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Writing Romance Novellas

By

Susanna Carr

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A note from the author

I am the author of over twenty published novellas and I’m often asked how to

write them. In this e-book, I share some solutions for the common pitfalls and setbacks. The information found here is based on my experience, and I’m the

first to point out it’s not the only way to write and publish a romance novella.

Also, getting a novella published has changed over the past decade. You can

expect there will be more changes as the industry evolves. I recommend talking to authors who write in your sub-genre for the most up-to-date information!

~ Susanna

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Section 1:

Romance Novellas

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What is a romance novella?

The Romance Writers of America says that a romance novella ―is a work of fictional narrative prose in the romance genre of 20,000 – 40,000 words.‖ A romance publisher usually looks for a novella that is 25,000 words in length.

Most anthologies include three writers, but when four to six authors contribute

to an anthology, the novella is under 20,000 words. E-publishers often publish a novella by itself and for a cheaper price than a novel. They expect a novella to be around 15,000 to 20,000 words.

Completed work under 15,000 words is considered a short story.

Do you like reading novellas?

How many novellas have you read in the past year? Are they in the same sub-

genre? Same publisher? Same theme?

If you don’t read a lot of novellas, or truly don’t gravitate to the anthologies in

the romance section of your bookstore, don’t give up on the novella idea just yet. It could be that there hasn’t been a themed anthology that has captured your attention. If that’s the case, you may have found an opportunity from the

void on the bookshelf.

Remember that readers are very opinionated about this story form. Some love novellas because they are looking for a one sitting read or they get stories from their favorite authors at a more frequent rate. Others hate novellas because

they feel the stories are too short, too rushed or too incomplete.

Consider doing research on the novella before writing one. If you see reviews

and comments about these stories, read the novella that is being discussed and see if you agree or disagree. Analyze the novella to see what worked, what

didn’t, and how you would have handled the story differently.

Why do authors write novellas?

Novellas offer writers an opportunity to reach different readers, have more releases during the year, and write for more than one publisher.

When you sign a contract with a publisher, you can’t write a similar story for a competing publisher. However, unless your contract says otherwise, you can

write a similar story in a different length for other publishers.

One of the reasons publishers sell anthologies is so they can promote new and

upcoming authors. You’ll notice that most anthologies have a USA Today or New York Times bestseller as the headliner. The publisher is hoping that when

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readers buy the book for the big-name author, they will also read the other novellas. The goal is to get the reader familiar with the other authors.

It makes you wonder why a bestselling author wants to give other authors a chance to win over her readers. Money plays a part in that. While a brand-new

author can get paid an advance around $1,000 - $5,000 for a novella by a New York publisher, the bestselling author will get a high five-figure advance. One

New York Times author told me the only reason she accepted a novella deal was because the publisher offered her the same amount of money she would get for a full-length book!

Another reason an author might want to write a novella is so they can have more books out. In the romance genre, an author is expected to have more

than one release a year. Writing novellas helps keep a writer’s name out there while they try to complete their next novel.

How can I write a novella if I haven’t been invited to contribute to an anthology?

It used to be that contributing to an anthology was invitation-only, but these days editors buy unsolicited novellas. E-publishers will sell a novella as a

stand-alone story, and they often have calls for submissions for specific anthologies.

Some publishers prefer buying a novella from a debut author because it’s a safer bet. The publisher isn’t investing a lot of money right away on an untried author and they are introducing the author in an anthology to a targeted

audience.

Also, many authors are writing novellas for promotional purposes. They will serialize a novella for readers who subscribe to their e-newsletter and reader groups. Some authors will sell their novellas or offer them for free as e-books,

allowing readers to get a sample of their writing.

What if there are no publisher guidelines?

Study the market! Do this even if the publisher has submission guidelines on their website. The guidelines offer the basic information, but the publisher’s

book catalog can tell you so much more.

Compare the anthologies by publishing houses and it will save you a lot of

angst when submitting your novella. When you look at the anthologies side by side, you’ll recognize patterns. When I did this, I realized which publisher preferred holiday anthologies and which one wouldn’t do them.

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Looking further, I was able to determine the editorial slant for each publishing house. At the time I did this, I discovered which erotic romance publisher

worked the character angle (think cowboys or vampires) and which erotic romance publisher pushed the sexy setting.

Comparing anthologies within the publishing house is also a good idea. Each publisher has a strong vision or voice. It shows up in their cover art and in the

buzz words they use on the back cover copy. Looking at these will help you determine that your novella about ancient Rome is going to be a hard sell because they don’t do any historical setting other than Regency England.

