Sunday, December 12, 2010

Novellas












We’ve all seen the titles. The Billionaire’s Pregnant Mistress, The Sheik’s Mistress, The Italian Billionaire’s Secret Baby, Taming the Tycoon. What do these titles have in common (other than the obvious)? They are smaller works, ending around the 55K mark – the original novella. The novella is the middle-child – not quite novel-length, and a bit larger than the novelette. Harlequin has dominated this market for years, spitting out these fun, quick reads as avid readers gobble them up. Introduce the e-market...

The e-publishing market is rising quickly. More and more readers are flocking to e-pub sites to snatch up titles right from the comfort of their own home. Just this past year an RWA Special Chapter was created for electronic and small press authors – ESPAN. Here is the beginning of their mission statement: “The Electronic and Small Press Authors Network (ESPAN) exists to enhance the careers of those members of RWA who are contracted with or have released books through electronic and small press publishers.”

Recent discussions about the e-publishing market have raised many questions, arguments and tempers, but today I’m going to focus on e-publishing houses as a possible venue for those snappy little novellas.

Awesome Advantage #1 - The submitting turn-around time concerning e-publishing houses is significantly lower than New York. Can you say instant gratification? Personally, I’ve heard back from an e-house the very day I submitted. It’s not uncommon for writer’s to wait months upon months to hear back from New York.

Awesome Advantage #2 - There’s a wide range of opportunities when going the e-pub route. The red tape isn’t so thick, so you can write the types of scenes and plots that other, more traditional, publishers won’t touch. I’ve seen e-book erotic romances with the eye-popping tag of M/M/M/M/F. Try to sell that to New York.

Awesome Advantage #3 - It’s a way to learn the biz and get paid for it. Many e-book authors have gone on to New York, and they cut their teeth on digital novellas. You go through the same process – submission, contract, editing, cover art and final line-edits. Then the reviews pour in…and you learn from those, too. Trust me, if you ever get Giggled, you can’t pay for that kind of honest critique.

Just Plain Awesome – Hey, New York authors are doing it. Not only is the submitting process quick, so is the payday. (Yeah, I went there.) You get your royalties monthly or quarterly, and who can’t use a little more spending cash?

Just like any business venture you should weigh all your options when submitting your work. There are good e-publishing houses, and then there are not-so-good e-publishing houses. Before you submit, chat with the authors of a particular house you are interested in. Ask them what they think of their editors, what they’ve learned from the process, and most importantly, would they submit to that publishing house again?

The publishing industry is a hard shell to crack, especially during these past few years. The more you educate yourself concerning all facets of the industry, the better off you’ll be. If you’re interested in going the e-publishing route, check out ESPAN and what their authors have to say. Buy a few e-books from the house you’re considering submitting to. Peruse their message boards if they have one, or join their Yahoo Group.

A few links for your surfing pleasure…

A large number of E-Presses all on one page (Thanks to ESPAN) -
http://espan-rwa.com/links/

E-Publishing – The beginning (To learn a little more about the e-publishing industry - http://www.romancingtheblog.com/blog/2009/02/19/epublishing-the-beginning/