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 Good things come in small packages?Posted by Cate Rowan Sep 10 2012, 12:02 am in Indie Publishing, Marketing, publishing industry, story length, word count Once upon a time—okay, about ten years ago—we romance writers all knew how long a story should be. If you were writing for a Harlequin line, there was a specific word count to be met for it. If you were writing a single-title novel for another publisher, it needed to be 90-100,000 words. There were exceptions, to be sure, but for the most part, things were set and clear. Very few novellas were published. Due to the constraints of efficient print publishing, novellas had to be grouped into multi-author anthologies or into anthologies by a single (generally best-selling) author. Short stories had almost no place to go. There were no other options. Five or six years ago, single-title lengths were trending downward, toward 80-90,000 words. Now, with the explosion of self-publishing, stories of any word count can find a home—and readers—and sales. As an indie author, I have every length to play with. Sometimes I’m certain that the story I have in mind will take a whole novel to tell. Or I may know I’m aiming for a very short story, or a novelette, or a novella. Of course, some of those times when I think I know, I’m, well, wrong. I was going to announce a release today, but instead, I’ve found myself holding off, because I think the story wants a little more room. I’m grateful I have that option. But these days, even trad-pubbed authors have more choices. Digital publishing makes shorter works possible. Publishers don’t have to concern themselves with how much (or how little) paper a story will use, and whether it can be published efficiently. Authors on every publishing path are finding advantages to shorter stories. Short works can entice readers toward longer ones and bring in readers who might not otherwise find you. For example, in the last two weeks my free fantasy short story, Swords and Scimitars, has received two reviews from guys. Yay! Men aren’t the typical fantasy romance reader, but maybe, just maybe, they’ll keep reading and go on to discover the rest of the wonderful genre of romance. Gateway drugs! So I’m curious: have you found yourself writing shorter works now? Do you enjoy writing shorter tales as an author—and do you enjoy reading shorter ones as a reader? 39 Responses to “Good things come in small packages?”Leave a Reply |
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Congrats on those reviews from guys for Swords and Scimitars, Cate! I just downloaded a copy for my Kindle.
I’m really enjoying the resurgence of novellas and anthologies, like Eternal Spring — a collection of YA short stories. Maybe it’s because I’ve been time-poor lately and these great, quick reads fit in perfectly with my schedule!
I prefer to write shorter novels now — two of my recent YA drafts got to around 80K because I threw everything but the kitchen sink into them. A friend of mine suggested taking up short-story writing because it teaches you to write tight. It worked for me. My last book, which I finished over the weekend, came in at 66K.
Vanessa, I love your friend’s suggestion. I think that would be good advice for me as well.
Thanks for the download! And I agree, Vanessa, short things can fit in beautifully when we’re pressed for time as readers. It’s can be fun to reach the HEA (or at least Happy For Now) faster.
My first published novel was 106K words, and that only because I scrapped most of a planned subplot. I’m definitely aiming for a lower word count now! (g)
Great post, Cate. At least your book has swords in it to attract men. I’ve actually had a few guys leave reviews on my romances. They say about 9 percent of romance readers are men. As for writing short stories–well, I’ve got a little trouble developing characters and resolving conflicts in less than 20,000 words. I did write one 3,000 word short story that did really well in The Writer’s Digest Short Short story contest. I have it up free on Amazon, but reviewers are crying that it was too short. And they received it for FREE.
9% of romance readers are men now? That’s *awesome*!
As for SWORDS AND SCIMITARS, I definitely think it helps that the title and cover have manly weaponry. (g) But then, I also categorize S&S as a historical fantasy short (albeit with romantic leanings), not strictly fantasy romance. It IS hard to develop characters in a tight space. I guess that’s one of the things that makes it fun for me, as well as good practice for longer tales.
Congrats on the success of your short in the WD contest! I think making your title “Waiting Forever (A SHORT Short Story)” tells the readers what length they’re getting, so that’s a smart move. I did something similar for S&S (“Swords and Scimitars: A Fantasy Short Story”). That way you’ve told the reader the length right in the title–and if they don’t read the story right away, they’ll be reminded of that length when they run across it again on their ereader! Beyond that, there’s probably not much we can do.
The part that amazes me is a reader actually admitted she SAW that it was a SHORT short story, and yet she still gave me a 1-star review because I actually delivered what I said I was giving her–FOR FREE! She said my longer stuff is better. DUHHHH! I could understand someone doing that if they’d actually PAID something for it.
Great topic, Cate. Time has become a big issue for me over the last few years. I guess because I’ve been blessed with a few grandchildren and I’m the poster child for the sandwich generation with a little bit of nuts in between. So, I’ve searched for shorter reads which I hadn’t before and fell in love with novellas.