Can I put together my own anthology idea?

Did you know that many anthologies you see today are author-driven or literary agency-driven? Very often the agent will present the anthology idea to the editor with an author line-up. You don’t have to rely on having an agent;

authors who work in the same publishing house will come up with an idea and pitch it to their editor. There are many instances when an author will

coordinate with friends who write in the same sub-genre and shop around a proposal.

Find out the policy in your targeted publishing house, or see if your agent puts together anthologies for clients.

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Section 2:

Planning Your Novella

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Novellas look so easy to write. It’s not as long as a book and you have plenty of room to create a wonderful world with interesting characters. You should whip

out a novella in a weekend, right?

While a romance novella is around 100 typed pages, you don’t have a lot of

space. You have to jump into you story, create a believable romance about two people a reader can care about, and wrap it up with a happy and satisfying

ending.

I am a slow writer compared to other authors and it usually takes me a month

to write a novella. I have written a novella in two weeks and I don’t want to repeat the experience. My most difficult novella took me six weeks to complete. Whether you are under a tight deadline or wrestling a challenging storyline,

planning out the romance novella makes all the difference.

Plotting Tips

If you have an idea for a novella and are about to dive in, think about plotting out the story. If you hate plotting, you should at least think about the major

plot points or sketch out the key scenes.

I’m one of those authors who outlines. Once I wrote a novella and had to toss it all out and start over again. That was when I vague idea of what I wanted to say. Now I rarely have to cut out a scene or get that sickening feeling that I’m

going in the wrong direction. I face those moments in the outlining process and before I’ve written a word.

If you write intricate plots, do world building, or often go over your word count, plot out your novella ahead of time.

Note: if you are going to serialize your novella, planning ahead is must! The end of each chapter must have a cliffhanger so the reader will return for the next

installment.

Storyline Tips

* Make it easier on yourself and tell a story where the main characters already know each other. Establishing a relationship takes a lot of pages, and you want

to use the 100 pages to deepen and test the connection between the hero and heroine.

* Consider having the hero already in love with the heroine (or vice versa), and then the story gives more time to show the other character’s journey of falling in love.

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Time frame and Setting

* Keep the time frame very tight. Some novellas take place in the course of one

night, others are a couple of months, but the average is a one to two week period.

* Don’t change the setting too much. It eats up the page count. Most novellas stay in one place so the story can focus on the characters.

Characterization

* Don’t skimp on the characterization. Develop the hero and the heroine the

same way you would for a full-length story, but keep their journey linear.

* Keep the secondary characters to an absolute minimum. Can one character do the same job as two?

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Section 3:

Writing Novella Collections

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Novella collections, also known as single author anthologies, are especially popular in the trade size paperbacks. If you want to pitch a single author

anthology, keep the following in mind:

Think of the big picture. Consider the whole book as a smaller scaled trilogy.

While each novella must have an intriguing plot and memorable characters, you are selling the high concept of the anthology.

Let’s say you want to write medical romances. I suggest having all the novellas about search-and-rescues instead of one search-and-rescue, one ER, and one maternity unit. I would go one further and have each story about the members

of the search-and-rescue team. Then give the idea a twist that showcases your writing voice.

Use your subgenre as a guide. If you write romantic erotica, the stories in your novella collection would be linked by a specific sex act. However, if you wrote erotic romance, your novella collection would be linked by a sexy

premise. Know the promise that your subgenre gives and emphasize that in your novella collection.

Maintain the tone. If one novella is light and funny, all of the novellas need to be light and funny. It’s like a romance suspense anthology with three authors—they all have to write something suspenseful. Keep the tone consistent in your

novellas, but be inventive with the structure of your stories. Once a reader picks up a novella collection, there is a strong possibility that they will read the

stories back-to-back. You don’t want to be repetitive. In other words, if your stories are about a Regency matchmaker and her clients, there are only so many ballroom scenes and elopements to Gretna Green that a reader can take.

Do not connect the novellas by plot. The publishers are not looking for serials, but complete, stand-alone stories. Novellas are published separately in foreign markets, reprints and e-books. It’s in your best interest to keep the

novellas as loosely connected as possible. If you want to run a subplot through all the stories, I recommend doing it carefully. Use a secondary character,

setting or item, but don’t leave the reader hanging at the end of a novella!

Highlight your strengths. In my first novella collection, “Wicked” Women 101,

my heroines were all going through a sensual awakening, but that wasn’t

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enough to connect the stories. So after a lot of brainstorming and guidance with my editor, we decided to make the heroines sorority sisters.

