I have written what I like to think of as a novel, but it is only 82,000 words. However, I feel that if I were to write more it would really just be for the sake of it - I feel that the novel has been told as it should be. But should I class it more as a novella? Or just assume that nobody will be interested in it, because it's not big and fat a la Game of Thrones, etc etc
Hi Lucy.
82000 is within range by anybody's reckoning. Let's hope it's of the same quality as your short story collection.
Good luck with it.
Regards,
PabloJ.
To add my two cents, based on what I've seen on various publishers' and agents' sites: a book is considered a novella when its wordcount is between 15 000 and 45 000, while above that it's a novel.
I take those as guidelines when I think about my own writing, although I believe it also depends on the age group and genre - Adrian summed that up nicely in his comment!
In any case, I'd always advise against forcibly making a story longer, especially if you're aware that it's told just as it should be. And after all, there's nothing wrong with having written a novella, and there are agents and publishers who will appreciate it too :)
As a side note, GRRM himself has written some much shorter works than Song of Ice and Fire, and so did many (most?) others whom we know for their big fat epic novels. In the end, it's really not the length that makes a story interesting or worth telling and reading.
I did a Twitter Q&A with Julia Churchill (children's agent at A.M. Heath) and she said that a book is as long or as short as it needs to be and she doesn't worry about word count.
But I think that having an idea of average length can help, too.
I don't know if your 82,000 words are edited, but I'd imagine it'll be shorter once that's been done if you haven't already.
Good luck with it.