Who puts out great fantasy novelettes and and novellas that sell well?

I don't know about independent publishing houses or self-published authors, but a few of the pro-paying magazines theoretically accept higher word counts. (I say theoretically because it is notoriously hard to break into those markets, but if you do, you're gold.) All of the following stats have been pulled off the Grinder.

Asimov's Science Fiction pays 8 cents/word up to 20k, but they're pretty heavily geared toward sci-fi and don't take second world fantasy.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies pays 8 cents/word up to 15k.
Clarkesworld pays 10 cents/word up to 22k.
Deep Magic accepts stories up to 40k, but stops paying after the first 7.5k. (They pay 8 cents/word up to that point.)
Fantasy & Science Fiction pays 8 cents/word up to 25k.
Reckoning pays 8 cents/word up to 45k, although their stories are specifically about environmental justice. Worth looking into if you have something in their wheelhouse.
Strange Horizons pays 8 cents/word up to 10k.

That's a great list! Thanks.

I was wondering if a double-whammy strategy of seeking publication in the mags and then self-publishing it afterward might be good. I just don't know if people really buy stories of those lengths from self-published authors.

That's a great list! Thanks.

I was wondering if a double-whammy strategy of seeking publication in the mags and then self-publishing it afterward might be good. I just don't know if people really buy stories of those lengths from self-published authors.

Honestly, I don't know either. A good strategy might be to send stories to magazines and, if they don't get bought, save up a few to include in a collection? (I will freely admit I'm just guessing on this front.)

That's a great list! Thanks.

I was wondering if a double-whammy strategy of seeking publication in the mags and then self-publishing it afterward might be good. I just don't know if people really buy stories of those lengths from self-published authors.

It's very difficult for most writers to sell a novelette. 7500 to 17,500 words takes up a lot of space in 'zines. You need to have written something spectacular, especially as a new writer. I recently sold a 7250 word piece to Deep Magic Magazine. "Weep No More for the Willow" in the Fall, 2019 issue. Just under the wire, so technically still a short story. Their readers do tend to like longer works, so they will buy longer works. But as for selling independently later? Check your contract. Deep Magic has a two-year exclusive, so it's going to be awhile before you could implement such a plan.

I had a 17K novelette the late judge KD Wentworth told me would have won the contest with if I had written it shorter. I sent it off to F&SF. The editor there loved it, but said he didn't have the room for it. He said if I extended it and wrote a few more novelettes set in the same world, he suspected I would sell them as a novel. So it was obviously good--best rejection letter ever--but space became a critical issue. This is why I wrote a Super Secret about really thinking on word count in your submissions. Writing big novelettes held me back for years because I didn't have a clue in the beginning on how hard they are to sell. I just loved writing big stories. Know your market and what it will bear.

That said, it's a very important skill to learn how to write "short" short stories.

All the beast!

Wulf Moon