John Woodington The official site for the author.

A New (Canadian) Novella PublisherPosted by John Woodington on March 30th, 2010

A couple days ago my novella “Goodwill” was rejected by a publisher.  Boo hoo.  So, of course, I went to find another place that I might submit to.  A little searching showed me that many contests for novellas are out of date online, and that certain publishers aren’t taking the time to remove these frustrating pages from the interwebs.  A little more searching led me to Short Sharp Shock, a publisher out of Canada that only publishes novellas.  What a glorious find.  Finally, someone out there cares about the novella form other than Miami University Press.  I sent Short Sharp Shock a query for my novella, and am eagerly awaiting their clever, Canadian rejection letter.

It is still difficult finding publishers that take novella-length submissions, and actually read them with the intent of possibly publishing them.  Many places I know and read accept novella-length submissions, but only very rarely do they publish them (I’m looking at you, Missouri Review and your little “Bearskin”).  It’s very refreshing to find publishers like Short Sharp Shock that actually enjoy novellas and desire to publish them.

So goes my crusade to bring the novella to the forefront of the publishing industry.

Malahat Novella Competition and Narrative PuzzlerPosted by John Woodington on January 8th, 2010

The Malahat Review has a novella competition open right now, and it’s submission period ends February 1st, so get your 10,000 to 20,000 word stories into the mailbox (no email for this one, suck) soon.  The only problem I have with this competition is the submission cost.  Most competitions have submission costs, though they don’t typically exceed $20.00 per story.  The submission cost for this competition is $40.00 (if submitting from the US, since Malahat is in Canada).  That’s a lot of money.  In writer money, that’s the equivalent of $176.50.  In college money, it’s $212.07.  Don’t ask about the conversion rate–it’s accurate.  I’d understand this hefty submission fee if the prize for winning the competition was comparable.  A lot of competitions I submit to have a $20.00 submission fee, but a $1000.00 to $3000.00 top prize.  The top prize for this competition is $500.00.  Then again, they also pay $40.00 per printed page for the winning story, and since it’s a novella, that’s a lot of pages, so that may make up for it.  Had I the requisite $40.00, I’d submit, but I think I’ll save my money for groceries and beer.

Unrelatedly (not a word, but go with it) Narrative has a new Puzzler challenge out, and it is actually one where you are charged with writing something, as opposed to answering trivia.  The challenge for this week is to write an entire story in six words.  Sounds awesome.  And challenging.  The shortest story I’ve ever written is around 300 words, so I’ll have to trim it down a smidge.  Or write something from scratch, which is most likely what I’ll do.

Entries are due next Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 (pronounced “twenty-ten”, as you know).

Finally, I’m very much enjoying chatting with people on Goodreads, and am looking forward to future discussions about short stories, novels, and writing in general.

Publishers Accepting Novella SubmissionsPosted by John Woodington on January 5th, 2010

Lo and behold, I was mistaken in my belief that very very few places accepted novella submissions for publication.  It turns out it is only a very few, and not a very very.  The places I’ve found so far are:

• 42 Magazine
• AGNI
• American Literary Review
• American Short Fiction
• A Public Space
• The Collagist
• Gettysburg Review
• Glimmer Train
• Hunger Mountain
• The Journal
• The Madison Review
• The Malahat Review
• McSweeney’s
• The Missouri Review
• The Normal School
• Quarterly West
• Subtropics
• 42opus
• Eclectica
• Failbetter
• Wild Violet

So that’s 21 different publications that accept novellas, out of over 140 on my master submissions list.  I guess one in seven ain’t bad, as they say.  Do they say that?

I’ve submitted a novella to a few of the places above, and those I haven’t published with most of them, I can confirm that their novella guidelines are legitimate, and are worth checking out if you’re looking for a home for your 25,000 word story.

Also, is it just me, or do lists look stupid in blogs?  I might not do that again.  It would have to be a good list, like The Top Places That Give You Free Money or Ten Ways to Avoid Your In-Laws.  Something like that.

No offense, in-laws.

A Chekhov Novella – “A Boring Story”Posted by John Woodington on December 22nd, 2009

I just finished reading Chekhov’s novella “A Boring Story,” and it was wonderful.  Subtle, emotional without being sentimental or melodramatic, extremely readable at every page.  Really a joy to read.  I read it in the collection Lady with Lapdog and other stories, which so far has me engrossed.  Chekhov is one of my favorite writers, and may be the person I consider to be the “best” writer of all time.  In writing seminars throughout college, I was taught very few hard and fast rules about writing, though there were two that stand out in my mind that should never be broken.  They are:

1) You may only use ten (10) exclamation points in your entire career, so use them sparingly.
2) Read Chekhov.

