Am I the only one? With only a few exceptions I really don't care to read short stories and I care even less to write them. The longer the better. But, I think it is assumed that if you are a writer you can write both short stories and novels and that is simply not the case. Hemingway was a better short story writer than a novelist and Tolstoy was certaily better known for the length of his novels.
The problem is that to build a following it is easier for young writers to get short stories published than novels. So, what do you do when you are a novelist exclusively?
That is a tough problem. It's also hard to go from shorts to novels. I did that by successively writing longer stories until I ended up with something long enough to call a novella.
ReplyDeleteI will never write a 100,000 word novel, but I don't care since I'm mostly a MG/YA writer. Despite J.K. Rowling, MG/YAs shouldn't be huge tomes.
But that's not your "problem." I'd posit that you don't have a problem. If you're a novel writer, then write novels. You do NOT need to publish short stories any longer. This is old thinking. It is much easier to publish novels if you think ebooks, instead of hard covers and paperbacks. Physical books won't disappear for a very long time to come, but ebooks will outgrow the physical book market. Already has more sales than the traditional model.
Look for small press epublishers. You will find a place for your novel without having anything else pubbed before.
You're doing the right thing to build a web presence.