Novellas: The Next Big Thing?
As a huge fan of short stories (a la Cheever, Updike, Paley, Salinger, O’Hara, etc.) I am interested by what I’ve noticed what might either be a budding trend or perhaps a more substantive shift toward mainstream publishers seeing the value and utility of the novella.
On October 30, 2022, the New York Times published a review of four new novellas and then a rave review of the novella by Claire Keegan titled Foster on October 31, 2022. I have long thought that an as yet untapped way to grow reading and readership is a two pronged strategy:
Get representation right so that existing writing audiences are served and new audiences are brought into the world of books because the number of writers and stories directed toward them is far larger and more dynamic. Essentially, grow the market by better serving more readers.
Publish a range of books to meet all audiences. This means looking anew at novellas, chapbooks, and other forms of writing that aren’t the currently required 80,000 to 120,000 word novels.
My concern has been that when publishers think of representation they see a single pie that must be sliced and diced to bring in greater representation. They have succeeded at bringing in more diverse stories and writers—amen—but it seems they haven’t yet managed to grow the pie or even bake new pies.
My second concern, and one that is key to solving the first, is to break free of the constraints of the novel as we know it. Reading habits have changed no matter who the reader is. Not all readers—perhaps most—want the standard-length novel. Shorter can be better because it makes for a tighter story.
So, bottom line, it’s about more choices that serve more readers that also encourage more people to want to read.
I am more than willing to say that I’m wrong. However, when I read the review of Keegan’s novel Foster in the Times, the snarky and wholly unnecessary opening paragraph stunned me:
“We critics are guilty of emphasizing, ad nauseam, the novella’s size. Our epithets (“short,” “slim,” “brief”) imply slightness, something lesser than, as if we owe the reader a trigger warning: not a novel.
“But who doesn’t want to finish a book over the course of a weekend?
“For those of you who do…”
Why write this?
At any rate, as a reader and writer I hope that publishing is on the verge of speaking to more audiences and offering us more choices.