Coming up short...

[R. C.]

So... I am wrapping up a space opera series which is segmented in to three groups:

Group 1: Three books, 60-80k words each, how Humans averted a pandemic and became an interstellar species
Group 2: Five books, 50-90k words each, the protagonist and his crew save Earth, repeatedly
Group 3: Two books, 50-60k words each, the protagonist's daughter becomes the most powerful person in the galaxy

The last book, the final glorious ending, is nice and tidy, but less than 30k words.

Question: Would you fluff the content to get up to novel range or wrap it up as a novella?

UPDATE: Thank you all for the suggestions and thought primers. I had a small epiphany yesterday. The story will continue and the new ending is a shocker. The villain is never who you expect, is it? 

Cheers,
R.C.

[TimothyEllis]

The last book, the final glorious ending, is nice and tidy, but less than 30k words.

Question: Would you fluff the content to get up to novel range or wrap it up as a novella?

Novella is not an option. That would be a huge letdown.

Fluffing is not a good idea either. Your fans will be able to tell.

Take a step back from the beginning of the existing story, and see if you can start it somewhere else beforehand, so the next 30k becomes solid story leading to what you have now.

It sounds like you started this book to far forward, and need to rethink the beginning and how it gets there.

[notthatamanda]

Add it onto the last book of group 3 for a 80ish k final book?

[R. C.]

...
It sounds like you started this book to far forward, and need to rethink the beginning and how it gets there.

This was my though also but the reality of the effort kept me from accepting the challenge.

Cheers,
R.C.

[Post-Crisis D]

Is there a B-plot?  Or, what of some of the other crewmembers' children?  Maybe intersperse their stories in, tying those in to the protagonist's daughter's story?

[elleoco]

I'd come up with something, maybe not fluff but a subplot? The one time my third book in a series was noticeably shorter, I really caught flack for it, and the book is rated considerably lower than the others. The first book would have been that short, but a beta reader suggested something that worked into a nice subplot.

[Lynn]

Sounds like you split the story wrong.