Discuss @Thande 's latest article here
Indeed, but that would be an article in itself...I would, of course, be remiss not to note the massive influence the LOTR maps also had on the fantasy genre.
the tiresome and entirely accidental trope of the ‘obligatory fantasy trilogy’ which so many writers now see as their default book format, regardless of how much or how little story they have to fill it
Sorry, you've lost me there.
I've also found that the best way to destroy a joke is to explain it.
I'll have to ask @Kato if 100K is over-long for a vignette for the monthly challenge.
I remember the reason the Belgariad is five books is because three would have been too big for the page limit at the time (the wordcount was I believe pretty much the same in this case).Paper shortages as rejection excuse by publishers long into the 1970s - Iain Banks' first novel, (the still-unpublished and approx 400,000 words) "The Tashkent Rambler" was rejected due to an alleged paper shortage in the circa 1974.
Charlie Stross has an interesting take on the length of books as part of his 'Common Misconceptions About Publishing' series on his blog.
I remember the reason the Belgariad is five books is because three would have been too big for the page limit at the time (the wordcount was I believe pretty much the same in this case).
we’ll soon reach the point where an author can have a ten million word book published in e-book format.
This is a Bad Thing. I'm talking about in relation to the quality of the story.
The precise perfect length of a story will depend on the individual situation, but when authors have a word count to worry about, they check to make sure that the words they do use have a purpose and add to the story. Without that limitation, there are authors who will just ramble on digressions, lose track of what the story is, and end up with a meandering, meaningless wodge of prose that is of interest to no-one except (possibly) the author.
I, of all people, should know.
That exists as a project and is terrifying on every level imaginable. If you value your sanity, just go in, read the header with the word count, and leave. Don't stop moving, don't start reading, and whatever you do don't blame me for knowing this exists.
https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10333897/1/Ambience-A-Fleet-Symphony
Four point five million words, the longest single piece of fiction in the English Language. All of it terrible, and exactly the sort of garbage the can ruin a man.
That
Having now read this, I found it very interesting but two things jumped out at me:Paper shortages as rejection excuse by publishers long into the 1970s - Iain Banks' first novel, (the still-unpublished and approx 400,000 words) "The Tashkent Rambler" was rejected due to an alleged paper shortage in the circa 1974.
Charlie Stross has an interesting take on the length of books as part of his 'Common Misconceptions About Publishing' series on his blog.
And I read the first two paragraphs.
...
And I thought I used adverbs too much.
I think the format we tend to see here on AH.com is probably similar in this, but because of the different website format, it's less visually obvious to me the point at which I start reacting that way.
1. He mentions newsstand magazines collapsing in the early 50s, but not really why. Can anyone say more, or point me to something about that specifically?
2. He says that British publishers use a style of binding that allows bigger hardbacks, compared to American ones, which surprised me, as my impression was it was American books that were most likely to be divided for publication elsewhere