My normal work is around 85K. I do have one published novel written for TWRP Wayback series that came in at 50K. To me it was a fun short story. Now, I’m working on what I hope will be a series of projects that are under 40K, but dang it’s hard. In other blogs, we’ve talked about making every word count. Man, you really have to make them count when writing short. I envy those, like you, who do it so damn well. Any tips?
Autumn, I try to think of what will illuminate each character the most and use that as close to the beginning as I can. It’s not much different than what we do for longer stories, just more crucial when there’s less space, I suppose. I tend to ramble if I’m not careful, yet I love tight writing, so shorter tales have been great practice for me. I can often make things that would be whole scenes in a longer book come across in just a sentence or so, IF that sentence is poignant enough. I hope to have two shorter works out this month (one a short story and one a short novella/novelette)–so I’m walking the talk, I hope!
Excellent. This is what I needed to hear–the scene in a sentence. I’m struggling with my opening chapter because I think I need to flesh it out, but what I need to do clip and move on. Set the stage and get the hell off it. Thanks, sweetie.
Yay, I’m happy if that gave you a good idea!
I have written exactly 2 short stories. One is a sexy Regency, the other a short read for the Harlequin free online read. I really enjoyed writing each of them and I still flirt with the idea of putting the Regency up as a free read…though I don’t quite know how that would bring new readers to my actual books since I don’t write in that genre. I still like that story and I’ve found it challenging to write small and tight.
But I’m up for doing some more shorter stories – maybe an anthology if I’m asked. I’d love to do a holiday one. They seem fun.
Great post, Cate. I’m interested to see what everyone else feels about short read – espcially readers. Do they like them more…or less?
Liz, I hear you. My S&S is technically a different genre than the rest of my stuff (okay, halfway different–it’s fantasy, but not strictly fantasy romance), so I worried about that, too. But, while it might not be the ideal situation, I still think it’s valuable.
So I don’t see any harm in putting that Regency short out! True, it’s not a contemporary like your Harl books, BUT it’s still romance. I think there are many romance readers who like various subgenres. I’m one of them–I love Regency romance, contemporaries, AND fantasy romance. Do it! I bet you WILL get more readers to your contemps, even if not quite as many as it were the same subgenre or series. Some is way better than none…and who knows, maybe you’ll find yourself flirting with another Regency down the road.
I agree. I read in different genres and love when I stumble across a new voice, then to find she has written more is like hitting gold. It can’t hurt.
Hi Cate, congrats on luring guys in to read your stories!
I don’t thing the move toward short stories is just an indie phenomenon. Just about every print publisher has electronic imprints these days and e-readers are bringing back shorter works. In the last year I’ve written two short stories, one I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS (10k words) that appeared in an e-anthology and LAST CHANCE BRIDE (http://hoperamsay.com/home.php/books/last-chance-bride/), which was released last week and is a stand-along novella of about 25K words.
I’ve had a couple of editors from other publishing houses ask if I were interested in writing something short for their e-book lines. (It was a thrill to tell them to contact my agent). So I really ascribe this to the e-book phenomenon.
That being said, I have ALSO noticed that reviewers for both of my shorter works have complained because they are so short.
Hi Hope! I absolutely agree with you that the move toward short isn’t just an indie thing. That’s why I mentioned that digital publishing has changed even trad pubs’ thinking, since they now don’t have to worry about whether a certain length will be efficient with paper. It was Ruby Jeannie Lin’s THE TAMING OF MEI LIN (one of my favorite shorts EVAH) that nudged me to start thinking of short stories as both goal and gateway drug. (g) She wrote the short to help Harlequin sell more copies of BUTTERFLY SWORDS, and she did a masterful job with the writing! Plus, as a marketing tool it totally worked, ’cause I snapped up BUTTERFLY SWORDS when it came out.
P.S. Good luck with your new releases! I hope more readers will walk through the gateway, like I do. (g)
Cate, congrats on getting reviews from a couple of guys. Your post raised an interesting challenge for me. I’ve always claimed I couldn’t write short, but in reality, I’ve never tried. One reason is fear. It takes a lot of talent to fully develop plot and characters in less words. Yes, Cate, you’ve given me a lot to consider. Thanks!
You’re welcome, June! Maybe you could try a short just for yourself, without necessarily planning to publish it. Tell yourself up front that it’s practice, nothing more, and just see what happens. It doesn’t take as much time as longer stuff, so you don’t have much to lose. Who knows, maybe you’ll end up loving it–or at least you’ll feel more confident that you can add that arrow to your quill if you want to.
Great idea, Cate. If I do it just for me, then the pressure is off, so to speak. I think I’ll give it a try. Thank…again!
Good luck! I hope you have fun with it.