Not only does Chekhov provide a beautiful example of what great writing is and how it is to be accomplished, but he does it in a way that makes a writer want to write more and more, and read more and more of Chekhov’s work in return.

Another thing that this particular collection of Chekhov’s work shows us is that one good way to get a novella published is to include it in a larger collection of short stories.  In our lifelong quest to figure out how to publish novellas successfully, this may be the most straightforward way to accomplish the feat.  It works well because it can be disguised as a short story, and therefore included in a book-length collection, which a publisher is more willing to go for than a standalone novella.

Many great novellas are contained within the pages of a short story collection, the foremost of which is probably “The Dead” in James Joyce’s great collection Dubliners.  In more recent times, Stephen King and Neil Gaiman have both published novellas within collections of short stories, and have done so quite successfully (from a financial perspective).

There are exceptions to the publish-a-novella-in-a-collection-instead-of-as-a-standalone-book, as can be seen by the new novella by Rick Bass, which has been published by Narrative Library.  But those are the exceptions.

A Novella Rejection and Sustaining a NarrativePosted by John Woodington on December 19th, 2009

Since we are often talking about novellas here, I thought I’d share my own endeavors in the novella.  Below is a rejection I recently received from a very kind editor for my novella “Goodwill.”

I find the premise of your story engaging, but for me it doesn’t sustain 60 pages of interest. Having watched the television series Dexter, I’m not sure it covered enough new ground for me in the “dark passenger” department, either. That said, you clearly have writing chops. I hope this rejection doesn’t rub you the wrong way, and that you’ll continue to send work to [This Publication].

First off, I have chops.  Yay.  Next, let’s take what this editor said to heart, because I think it is extremely useful.  He says the story is engaging, but doesn’t sustain for 60 pages.  This is one of the keys to getting published–sustaining the narrative throughout the length of the story.  Obviously this guy thinks I didn’t do that effectively enough, and that’s fine.  I can work on that.  But recognizing that that is what needs to be edited or changed is extremely valuable.  One thing I always ask my reviewers is if there is any point in the story where they feel bored.  Boring spots are deadly, and can almost guarantee rejection.  Yes, sometimes you’ve got to throw in a sentence or two to get from one thing to the next, and those two sentences may not be the most thrilling in the story.  But overall, narrative drive has to be in place.  The reader has to want to keep reading.

The second thing to take to heart from this editor is that you should not write any stories that resemble episodes of Dexter, and while I haven’t ever watched an episode of this particular show, I believe him.  Hell, he rejected my story (partially) because of this, so it can’t be all nonsense.

Also, don’t write stories that resemble reality shows.  No one wants to read Rock of Love Bus: The Short Story.  Naw meen?

Do Publishers Want Novellas in this Economy?Posted by John Woodington on December 13th, 2009

I got a really insightful comment from writer Minnie Estelle Miller who said, regarding the publishing industry and the publishing of novellas, “since the market is so tight and crying black tears about the loss of income, why not publish novellas?  One would think they are less expensive to produce than novels.”

One would think that, yes.  In fact, I would assume that a 150-page novella would cost a publisher a fraction of the price it would cost them to publish a 400-page hardcover novel.  I think the trouble comes in not in the cost of publishing, but in the money earned back per the sales of the published novella versus the novel.  A hardcover novel can sell for upwards of $30.00 and even more, whereas a novella would probably sell in the $10.00 to $15.00 range at the most.  So the publishing company pays a couple more dollars per unit to publish the novel, but they make a far better profit margin on the novel than they would on the novella.  Remember, it’s all about the money (mostly) for the publishing house, so even though they spend more to publish the novel, they make more money on it in the end anyway, which is what they’re looking for.

Which brings up a good point.  If you want to make money as a writer–money that would amount to enough so that you wouldn’t have to work another job to supplement your income–you should probably be writing novels.  I can’t think of anyone on the planet (literally) that makes their living writing short stories or novellas.  Then again, I believe Nicholas Sparks’ “novels” are actually novella-length works packaged into novel-esque books.  Sparks aside, novels are what bring in the dough–when you can get them published and earn advances and royalties on them, that is.  Still, as far as the short story is concerned, the most you could make off of a short story is around $1000.00 (maybe a little more if you get one picked up by the infamous New Yorker).  And while that’s no paycheck to sniff at, it’s not enough to feed, clothe, and house you for any length of time.  Even writers who frequently publish short fiction in top venues (like T.C. Boyle, for one) still have day jobs to pay the bills.  (T.C. is a prof at USC, I believe).

