Historia Magazine

The magazine of the Historical Writers Association

  • Features
  • Interviews
  • Reviews
    • New Books
    • TV, Film and Theatre
    • One From The Vaults
  • Latest Releases
  • Columns
    • Doctor Darwin’s Writing Tips
    • Watching History
    • Desert Island Books
  • Awards
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Historia in your inbox

The Return of the Novella

2 August 2017 By Jon Watt

Jon Watt of indie publisher, Type & Tell, hails the return of the novella and looks at the possible benefits for authors.

The novella has had a tough few decades. For much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it was an admired format, with Tolstoy, Fitzgerald, Kipling, Conrad and Woolf all embracing short form. But for some reason it lost popularity at the end of the millennium – to quote The Atlantic: ‘Longer than a short story but shorter than a novel, the form became the ugly stepchild of the literary world’.

But of late that has all changed again and the novella is back – shorter, cheaper and better selling than ever!

The novella’s resurgence is down to five main factors:

1)   Discoverability – When online retailers became increasingly important, it was clear that there was going to be great difficultly in finding titles in such an infinite online space. Success was going to depend on visibility. But how to make a book stand out? Publishers found the answer by increasing spending on marketing and massaging metadata – but what could authors do? The answer is that authors found that they could increase visibility for their titles by having more titles available in the retail space: more titles, more reviews, more recommendations.

2)   Maximising author income – For many authors, advances are not what they were and new author revenue streams have had to be found. For some, this has been through literary events or historical tours, for others it has been penning quick novellas in-between writing more substantial, traditionally-published works.

3)   Fast publishing – Thanks to the advent of digital distribution, a 25,000-word novella can now be self-published in six weeks and an author can have their first royalty cheque in their bank in six months. Many traditional publishers simply aren’t set up for this quick turnaround publishing. This is why many authors are choosing to self-publish novellas and reap the benefits of more revenue and more readers (who, happily, often go on to buy other titles by the same author).

4)   Reader habits – Sad but true: recent studies – not to mention the success of James Patterson’s Book Shots – have shown that many readers prefer quick reads.

5)   Pricing – Many of today’s book buyers are highly price-sensitive – especially when purchasing ebooks and paperbacks. Short-form works benefit from low prices and low costs, which means they have strong profit margins – which is crucial when you are self-publishing and receiving 100% of the profits from a sale.

If you would like to know more about publishing novellas, then please drop Jon a line at jon@typeandtell.com or visit typeandtell.com.

Sponsored editorial.

Share this article:Share on Facebook
Facebook
Tweet about this on Twitter
Twitter
Email this to someone
email

Filed Under: Features Tagged With: Jon Watt, novellas, publishing, Type and Tell

Search

Latest Releases

The Lying Dutchman by Graham Brack

20 May 2022

Dead in the Water by Mark Ellis

19 May 2022

Widows of the Ice by Anne Fletcher

15 May 2022

See more new releases

Let’s stay in touch

Sign up for our monthly email newsletter:

Or follow us on social media:

Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Facebook

Editor’s Picks

From the Mill to Monte Carlo by Anne Fletcher

15 June 2021

William of Orange's army arrives in England

Why the Glorious Revolution was . . . well, neither

4 November 2018

Historia Q&A: Ben Kane

15 May 2018

Popular Topics

16th century 17th century 18th century 19th century 20th century 2020 Ancient Rome Andrew Taylor Anglo-Saxons author interview biography book review Catherine Hokin ebook Emma Darwin Giveaway historical crime historical fiction history HWA HWA Crown Awards HWA Debut Crown Award HWA Non-Fiction Crown interview Katherine Clements London Matthew Harffy medieval new release paperback research review Second World War Shortlist short stories the writing life Tudors TV drama TV review Vikings writer's life writing writing advice writing tips WWII

The Historical Writers’ Association

Historia Magazine is published by the Historical Writers’ Association. We are authors, publishers and agents of historical writing, both fiction and non-fiction. For information about membership and profiles of our member authors, please visit our website.

Read more about Historia or find out about advertising and promotional opportunities.

ISSN 2515-2254

Recent Additions

  • The Lying Dutchman by Graham Brack
  • Dead in the Water by Mark Ellis
  • King by Ben Kane: exclusive extract for Historia

Search Historia

Contact us

If you would like to contact the editor of Historia, please email editor@historiamag.com.

Copyright © 2014–2022 The Historical Writers Association