With Novella November going strong I thought it would be the perfect moment to discuss these short stories!
Novellas are more and more popular, especially amongst young adult series and I have to confess I have split feeling about them.
On the plus side, when you love a series, you usually can't get enough of its characters and novella is just the perfect way to fill a craving! Not only you can get an extra treat you wouldn't get in a novel, but they are usually released between books. The torture of waiting for the next installment then feels much more bearable!
Novellas are also the perfect short read when you have only a little time on your hands. Waiting for an appointment? Don't feel like starting a book now because you won't have much time to read? Why not read that novella you've had on your ereader for a while?
Also, I must confess, novellas are lifesavers for those weeks life gets in the way and I don't have time to read a full length novel in time for my Friday reviews! But shhh, don't tell anyone!
On the other hand, I find that even though novellas are a fun read, I don't read them as much as I would like to because they are often too expensive for what you get. I categorically refuse to pay more than a dollar for a story that is under 50 pages. For example, The Transfer, a Divergent novella, is 1,99$ on amazon (though I see it at 4,35$ for some reason) and it's only 30 pages long. I would NEVER pay that price even though I like this series. Also, Hana, a Delirium novella, is 3,26$ for 60 pages. Again, it feels like a total rip off.
Thankfully, there are a lot of free (Maria V Snyder has many on her website) or really cheap novellas out there for our enjoyment!
Now I'm asking you, do you read novellas? Do you like them? What's the maximum price you'll pay to read one?
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I don't read many novellas, simply because I usually have so many novels on the go that I need to plough on with those. The only novellas I've read recently have been by Sarah J. Maas, and that's because I'm a little obsessed with the Throne of Glass series!
ReplyDeleteI'm honestly not that into novellas. Even for series that I love, I just don't want to read the novellas. I think it's because a full length story can't really be packed in to one and so I always end up a little meh about it. I've read a couple for one reason or another, but I don't really ever have enough to say to review them so it feels like I should be reading full length novels instead :( I'm just weird though ;-)
ReplyDeleteOh those novellas were so good too! I think people who havent read them are missing out!
ReplyDeleteNo I definitely see where you're coming from. I don't view novellas has a story, more like a little extra ^^
ReplyDeleteI DO like novellas, but generally only from indie authors. The ones by the traditionally published authors are too expensive for me too. I did buy a couple of them since I was so excited to see different perspectives (like Hana) but it wasn't as worth it considering the price. As far as other novellas go, I've found that I enjoy them greatly because it's a shorter story, doesn't take long to finish, and it's pretty cute and fun. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with your view on pricing. I'm hesitant to spend more than 1.99 for anything less than 180 pages (a typical Category romance). I think charging anything more than 99 cents for something less than 100 pages is criminal.
ReplyDeleteI like novellas and read them quite a bit. Typically I prefer them in anthologies so for say five dollars, I'm getting four novellas bundled together by a variety of authors. I can get a taste of brand new authors and if I don't like them then it is only a fragment of the cost.
Great post!
I completely agree with you!
ReplyDeleteThats true Tsuki! I find Im more incline to read individual novellas on my kindle though, I dont know why lol I dont own a lot of anthologies at home but I havent read most of them yet
ReplyDeleteAt first I liked the idea of them, but now that it feels more and more like a marketing ploy I'm starting to hate the idea. I just read Allegiant and hated that they kept referring back to things that happened in the Four novellas. I think I might by them eventually when their packaged together in a single book. But I lot of it just feels like their trying to make money off something that used to be free. (Especially if you think back to the stuff J.K. Rowling used to post on her website.)
ReplyDeleteI like Novellas but I am not a fan of when they are over a dollar, especially when they are super short. Beth Revis did a novellas for the Across the Universe series and it was completely free and it was the best novella I have ever read. I think part of the reason was because it did not feel like she was writing it just to make money. Her novella really added to the story :).
ReplyDeleteI love novella's. If I'm reading a series, I almost always have to read the novella's, it's like one I know they are out there I can't NOT read them. That being said, I used to buy them but I have stopped doing that. My library has an extensive overdrive system and almost all the novella's are put on their. It's far more worth it for me to wait on the waitlist for a couple of weeks than pay the 4(ish - I'm in Canada as well) dollars for one. If they were cheaper, 1.00 like you said, then I would definitely be purchasing all of them. The main reason that I stopped doing it because I bought all of the Delirium series novella's... a total of nearly 15 dollars with tax, and then they were published in a book! Which of course... I needed to have as well to match my set... what a ratrace lol. After that I said I would stop, and I've switched to the library system.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree. If novellas are short, they should NOT cost more than $1. I like novellas, but only when they're acting as side stories that can be read outside the main narrative. When they're numerous and important to the main plot, they're too frustrating to keep track of.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading Allegiant and I didn't feel like it was referring to something else. I guess I missed something?
ReplyDeletetahts indeed the best kind of novella!
ReplyDeleteI wish Montreal had such a system that would be great!
ReplyDeleteI think a novella should never be mandatory to a series. If it is, they should be put together in a book and released in the correct order I think. The Throne of Glass Novellas will be made into a book, but it should have been done before the first book was release because even though its not mandatory, Maas refers SO MUCH to those events.
ReplyDeleteI love love novellas. I think they are usually really fun and sometimes feel like a real novel, but I agree with you about the pricing. Some novellas are 50 pages and cost $2.99. I feel like that's a rip off.
ReplyDeleteIt was the whole backstory between Amar and Four. It wasn't necessarily needed, but I'm guessing was the basis of one of the novellas.
ReplyDeleteYes that's my feeling on it...another ploy from the publishers for more of my money. I don't all these short stories , and sometimes I recapped in the book. I read allegiant and I didn't notice those things :(
ReplyDeleteI guess they serve a purpose but I prefer novels. I'm not one for short stories as they don't give enough or you just get into it and then it ends far too abruptly. Novellas feel similar, although I have read one or two that are good as an introduction to a series.
ReplyDeleteAhh kk I didnt feel like I was mising something, so no urge for me to grab the novella hehe especially since its so expensive!
ReplyDeleteI think anything shorter than 50 page should be free on the author's website as a thank to their readers (Like Maria V Snyder does)
ReplyDeleteDiscovered any new ones you havent read so far with the event?
ReplyDeleteYeah I think Novellas should be approached differently then a novel. It's like an extra candy.
ReplyDeleteI don't read novella's, in fact I have one sitting on my bookshelf that I bought YEARS ago and still haven't read!! They seem more like a teaser, enough to get you going but not satisfying at all!
ReplyDeleteI read a lot of romance, and I find that the lines between what is considered a full length romance and what is a novella have really started to blur. I read an ebook that was about 160 pages that was tagged as a novella by the author, and then turned around and read a few romances that were 140 or so and considered full-length by the publisher.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I like the novella format for contained, episodic supplements to existing series. Sometimes it's nice to revisit a world or a set of characters and the crazy publishing schedules some authors cope with mean that I'm really happy to get a good 50 page romp the interim between full-length stories.
I couldnt agree more!
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