I agree with you about shorter stories. Three or four short stories a year as opposed to one long one seems to be on the rise. I feel like I can’t write short. My fifty-six thousand story seems like I am short on conflict and character emotion. Maybe I have too much action. Bleh! I don’t have a clue. I enjoy reading a short story an am in awe of the authors who pull it off.
Rita, I could be wrong, but I have a notion that writing a true short story is a different kind of thing than writing a shorter novel (which maybe didn’t quite feel right to you). In the novel form, as readers we *expect* things to be fully laid out for us. In a short story, we don’t. So maybe that different expectation also gives authors a little more freedom of focus? Just something for us to muse over.
Some people say that a short should only cover one particular incident in a character’s life. In other words, you don’t HAVE to do it all.
Then again, in S&S, I showed many of the key moments of a particular immortal’s life in just 7,000 words. I guess I’m a problem child that way. (g)
Don’t think you are wrong Cate. My brain is on short novels right now. Your xxplanation of writing short is one of the bests I’ve heard. Thanks
I can’t call myself an expert on shorts, having only written a few of them, so I’m glad it helped!
I read a friend’s latest novel in her series. I read it very quickly, but it didn’t feel like it was short or anything. It’s labeled as a novel and it felt like a novel. I just figured that since it’s like candy to me and a real page-turner that’s why it went so quickly.
Nope. Actually, she admitted to me that it’s about 25K words shorter than the mysteries in that same series that she’d written for her former publisher. But now that she’s self-publishing, she realized she wasn’t tied to any specific length. Ebooks have really opened up all different kinds of lengths to be published. Not only are short stories and novellas viable now, but so are shorter novels.
She explained to me that as long as the book feels complete and meaty enough, readers are fine with it being somewhat shorter. And I think she’s right, because even though I knew it felt like it took me a shorter time to read than usual, it never even crossed my mind that it was actually 30% shorter. I bought it as an ebook, so I didn’t have the thinner volume in my hands in order to compare.
That’s good to hear, Amanda, since the book I’m releasing at the end of this week is only 70K and about 20K shorter than my other books.
That’s a great point, Amanda. On an ereader, we don’t have the same clear visual cue about how long the story is. My Kindle does offer locations, pages, and a percentage to tell me how far along I am, but it’s not quite the same. So if the story hooks me, I don’t think about length the way I did in paper.
Of course, publishers have also been known to play with font size and spacing to make books come out to a certain page count. Even so, book size was definitely a clue to length–and when we wanted one of those massive epics like THE THORN BIRDS, we knew what we were getting!
I wrote a 30K novella and swore I would never write one again. I don’t think my strength lies in writing short, especially since it’s really hard for me to develop both the romance and the suspense when I have such a short limit. Kudos to those that do it and do it well, unfortunately I think I’m always going to be a single title writer.
I agree, that seems like a tough task! I’m curious if anyone knows: are there many romantic suspense short stories? If so, how do those authors do it?
I haven’t tried to write short yet, except for a couple attempts at category romances in the early days. I tend to have a natural rhythm for 90k. However, I’m hoping to write a short story about a secondary character in my series that readers have come to love and ask about. She’s in each of my other stories, and I do intend to give her her own HEA eventually. I figured maybe a short story would tide people over for a bit.
I’m really curious to see how challenging it’ll be to write short!
Good luck with the short! That sounds like a great strategy to keep your readers happy.
I seem to have a natural rhythm for just under 50K. Good thing I write YA. If I wrote for adults, I’d be stretching it even to write category! LOL
Yep, sounds like YA is a perfect fit for you!
Just checked the reviews, and my brother gets to live. *G* He’s honest to a fault (as in Are you offended? Touch S**t!), and that he says he wants to read more about your world speaks volumes.
LOL! So one of the guys was your bro? Cool!! Please thank him for me, and I’m glad he’s honest. That means a lot, and it was so fun to read the review.
Congrats on reeling in those male readers. Apparently the Rubies aren’t just interested in female world domination. WE WANT ‘EM ALL !!
I truly admire those of you who can write novellas and short stories. And members of my family have a stock of jokes about my inability to tell a short story, so I’ll simply say I tend to run on and on and on! I simply can’t write anything shorter than 90K and include everything I want to include!
But as you said there is room at the table for books of all lengths and that has to be good for the most important part of the publishing equation – the readers!
Well said, Louisa! If we’re making readers happy, we’re doing it right, no matter how long (or short!) the story.
I’m late to the party, but I want to say that I LOVE writing novellas! I never thought I could, but once I learned to see them as a whole thing in themselves, rather than an incomplete piece, I fell in love. And now I’m working on a full length novel and it feel excruciatingly long! lol. It’s all what you get used to, I guess.
That’s so true, Vivi. After writing shorter tales this year, the full-length novel I have in the wings feels strangely daunting!