Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Does anyone know of agencies or publishers that represent novellas? I know that they are a hard sell. Is it something that a writer should try and expand to full book length? I have considered adding more to the story, but it seems just right the way it is. I think it's worth a try to see if someone will represent or publish it.

Does anyone have experience pitching a novella?

For what it's worth, because this was years ago, I had an agent (now retired, sorry) who took me on as a client based on a novella. One of the big houses asked for an exclusive on it, then requested to see the next one I wrote, intending to publish them together. Of course, it never materialized, but that was entirely my fault and the reason I harp on people learning the industry and behaving like professionals. Cuz I didn't.

I have no experience in this, but it may be best to go ahead and pitch it anyway. If you're really not sure keep it as is, but also right it as a novel and see how that goes. Anyways, some of the best works in Literature are novellas.

There are a number of small presses that will consider novellas.

The novella is an art form in and of itself. Many of our greatest authors have one in their satchel.
Hemingway: The Old Man and The Sea

So good for you.

And, while they are not considered profitable or popular by bigger publishers or agents (to the best of my knowledge anyway) at this moment in time, they may return to favor again, hopefully.

Margo wrote:For what it's worth, because this was years ago, I had an agent (now retired, sorry) who took me on as a client based on a novella. One of the big houses asked for an exclusive on it, then requested to see the next one I wrote, intending to publish them together. Of course, it never materialized, but that was entirely my fault and the reason I harp on people learning the industry and behaving like professionals. Cuz I didn't.

Hindsight is 20/20. That is quite an accomplishment to know that a big publisher wanted your novellas. Have you tried pitching them to an agent/publisher since then?

Moni12 wrote:I have no experience in this, but it may be best to go ahead and pitch it anyway. If you're really not sure keep it as is, but also right it as a novel and see how that goes. Anyways, some of the best works in Literature are novellas.

Thanks Moni. It might be worth a try to expand the story while keeping a copy of the original novella. We'll see how it goes.

bcomet wrote:There are a number of small presses that will consider novellas.

The novella is an art form in and of itself. Many of our greatest authors have one in their satchel.
Hemingway: The Old Man and The Sea

So good for you.

And, while they are not considered profitable or popular by bigger publishers or agents (to the best of my knowledge anyway) at this moment in time, they may return to favor again, hopefully.

Thanks bcomet. :) When I realized that my story was complete at a "mere" 35,000 words, I was horrified. Now I don't feel so bad.

Some of the literary journals and anthologies take them, and many e-publishers don't seem opposed. We're talking 15K-45K words or thereabouts?

HillaryJ wrote:Some of the literary journals and anthologies take them, and many e-publishers don't seem opposed. We're talking 15K-45K words or thereabouts?

Yeah I've been checking out e-publishers and I noticed they are much more open minded with shorter books. I will definitely query them when the time is right.

Every independent publisher is interested in novellas.

Just send it in.

Paul Harding won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction last year for his novella TINKERS.

saraflower wrote:Have you tried pitching them to an agent/publisher since then?

No, they were literary and I don't want to write literary anymore. Just a personal preference. In fact, I doubt I even have copies of them anymore. And the second one was horrible, in my opinion. If I did keep the notebooks (I was writing longhand back then) they're probably in some moldy box left out in the rain before getting moved into the garage. LOL.

Novellas enjoy an easier time at small and medium publishers because they're not as hidebound with their production pipelines. A novella might not be as predictably costable as a novel standard size, from having a variable economy of scale prediction.

Also, smaller publishers aren't as hidebound about not accepting unsolicited queries and manuscripts, and from unagented writers. A writer can submit an unsolicited manuscript for consideration directly to the publisher at many smaller presses who nonetheless have distribution channels comparable to the Bix Six Sisters.

International Big Six; Bertelsmann, CBS Corporation, Hachette Livre, News Corporation, Pearson, and Verlagsgruppe.

U.S. Big Six
1. Random House, Inc., division of Bertelsmann
2. Penguin Putnam, Inc., division of Pearson
3. HarperCollins, owned by News Corporation
4. Holtzbrinck Publishing Holdings, aka Verlagsgruppe
5. Time Warner, a dynasty all on it's own
6. Simon & Schuster, Inc., division of CBS

I know people say the Big Houses don't like literary or novellas, but #2 treated me quite well.

steve wrote:Every independent publisher is interested in novellas.

Just send it in.

Paul Harding won the Pulitzer Prize in fiction last year for his novella TINKERS.

Awesome!!

Margo wrote:I know people say the Big Houses don't like literary or novellas, but #2 treated me quite well.

And that is pretty encouraging!

polymath wrote: A writer can submit an unsolicited manuscript for consideration directly to the publisher at many smaller presses who nonetheless have distribution channels comparable to the Bix Six Sisters.

Good point. Smaller publishing companies don't always mean smaller distribution.

35,000 is a great length for middle school kids, but that probably doesn't help you.

One thing it is good for is audio books. I sold a 20,000 word novella to Vision Australia (that is, the Royal Blind Society), having approached them out of the blue on the basis that they'd provide audio books to people who couldn't see (which they do). They said to name my price - so because they're a charity, I said $50 (normally a novel would sell for at least $3000). They never got around to producing it - which when I look at it now, is a good thing. Being a charity, they were even more disorganised that the "real" publishers I've dealt with (although their audio set-up was world class).

But if you want a publishing credit, that may help you.