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  • HighlandLawyerHighlandLawyer@mastodon.social
    May 12, 2026, 10:23 AM

    @cstross
    Which highlights a defect in the current industry because (a) historically there was a ready market in novella length works, & (b) the current generations appetite for short form audio-visual works suggests short form writing would also be popular.

    Perhaps the trade might want to consider a Fiction As A Service model, where for a subscription they send out a monthly collection of short works; no doubt the writers could be paid a fraction of a penny per word. /s

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Replies

  • Charlie Strosscstross@wandering.shop
    May 12, 2026, 10:26 AM

    @HighlandLawyer Novellas work well as ebooks, and when published in hardcover bookshops like them because you can shelve three spine-out in the space of one full-sized novel (and they sell for nearly as much): but the major publishers just don't seem to have twigged to this. Inexplicable.

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  • Fish Id Wardrobe ⁂fishidwardrobe@social.tchncs.de
    May 12, 2026, 11:14 AM

    @cstross @HighlandLawyer i assume it just happened by accident rather than design, but i note that the first two Murderbot stories are novella length and they just shoved them into one cover and sold that.

    so, it can be done, in theory.

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  • Charlie Strosscstross@wandering.shop
    May 12, 2026, 11:16 AM

    @fishidwardrobe @HighlandLawyer It *can* be done ... but only by turning the novellas into a novel-length book. (See also "A Conventional Boy".) The big publishers don't distribute novellas as such: don't know how to market them in the UK.

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  • GLCglc@mastodon.online
    May 12, 2026, 11:48 AM

    @cstross @HighlandLawyer

    Isn't Tor was doing very well in this market? They seem to have recognized the possibilities and it looks like a commercial success. Maybe not at the desired scale ...

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