Novellas are an under appreciated art form – too long for most magazines or journals to take on, too short to be published as stand alone books. Yet, some of our most beloved stories are novellas. They are the great one-night stands of literature. Haunting, beautiful, and memorable, but not requiring an enormous amount of commitment.
Here are five of my favorites, all include a fantastical element, but all go beyond easy genre categorizations:
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka
Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes
Rebirth, John Wyndnam
Queen of the Jungle, James Hynes
For a writer, novellas can be more “fun” to write than either a novel or short story. They are pure story with less complexity than novels, but more depth than shorts. Traditionally they have not always been easy for writers to sell. They may be too short to print as “stand alone” books, collections don’t often prove popular, and they are too long for magazines. But they seem to be a perfect match for self-publishing and e-books. Writers can produce novellas more quickly than novels. They can be sold inexpensively as e-books, benefiting readers with quality fiction that’s “meatier” than a short story, lighter than a novel, and perfect for a fast-paced world.
Currently, I have two novellas available on Amazon. Click an image below to see what readers like you are saying: