Wednesday, October 5, 2005

Novellas and other stuff

Have you seen the standalone novellas for sale in your local bookstore? They're novellas that were previously published in anthologies, now being published as slim individual volumes for $2.99 apiece. Not a bad idea, really, considering how many of us buy anthologies for just one author. I'd like to see them try it with new novellas, and perhaps they will if these sell well.

How much do you want to bet that e-publishing had an effect on this particular decision? Readers are obviously willing to buy standalone novellas... they do it all the time with ebooks. You have to figure traditional publishers have noticed that (although they may well have been influenced by Brava publishing Alison Kent's standalone novellas this year, too). It'll be interesting to see if this concept takes off with print readers the way it has with ebook readers.

And on another topic, the winner of the contest below is SandyL. SandyL, please email me at ellenfisher@erols.com and let me know your address so I can send your book. Thanks!

And finally, don't forget-- Sylvia Day and Shannon Stacey both have their first books with Ellora's Cave coming out today!!

2 comments:

  1. I saw these just the other day and almost bought a couple until I checked the copyright dates and realized I had already read them in the original anthologies.

    It's a cute little book, and I hope the idea works so they can put out some originals along with reprints, but I wonder if readers are really going to spend $3.99 for these. It's a quick read, but I think a little pricey ($1.99 or less would appeal more, I think.)

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  2. I thought they were $2.99. Either way, ebook novellas often sell for more than that, so I suspect they're figuring they might be able to win over the ebook reading audience, at least. But whether that can account for enough readers to make it worthwhile, I don't know. Also, Alison Kent's novellas for Brava (trade sized, but still only novellas) sold for around $7.99, if I recall correctly.

    Anyway, it's an interesting experiment, and I'll be watching to see what happens!

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