There is something that publishing short stories can get you, though.  They can get you credibility, which can get you a book deal, which can get you on your way to selling those novels you’ve been writing.  Publishing short stories has proven, for me, to be significantly easier than publishing novels, and I like to think that the more short stories I publish, the more credibility I’ll have in the eyes of literary agents and publishers, which could lead to a publishing deal of the lucrative nature.

In other news, I’m very much in the Christmas spirit, enjoying our Christmas tree, hot chocolate, and the first round of Christmas cookies.  I’ve put our Christmas lights out in the trees around our house, and have realized that I’ve many many more lights to go before I realize my Clark Griswold dreams.  Maybe next year….

Publishing Novels and Novellas, and the Unfair Advantage of Holiday ThemesPosted by John Woodington on December 11th, 2009

A quick Friday post for y’all.  The snow has fallen here in Minnesota, and it is quite beautiful.  I say this because I am not forced go outside to use the bathroom as my dogs are, and they are not very thrilled by the -2 degree weather (not counting the windchill).  I used the cold days to finish reading War and Peace, and in light of the fact that no one wants a lengthy description of my feelings on the book, I will just say that it was grand in scope and bold in its achievements, and while it wasn’t a page turner, I do feel the better for having read it.  Since it was a rather lengthy read, I’ve decided to wait a week or so before continuing on my Russian Literature journey, and read through the latest issue of The Missouri Review before picking up Anna Karenina.

In writing news, I’m working on a couple of short stories, and also toying with the idea of trying to publish a novel that my agent was unable to publish before we parted ways.  Not sure how I feel about putting all the effort into getting it published, though it would be nice to see a novel of my own creation in print.  Finding a publisher is the hard part, of course.  Could be a full-time job in itself.

We’ve been talking about the possibility of publishing novellas a little bit here, and I have received scientific proof that a novella can in fact get picked up for publication, as can be seen in this release from  Publishers Lunch:

NYT bestselling author Patti Callahan Henry’s Christmas novella THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS SONG, to Roger Cooper at Vanguard Press, for publication November 2010, by Kimberly Whalen at Trident Media Group (NA).

Yes, it’s a Christmas novella, which means it had an unfair advantage against all the other non-holiday novellas up for publication, and yes, it is by an established writer, but still.  It can be done, and there’s the proof.

What to Do with Novellas?Posted by John Woodington on November 13th, 2009

Ever have this happen to you: you write a short story, and it ends up being not so short?  Example: I began writing a humorous short story about a teenage boy who was a Lutheran, but who also had innate desires of being a serial killer.  After a few drafts, the story became  a little less humorous, a little more dramatic, and a lot lot lot longer.  Instead of 5 or 6 thousand words, we’re looking at 21,000 words.  So what do you do with that?  You call it a novella (which it is) and file it away.

There’s nothing wrong with writing novellas.  Some of the greatest stories are novellas.  Melville’s Billy Bud, Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men.  All novellas.  By definition (and these definitions vary from place to place) a novella is a story that is between 15,000 and 40,000 words.  Anything shorter is a short story; anything longer is a novel.

The problem with the novella is that it is extremely difficult to sell to any publisher, unless, of course, your last name is Melville or Conrad or Steinbeck.  Mine’s Woodington, so that doesn’t help.  Publishers don’t usually want novellas for obvious reasons.  They’re too long to put into a literary journal of short stories, and they’re too short to be sold as standalone books (for the most part).  Publishers can’t charge the $29.95 price tag that they can for a hardcover novel, the hefty length of which warrants the hefty price, and the hefty price of which fills the coffers of the publishing houses.

A few brave places do accept submissions of novellas.  The Missouri Review published a wonderful novella a few issues back entitled Bearskin.  Narrative accepts submissions of any length (they also host the Puzzler competitions I’ve been posting about).  Quarterly West does a competition, as does failbetter.  That said, after doing some research, it proved very difficult to find any place that accepted submissions of novellas at all, and the ones that did were usually competitions which required a hefty reading fee, or obscure websites with web page space to burn.

The only thing I can think to do with my novella is to someday include it in a collection of short stories.  I’ve been noodling around the idea of compiling a short story collection (another difficult sell to large-press publishers).  If anyone has any ideas of what to do with this thing–aside from self-publishing, which I currently refuse to do–I’d be happy to hear them.

What makes me sad is that I think it is a great story, and I’d love for people to read it.  It’s one of the stories I’m most proud of, so getting it into print would be very fulfilling.  The novella is entitled Goodwill.