Great AMOL update from Brandon Today

[cseresz]

"In what time frame? 10-20k a week, a month, what?"

 

(10-20k a week? My first thought: in his dreams!)

 

There was a comment (on mistborn.livejournal.com) from one of his friends some time ago, and it said that BS's total numbers (per books) about 10,000. (This is not the sharp number.)

 

Naturally these numbers will go up with a little help from WoT readers. (Hey, Sandorson will finish the book? Then I will buy Elantris/Mistborn!)

 

edited: an interesting article from pat:

 

http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2007/08/changing-of-guard-myth-or-reality.html

[Jonn]

Still doesn't really answer the question...

A comment on livejournal from a friend of his "some time ago"...

 

Well anyhow, if you listened to the Fourth Age podcast this week with a whopping hour and a half interview with Sanderson, the man did say that at the rate its going, his latest Mistborn book will be at the top of the genre for the year.

He also humbly offered that even if it is so, RJ's average sales for his releases sold 20 times what Sanderson could with his latest offering.

 

And actually no, Sanderson is not my personal favorite writer. The point of emphasis is that the Wheel of Time is going to be finished by this guy, a capable young author, and even people in the Wheel of Time community, in my opinion, seem pretty unenthusiastic.

 

Many haven't even tried to read a single book by this guy.

Listen to that podcast. You'll get excited about what is in store. The guy is very dedicated to this project, and a total fan, very bright.

 

I think this final book is going to be not just good...I dare say it sounds like it will be everything we want, barring industry interference and negative vibes from haters.

[CUBAREY]

Shelf space...What a joke.

Have we not all been to a book store and walked up to the RJ section? Maybe if they would drop trying to sell music CDs, movie DVDs, and coffee and muffins, they'd have the shelf space to put a few more copies of actual books up.

 

Where to start, well let's try it in this order.  Brandon has repeatedly said that the decision whether it will be one volume or two is up to harriot and Tor books not him. His latest comments indicate the book will be around 700k longer then War and Peace or Atlas Shrugged. Book stores sell coffe mugs, etc. because the profit margin is much better then selling books. Most books are still bought in bookstores so it would be counter-productive for an author or Publisher that many book stores would decide not to carry becuase of its size.  Brandon has recently said on his Blog that Harriot and Tor will have to decide whether to publish it in one or two volumes shortly after he meets with Harriot in the new year (at least he seems to think that if they want to publish in 2009 then he would have to concentrate on rewrites of the first 400k or so in order to have it ready for Tor by late summer.

 

I myself would rather have a first volume in late 2009 with a second and final volume sometime in 2010 then wait till 2010 for a complete ending book.

 

 

[DemandredFO]

I mean you split it in 2 for ordinary release and then sometime after the second release or something do a collector's edition on the internet release, or on Kindle or something.

[Mr Ares]

What soulless Capitalist principles you keep to are your own business, sir.

I wasn't aware that being willing to allow bookshops to stock the books they think they can sell was soulless. I didn't think they were charities, forced to rely on donations. How wrong I was.

 

The issue is a little more personal to a fan than profit margins. Yet, time and again there is always someone willing to take up the torch for the corporate sensibility, spreading understanding of market shares, consumer incentives and other terms that pretty much add up to: "who gives a crap about the art?"

We are talking about bookshops, not art galleries, aren't we? The art comes at the writing stage, not the selling stage. Just because Sanderson is, in the eyes of some, a really good, really underrated author doesn't mean a thing. Just because he happens to be finishing a very popular fantasy series is likewise meaningless. There are any number of great writers, people with incredible prose skills, many works of art. If bookshops stuffed themselves to the gills with this stuff, but all the people coming in want to buy is the latest bit of rubbish from Dan Brown, then how much money would they make? While they lose all their customers to other bookshops and make no sales? None, or at least very little. It is possible to care about the art without embracing a hippyish "all businesses are evil" attitude.

 

I find your rebuttals pretty contrary. Grow a pair.

Consider them grown. I find your defence of "art" at the expense of anything approaching business sense, as if shops should exist solely to justify your tastes, to be pathetic.

 

Why shouldn't it annoy an author when an industry pretty much ignores an entire genre, unless it appeals to teenage girls who listen to the Jonas Brothers?

Did I say it shouldn't? Doesn't mean they should clear the stuff that sells in favour of whoever you happen to like.

 

Sanderson finishing Jordan's classic is a big deal.

To some.

Yet you walk into a Borders or Barnes and Noble, and I guarantee you 90% of the time, if you mention Brandon Sanderson, and even Robert Jordan, the ignoramus sitting behind the customer service desk will give you a blank look and go "umm...lemeee seeeeee..." and start nervously tapping away at his or her computer keyboard to look it up.

So what? Because they haven't heard of your favourite fantasy author, or the guy hired to finish his work? You really need the "ignoramus" behind the counter to make you feel good about what you read?

 

So go ahead and go to bat for that industry, who cares so much about what you care about.

So what do I care about?

Go buy a frappachino while you're at it and sip at it while coyly trying to hit on a Naruto fan in the graphic novel section.

Nothing at all creepy about that mental image. No dirty old man vibes at all about me hitting on the sort of people likely to be in the graphic novel section.

I'm going online to pre-order my copy of Memory of Light, with the audio version if available.

