Length of aMoL

[RAND AL THOR]

Oh gods, it still says 19%!!! I check it every other day which i know is really dumb but I can't help it!!!!!!!!!!!Its like watching a huge torrent download.

[Andrew the Great]

Only every other day? I think I check it like every 6 hours.

[Andrew the Great]

Hurray for thread resurrection!

 

Anyway, I talked to Brandon at a signing yesterday, and he said that AMOL is going to be quite a bit longer than anticipated. He says it will definitely be the longest book in the series, and probably by quite a bit. He said word count for Shadow Rising was 393,000, and he's thinking AMOL will likely be 1.25 to 1.5 times that length. He's planning on being completely done with all rough drafting by this December, and he says that AMOL will hopefully be coming out next December. He also said that if the book gets too long, Tor may split it into two half-books. If this happens, he will be pushing for one half to be published one month and the other half the next month so we don't have to wait any more. He also said that the Prologue will most likely be released several months in advance. The prologue, according to Brandon, was written almost entirely by RJ, with Brandon just finishing up a few sections. He also said several of the major plot arcs and really important stuff (including the end) was done by RJ. I don't know how much of this is news for everyone, but it was the first I'd heard of a lot of it, so I thought I'd post for those of us who are less informed, like me.

[RAND AL THOR]

Hurray for thread resurrection!

 

Indeed.

 

Anyway, I talked to Brandon at a signing yesterday

 

WoW-lucky you!

 

The prologue, according to Brandon, was written almost entirely by RJ, with Brandon just finishing up a few sections.

 

Aha! Then I'll not be reading the prologue. It may be misleading because we would not see BS' writing style in it. I would likely end up anticipating RJ's writing style in AMOL after reading the prologue so I'll just wait for the book.

And of course I would likely die with anticipation anyway if I DO read the prologue.

What's the bet that the prologue will spark 1000 more questions and answer none that we have now? :)

[Safia al-Maaz]

I think I would break down sobbing if I read the prologue and couldn't read the rest of the book...

 

And I hope they don't split up the book into two halves... most people will finish the first half in a couple days...  i would then have to sit down and cry ^^

[RAND AL THOR]

Safia al-Maaz, I fear you may end up dehydrated.

[Andrew the Great]

Brandon's Latest Blog Post

[OsaroLJ]

Brandon's Latest Blog Post

 

LORD HAVE MERCY! 600k :o :o :o I would have to take off TWO WEEKS just to read all that...and then my wife would probably divorce me :o

 

Oh well :D...a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do :-*

[bjclinton]

I would be very disappointed if it were split into two books.....it would go against everything that RJ has stated about "inventing a new binding system" if he had to in order to fit it in one book.

 

there would be something very poetic about it being one, very large (obnoxiously so) book that dwarfs all other books on my book shelf.....

 

well...with the exception of the hardcover of Shakespeare's entire works, but that doesn't count  ;D

[Leopoled Boothe]

Here's an interesting question.  Would  you be willing to have AMOL split into two volumes if it meant that Volume 1 would be released sooner than the anticipated date of a  complete AMOL?

[bjclinton]

honestly....i'd rather wait and read it all in one fell swoop. from everything we know about RJ, he would never let anyone get in his way of releasing it all in one book- I hope that will be honored by TOR.

 

 

[RAND AL THOR]

If there was a one month gap between the release of the two books then I would find that OK since I intend to read the book as slowly as possible anyway to preserve the essence of the freaking book.

 

Any longer -no.

 

Despite RJ talking about a new binding system and all that- there is a limit to the size of a book after all. You can't expect TOR to bind something that would fall apart in minutes. And if they decide to split into 2 then you can't really expect them to publish both simultaneously. For some reason, publishers just don't do that.

 

How many words are the former books? Anybody know?

[Thorum]

I've got the paperback edition of Dreamsongs (the collection of short stories of GRR Martin). A quick count got me to 600k words in it. In ONE book (okay, a 'deluxe' paperback, meaning it's larger). If it works in paperback, it should work in hardcover as well...

 

And indeed, the LEAST TOR could do for the Creator is publishing it all in one book.

[Luckers]

I was never aware books got broken because bookstores got antsy about them--makes sense i suppose.

[Isabel]

This is my response on the blog of BS:

 

Tor better put it in one book!

RJ said he wanted it in one book and they should respect it.

He didn't want to get GRRM on him.

 

I find it very weird when you are not even sure about the lenght of the book, that you are talking about 2 books. To have the last book divided in two will only interrupt the book and won't make it any better.

Lets just wait and see what can be done around that time and how long it will be. Perhaps just cut the glossary at the end, that also saved a few pages.

 

Only if the book will be really 1200+ pages or longer will I understand that decision. If it's around 800 or 900 it should be one book.

