Publishing Options in The Year Two Thousand (...and eleven)

(You have to imagine me singing the title of this blog in a dark room with flashlight shining under my chin.)

The seminars by writers Julie Wilson and Matt Duggan at RRC recently really got me thinking about writing and publishing. (Ok, ok, I know that was the point but that was the best intro I could come up with as I ride the bus home on Friday afternoon.)  I am planning on doing a work of creative writing for my IPP and have not put enough thought into getting it published (frankly I have been too concerned about just completing it to worry about trying to market it). But I did do some research into marketing and it turns out a novella, which is about the maximum sized work we are recommended to undertake, is very difficult to publish. This is because they cost about as much as a full novel to produce, therefore their store price is comparable to a novel. But people don't want to pay as much for a novella as they do for a novel. They feel a little cheated by paying full price for such a skimpy book. (That is unless you are already a published author with an existing fan base- think Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea, although I believe he published that in a magazine first.)  

Based on my limited research partnering with other writers to publish a few novellas in one collection, an anthology, is recommended. Sometimes a publisher will find other novellas to include with yours in an anthology, or you can come to them with partners. It would be cool if a few of the Crecommers that are doing creative fiction could partner together to get their stories published. Although I guess they would need a common theme... other than that we are all Crecommers desperate to get our work published. That might be an idea if we decide to do self-publishing. A few novella's by Crecommers packaged together under the Crecomm banner might be a good selling feature, if only to other Crecomm grads. But hey, as we all know, the Crecomm network is vast.

Julie Wilson also inspired me to consider producing podcasts of my story and trying to market those. I have not looked to deeply into that but her discussion of the Best Laid Plans author's shameless yet unobtrusive self-promotion sounded like a skill all Crecommers need to learn.

And of course electronic publishing is something I will seriously consider.The Writer's Relief blog had this to say about e-publishing and novellas:


Because novellas are difficult to market as print novels, they have become very popular in the world of digital publishing. E-publishers are readily taking on novellas of all genres, and readers of e-books are on the rise. In fact, some e-publishers prefer novellas to novels because some readers of electronic formats prefer shorter books—and a good novella can pack a lot of story into a limited number of pages!

Soupy out.