After the most recent Booker short list, people predicted a growth in demand for novellas/short novels, especially as they fit in quite nicely with adult literacy ideas like the Quick Reads books. Has anyone heard anything to suggest that this is actually the case?

I only ask because the book I'm working on at the moment looks like it's going to come out at about 150pp - a comfortable 150pp - so I don't want to add a load of filler simply for the sake of it.

Opinions? Rumours? Inside news from the biz, anyone?
Amy

I've no idea about trends, but as a reader, I do enjoy short novels. I think something comes out as long as it needs to be, and it that happens to be 150 pages, then so be it. It would be, like you suggest, daft to put in filler just for the sake of it - and would probably dilute the good stuff that is already there.

I suspect you are less worried about your work being short, as you are about short books getting a fair chance with a publisher?

I have really no idea about this, although I have noticed a couple of novels I've read recently that seemed to have extra wide margins and larger that usual fonts (my edition of Ali Smith's Hotel World, for example.) That might mean that while the publishers liked the book, the wanted to make it look a bit thicker because they assumed a reader would prefer that?

Mind you, Hotel World is hardly indicative of current trends - it's a good few years old now, isn't it?

Sorry - useless answer.

It's more a question of how much people are prepared to pay for a thin book compared to a thick book, and how much it costs to produce a book - eg, the Mini cost just a much to make as a Ford Escort, but customers expected to pay less for one. Likewise, Novellas are not cost effective for publishers to produce in quantity.
There was an interesting post in Snowbook's blog that delves into the psychology of it all:

http://www.snowbooks.com/weblog/2008/06/utility_pricing.html#more


- NaomiM