what's the deal with publishing novellas?

Hello everyone!

I've always wanted to try writing a novella. As a self-published author, I thought novella's were genius: quick and fun. Until now, I had only written one other 80k novel that took a year (my debut). So, I really liked the idea of creating a quick 30k story, and I ended up going with a nutcracker retelling.

I LOVED this book. It was short and sweet, yet still nuanced/layered for multiple re-reads during the holiday season. I truly thought it was the best thing I had written. I went through three beta readers whom all had amazing feedback, an editor, and sent the book to ARC readers. Upon apply for an ARC, I 'required' that readers acknowledge the fact that this book is a novella. Roughly 130 pages.

Now... two weeks prior to release, the reviews/ratings start pouring in. Having heard good things from my editor/beta team, imagine my complete shock by the large amount of criticism/poor ratings from ARC readers. Among the two star ratings, the most consistent issue I'm seeing is that the book is too short, therefore making it feel rushed.

Is there something I'm missing? I treated pacing my novella as I would with a full-length novel---3 ACTS, with all appropriate plot points. I understand because of the short word count, it can seem as if the world-building is underdeveloped, simply because there isn't enough time to explore that.

This is also when I started heavily doubting if I should even release the book, and honestly I'm pretty embarrassed about it now. Is there a market for novellas I'm misreading? Should I pull back and flesh it out more? Are novellas generally non-viable among the reading community? I know I shouldn't let this get to me, but thinking about trying to promote my book with a poor star ratings makes me anxious lol.

Have you thought about publishing novella? What was your experience?