In Pink Ice, the heroines are sisters, but that isn’t what connects the stories.

This time I have them share pink diamond earrings and the stories are about their sensual awakening while they wear the jewelry.

Notice that both collections deal with sensual awakenings (the theme that is found in almost all of my stories) and sisters (I write heroine-focused stories), but I tailor the ideas with the publisher in mind.

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Section 4:

The Quickest

Shortcut to Writing Novellas

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The quickest shortcut is recycling unsold manuscript. However, not all manuscripts are suited for novella length. I rewrote unsold manuscripts into

novella length three times with varying degrees of difficulty. The worst recycling experience for me was when I eventually had to keep the premise of an unsold

manuscript but completely rewrite the story under a very tight deadline. That’s when I learned not all manuscripts are suited for novella length.

It works best if the hero and heroine are rarely apart in the original version of the story. In a romance novella, you need to keep a sharp focus on the hero and heroine.

How do you make a full-length book into a novella-size story? It can be tricky because if you take out one element, the story might collapse like a house of

cards. There are a couple of short cuts:

Scenes

* Decide the key scenes in the manuscript. Make sure that every previous scene is working towards the key scenes. If they aren’t, find a way to remove or

shorten the scene.

* In a novella, you have to start at the moment of change right away. Look at that first chapter. Do you really need it or is it mostly setting up the story? Can you take the information in the first chapter and thread it through the rest of

the story?

Characterization

* Pull back on the secondary character. Streamline any description about them and only include them if they really move the scene or the story forward. It

won’t make them cardboard characters, but it will minimize their presence without hurting the overall story.

* Track the characters’ journeys and the story arc. Are there any scenes that can be taken out or referred to off-stage? If it takes the heroine three events to come to a conclusion, can she do it believably in two?

Dialogue

* Tighten the dialogue. Cut out unnecessary words or revise the sentence to make it shorter.

* Cut out dialogue tags (he said, she said) when possible.

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Final Note:

If you have several novella ideas burning inside you, first decide if it makes sense career-wise. There are pros and cons no matter where you are in your career.

While novellas are popular, it might not be the most efficient—or the best—way

to break into publishing and pursue a writing career. If writing a novella keeps you from writing a single-title, or if a novella will not reach your ideal audience, there are no advantages in writing this form of fiction.

I started writing for Kensington Brava with a novella. In fact, two novellas and one novella collection of mine were published before my first single title. It was

a great way to consistently keep my name out there to readers while I was writing my first full-length book.

However, since I was the newest author, my name was usually down at the bottom of the contributing author list. When you are the last author in an

anthology, it’s not shelved under your name. This can be a disadvantage when a reader goes to the bookstore or checks online to see what else I have written. A reader would only see one or two titles shelved under Susanna Carr. The rest

are scattered under the lead author’s name.

Authors find that writing a novella is a good side job between full-length books, but they have no intentions of making a career in writing novellas. There is just not enough money or opportunity for career growth. A novella is, however, a

great way to break into publishing or expand your reader base.

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About the author:

National bestselling author Susanna Carr writes sexy contemporary romances. Her novellas have won several industry awards and have been translated in five languages. Her first novella inspired Kensington Brava’s ―Wicked‖ Women

series. For more information about Susanna and her work, visit www.susannacarr.com.

Praise for a few of Susanna’s novellas and novella collections:

―Carr’s flawlessly smooth and easy pace in ―Valentine Survivor‖ makes this

story a perfectly sweet treat!‖ – Romantic Times BOOKclub

―Pink Ice is the type of anthology I can sink my teeth into: four inter-connected stories that are woven together as much as they are distinctly separated. Three sisters, one jewel thief, and a pair of pink diamond earrings made for an

enjoyable read. Two stories sparkled more than the others but I wouldn’t have traded the experience.‖ – All About Romance

―Often with novellas, I feel cheated. Storylines feel rushed to their conclusion, characters seem weak, or the ending comes too soon. This is certainly not the

case in “Wicked” Women 101. Susanna Carr has proven her skill in developing an entire novel into a shorter length. I found myself eagerly delving into each

story and hesitating to put it down for any reason.‖ – Round Table Reviews

―Susanna Carr certainly knows how to keep her readers as well as the

characters guessing in this highly intriguing, sensual and suspenseful story of hers. While naughty dialogues keep the sexual tension soaring, the sweetly

developing romance between the main protagonists and thoughtful characterization are added bonuses that make the tale a treat to read. A sizzling tale to warm the heart as well as set the pulse pounding, ―Wicked

Ways‖ is indeed compelling.‖ – The Road to Romance