A storm of swords is 971 pages in hardback. So publishing aMoL in two books would be unnecessary.

Why worry unless it will be over a 1000 pages Brandon?

============================================

 

I am really against this idea. I would really not understand it if it's over 1200 pages. Even than they should look into option to publish it as one book. RJ wanted it as one book.

[OsaroLJ]

This is my response on the blog of BS:

 

Tor better put it in one book!

RJ said he wanted it in one book and they should respect it.

He didn't want to get GRRM on him.

 

I find it very weird when you are not even sure about the lenght of the book, that you are talking about 2 books. To have the last book divided in two will only interrupt the book and won't make it any better.

Lets just wait and see what can be done around that time and how long it will be. Perhaps just cut the glossary at the end, that also saved a few pages.

 

Only if the book will be really 1200+ pages or longer will I understand that decision. If it's around 800 or 900 it should be one book.

A storm of swords is 971 pages in hardback. So publishing aMoL in two books would be unnecessary.

Why worry unless it will be over a 1000 pages Brandon?

============================================

 

I am really against this idea. I would really not understand it if it's over 1200 pages. Even than they should look into option to publish it as one book. RJ wanted it as one book.

 

um, the way Sanderson sounds, this book will be closer to 1800 than to 1200...

[Isabel]

Well first he was talking about 400k, that is about 600 pages.

That's not even that big. So 600k should be about 800 pages or 900 and that can be published as a hardcover, so I don't see the problem.

 

[Bob T Dwarf]

Most of mine contain 56 characters per line and 37 lines per page.  Thats 2072 characters per page.  At 5 characters per word, that's 414.4 words per page.

 

600K / 415 = 1445.78

 

With Titles, Table of Contents, Frontispiece, Map, and Glossary that's looking like at least 1500 pages.  Or 1.667 times thicker than The Fires of Heaven.  Call it somewhere around 4 inches thick.

[RAND AL THOR]

Call it somewhere around 4 inches thick.

 

:o :o :o :o :o

[OsaroLJ]

Holy crap...the books gonna be bigger than a bible :P

[Isabel]

Bob, I have been looking into Wheel of time books.

I found figures of : Lord of Chaos 395k HC: 685

Than 600k would be around 1000 pages.

 

I just find it very weird that first started with 300k, so it should be one of the smaller books and than suddenly he starts to worry us that it won't be published in one book as RJ wanted.RJ never wanted a George Martin on his books.

 

The last book cannot be split properly, the books will never be a selfcontained story. If for example it will be 1500 pages, than the books should be published at the same time. Else you will have two half books and that was not what RJ wanted. If the only reason that the book cannot be published in one volume is the lenght, than they should publish the two together. Otherwise it will diminish the story greatly.

 

If the book is about a 1000 pages it should be a normal hardcover. This is possible.

[Luckers]

It depends on font, line depth, indentation depth--and it can be dramatic, for instance i have a book that is 165,000 words and its 612 pages, i have another that is 244,000 words and its 632 pages.

 

It depends entirely on the publisher.

[Bob T Dwarf]

My LoC, in paperback, runs to 1011 numbered pages and 13 unnumbered.

 

So, at 414 words per page, I make it 418,958 words.  Now, not every page is filled.  With paragraph indentations, short lines, and chapters that begin and end short of filling a page, I can well believe that the official word count is 'only' 395K.

 

But, that just illustrates how much blank space goes into one of these books.  And, how much the page count grows because of that blank space.

 

As far as how it gets published, I'd agree that if it's split, the companion volumes need to be released at the same time.

 

That page count does include the Glossary, which runs to 23 pages in the paperback LoC.  So, make it 409,427 words worth of space devoted just to story.  If a 50% increase in word count translates to a 50% increase in white space, then AMoL would need 50 additional pages just to handle the blank space.

 

So, my guesstimate of 1500 pages should be pretty close - IF - it runs to 600K words.

[Isabel]

My LoC, in paperback, runs to 1011 numbered pages and 13 unnumbered.

so, my guesstimate of 1500 pages should be pretty close - IF - it runs to 600K words.

 

No ;) We are talking about Hardbacks not paperbacks. LoC is about 700 pages in hardcover. If that's 400k, than 600k should be about 1050 pages hardcover. That is publisheble. Especially if they keep the same font,text as on LoC and for example remove the glossary.

 

For paperback it probably does need to be split in two if it's about 1050 pages in hardcover.

 

[Bob T Dwarf]

It can be hard to judge.  My hardback KoD seems to use a variable width font. 

 

Lines seem to be ~70 spaces and there are 39 lines per page.  Text starts on page 15 and runs to page 761 for 747 pages devoted to story.  I make it 407,862 words worth of space just to print the story.

 

1.5 * 747 = 1120.5.  Call it 1121 pages in hard cover.  Without any Glossary.  Call it 1135 or so with.