First step for selling a novella series

[RobertG]

Okay I'm working on my final draft for my first book. I think its going to come in at just over 40,000 words, not quite novel size. But honestly I feel like I have covered everything that I need too for the characters.

I have heard that selling a Novella is even harder then a novel, so I'm really worried. (I have a plan for self distribution on the internet if I can't sell it but I would like to at least have the traditional options)

This is the first of a 5 book series that I have planned. And while working on the second book and the outlines for the others I think that they will all come in around the same size.

I never thought that it could be good enough to even consider trying to shop it around, but I'm really proud of it and I think I might actually have something here. So I don't really know where to start. Its a young adult Sci-Fi story (Every person on earth has a super power except for the main character)

So where exactly do I start once I get my Final Draft done?

[mammamaia]

unless they're for the YA market, i can't see any traditional [paying] publisher wanting to bother with them, sorry to say...

[RobertG]

They are definitely young adult, thought i mentioned that, sorry.

[updog]

Its a young adult Sci-Fi story (Every person on earth has a super power except for the main character)

You did mention it.

The length doesn't matter as much if the book comes out as an e-book only. There are some honest e-publishers out there, but they're usually focused on romance. Check all publishers out on Preditors and Editors, Writer Beware, and Absolute Write's 'Bewares, Recommendations, & Background Checks' thread. Or you can self e-publish them if you don't mind doing all the work yourself.

[James A. Ritchie]

40,000 words isn't a novella, it's a short novel. The Bridges of Madison County was only 33,000 words, but it hit the top of the bestseller list three times, once in hardcover, once in paperback, and again when the movie came out.

But length is always a choice. You can make any story as short or as long as you want to make it. One of the most common forms of self-sabotage is not writing to proper length.

Having said this, a 40,000 word YA novel is not impossible to sell, if it's good enough. Very few are.

But the first step is not where and how to sell anything. The first step is actually writing something good enough to sell anywhere. When you have a completed first novel, one that's so good it stands out in a slush pile like a diamond in a pile of coal, one that can, if it must, stand alone, just as the first Harry Potter book did, and one that is of publishable length, which is always a decision the writer makes, then, and only then, do you even think about where and how to sell it.

[mammamaia]

a big 'amen!' to all o' that!

[readingwriter83]

This is some great advice. To the original poster, try having an objective eye read the manuscript and if you have a writer friend who wrote something and is published that may help. The key with the friend is to make sure they can be brutally honest with you. That is just my .02.

[editor-anthology]

You'll have a hard time convincing editors/agents to read the manuscript. Yes, short books are sometimes published, but those are the exception, rather than the rule. Self-publishing as an ebook is a good option, if you don't mind doing the work.