridership
The eBook Revolution
Fifty Shades of Boring
George Clayton Johnson: Fictioneer by Vivien Kooper
Ghostwriting: The Decline of Professionalism
How Long Does It Take to Write a Novel?
Is Journal Writing Worth the Effort?
Literary Agents
Kindle Direct Publishing (Select)
The Novella is Back and Thriving
Print-on-Demand
Promoting Your Book
The Quest for Literary Representation
The Rewards of Being a Writer
Short Fiction
Smashwords
What Is Developmental Editing
Why Do People Write?
Writing Celebrity Memoirs
Writing a Novel
Writing as a Full-time Job
Writing as a Mystical Process
You Own the Copyright to Your Literary Property
Zen in the Art of Writing