Sunday's Links to Writing & Marketing Blog Posts

WHY NOVELLAS ARE HOT AND HOW TO WRITE ONE: A STEP BY STEP GUIDE

By: Paul Alan Fahey (posted on Anne R. Allen’s Blog)

It seems I'm not the only blogger who thinks "Short is the New Long," which I wrote in a post last May.

Penny Sansevieri, CEO of Marketing Experts Inc., said in her predictions for 2014 in the HuffPo:

"Short is the new long. You don’t have to be writing 500-page tomes. Create one or two full length books a year plus micro-content such as novellas or shorter books. It’s a great way to gain visibility and stay in front of your readers."

No doubt about it: novellas are hot. 

• Traditionally published authors self-publish them to fill in the time between the snail-speed production schedule of their own publishers and increase their revenue stream.
• Indies use them to explore characters in their series that readers want to know more about. 
• Readers who have less time to read than they used to enjoy getting into a meaty story that has a satisfying beginning, middle and end, but doesn't take weeks to get through.

Perhaps the popularity of the novella also comes with our love of movies. As Paul tells us, the novella has a lot in common with a screenplay. It is also the fiction form most easily adapted to film. 

My own publisher keeps encouraging me to write novellas to fill in the gaps in Camilla and Plantagenet's history.

Have I followed the advice? 

Nope. 

That's because I find writing novellas really hard. I think in terms of the "long game". For me an 80,000 word novel is short. How can I explore a big topic in 20,000 words? 

I decided to ask award-winning novella author Paul Alan Fahey for some advice. Paul's book The Other Man was honored by the American Library Association last month, and received a Rainbow Award in 2013. The View from 16 Podewale Street, the first of his beautifully-crafted novellas set in WWII Britain, won a Rainbow Award in 2012. 

I hope his advice will help us all to keep up with the new trend....Anne

To read the rest of the post, click here.

~*~

If you missed my writing & marketing tweets and retweets yesterday, here they are again: 

1. Anne R. Allen's Blog: Why Novellas are Hot and How to Write One: a Step by Step Guide http://ow.ly/tEMxv
2. The Other Side of the Story: Are You Maintaining Your Setting? http://ow.ly/tEMBm
3. Is that really a publishing offer? | Nail Your Novel http://ow.ly/tEN2s
4. The Independent Publishing Magazine: Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) - Reviewed http://ow.ly/tEN6F
5. A Self-Publisher’s Guide to Kobo | Molly Greene: Writer http://ow.ly/tEOoo
6. 10 Insights on How Top Marketers Use Twitter - Report - Jeffbullas's Blog http://ow.ly/tEOyH
7. 11 Ways To Create More Time To Think - Forbes http://ow.ly/tEORi
8. What Your Book Crush Says About You | Claire Fallon http://ow.ly/tEP0M
9. How to Boost Your Brand's Snapchat Game http://ow.ly/tEP97
10. Six Great Blogs for Indie Authors http://ow.ly/tER94
11. The End in Sight http://ow.ly/tFexS "A tightrope walker never looks at the rope.”
12. 10 Novels That Are Scarier Than Most Horror Movies http://ow.ly/tFeDB
13. Are Facebook & Twitter Contributing to SEO? And By How Much? - Just Ask Kim http://ow.ly/tFfeh
14. Klout Morphs Into Content Platform: This Week in Social Media | Social Media Examiner http://ow.ly/tFfht
15. How Email Design Limitations Can Actually Be Liberating - Copyblogger http://ow.ly/tFfli
16. The 3 Ingredients in Our Best Selling eBook Titles : @ProBlogger http://ow.ly/tFfre
17. Kindle Countdown Deals Show Huge Increase In Book Sales for Authors | TCK Publishing http://ow.ly/tFlMR

Happy writing and running, Kathy