The episodic micronovel. What the heck is that?

In a discussion on Twitter with #OTable folks, Kevin von Duuglas-Ittu and I came to prefer the term “micronovel” for short novels being prepared for digital readers. I write to a Kindle audience and secondarily to all the other e-readers. After publishing a few non-fiction ebooks, I’m now happily wading in the murky waters of a long-worked-on novel. But I’ve always wanted to publish it in a series. Huzzah! and Shazam! Now that option is a good one for both writer and reader. To describe the whole writing and reading experience of this type of thing, I’ve hit on “episodic micronovel” with Kevin’s nod of approval, which is meaningful to me.

Back to “What the heck is that?” Okay. You got the series part. The micro part means that it’s longer than an average short story but shorter than a novella. I could have used “novelette” but it just sounded so powdery. The micronovel episodes are going to come out about 70 pages each.

Form-wise, that’s long enough to sink into some characters and some painterly scenes. Long enough to reveal humans moving through the mandates of their minds and a few outcomes. Maybe even long enough for a reversal or three. We’ll see about that. Please join me in a crowd-sourced finger-crossing that I’ll meet my goal of publishing Episode 1 before the end of the year. I promise not to hurry.

Suzanna Stinnett