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  A little searching showed me that many contests for novellas are out of date online, and that certain publishers aren’t taking the time to remove these frustrating pages from the interwebs.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.

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.

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….