Good for you. Would you like a medal?

and when I get the copies, I will get in my car and drive by the Mall, past BArnes and Noble, with my book weighing a ton in my lap, and I'm going to waste the gas to simply stick my hand out the window and give those a******S the finger.

Your car....what sort of car? Was it chosen for the artistry? Did whoever you buy it have lots of cars that people might be interested in buying floating around, or did he restrict himself to those works of art that meet with your approval?

[RAND AL THOR]

BS is just another writer. If his books are excellent and if people love them, then they'll sell well with appropriate promotion done by the publisher. Dozens of talented writers have books out there that the majority have never heard of. I've read books before and though, "this author deserved more popularity."

 

Attacking bookstores is meaningless. Bookstores occupy a certain area of ground for which they pay rent or which they purchased. An intelligent store manager will find a way to make as much use of that space as possible to maximize profits. Fiction books fall into the Entertainment Industry classification. It is a business.

[DemandredFO]

I just got Elantris, didn't listen to it yet, I'm going to wait on Mistborn until hopefully all three are on Audible.

[Jonn]

What soulless Capitalist principles you keep to are your own business, sir.

I wasn't aware that being willing to allow bookshops to stock the books they think they can sell was soulless. I didn't think they were charities, forced to rely on donations. How wrong I was.

 

The issue is a little more personal to a fan than profit margins. Yet, time and again there is always someone willing to take up the torch for the corporate sensibility, spreading understanding of market shares, consumer incentives and other terms that pretty much add up to: "who gives a crap about the art?"

We are talking about bookshops, not art galleries, aren't we? The art comes at the writing stage, not the selling stage. Just because Sanderson is, in the eyes of some, a really good, really underrated author doesn't mean a thing. Just because he happens to be finishing a very popular fantasy series is likewise meaningless. There are any number of great writers, people with incredible prose skills, many works of art. If bookshops stuffed themselves to the gills with this stuff, but all the people coming in want to buy is the latest bit of rubbish from Dan Brown, then how much money would they make? While they lose all their customers to other bookshops and make no sales? None, or at least very little. It is possible to care about the art without embracing a hippyish "all businesses are evil" attitude.

 

I find your rebuttals pretty contrary. Grow a pair.

Consider them grown. I find your defence of "art" at the expense of anything approaching business sense, as if shops should exist solely to justify your tastes, to be pathetic.

 

Why shouldn't it annoy an author when an industry pretty much ignores an entire genre, unless it appeals to teenage girls who listen to the Jonas Brothers?

Did I say it shouldn't? Doesn't mean they should clear the stuff that sells in favour of whoever you happen to like.

 

Sanderson finishing Jordan's classic is a big deal.

To some.

Yet you walk into a Borders or Barnes and Noble, and I guarantee you 90% of the time, if you mention Brandon Sanderson, and even Robert Jordan, the ignoramus sitting behind the customer service desk will give you a blank look and go "umm...lemeee seeeeee..." and start nervously tapping away at his or her computer keyboard to look it up.

So what? Because they haven't heard of your favourite fantasy author, or the guy hired to finish his work? You really need the "ignoramus" behind the counter to make you feel good about what you read?

 

So go ahead and go to bat for that industry, who cares so much about what you care about.

So what do I care about?

Go buy a frappachino while you're at it and sip at it while coyly trying to hit on a Naruto fan in the graphic novel section.

Nothing at all creepy about that mental image. No dirty old man vibes at all about me hitting on the sort of people likely to be in the graphic novel section.

I'm going online to pre-order my copy of Memory of Light, with the audio version if available.

Good for you. Would you like a medal?

and when I get the copies, I will get in my car and drive by the Mall, past BArnes and Noble, with my book weighing a ton in my lap, and I'm going to waste the gas to simply stick my hand out the window and give those a******S the finger.

Your car....what sort of car? Was it chosen for the artistry? Did whoever you buy it have lots of cars that people might be interested in buying floating around, or did he restrict himself to those works of art that meet with your approval?

 

Look, I get it, you barely give a s#** about the ending of the series. That's obvious.

 

You're more interested in defending your small views on the book selling market.

You don't understand or relate to my passion to see the end of this series come to fruition, nor do you care to investigate the author who is finishing this series.

 

That's all I'm getting from you out of this particular exchange.

 

So, to me that's pretty soulless. You post regularly on these boards, as a supposed fan of the series and you're trying to project a cool exterior, I get it. Very Euro of you.

 

Don't patronize me though. Don't act like I'm naive and don't know it's a f$#%ing business. I know that.

That's why you're an ignoramus in this particular instance. You should know better.

 

If I want to vent and say whatever I wish about how stupid I think said business is run, that's well within my right as a free person in a (relatively) free society.

You know this already. You're not that dense are you? So don't act like you are. It insults me and it insults you too.

 

I regard it as a minor miracle that we're even getting an ending to the series, so if I rant and rave about the Sanderson taking on this difficult task, don't get jealous that you're not that into it or Sanderson, and take my enthusiasm down. That's f@#%ed up.

 

RAND:

 

Bookstores put their weight on the industry, and change the game. That makes them fair game. In the interview Sanderson stated the he gets pressure from publishing because bookstores want a certain number of pages in a book. This is before he even writes the damn book.

 

OK

This is like me going to a clothing store and I want say...a sweater, because it's cold, but the store only wants to sell me shirts. They got a memo from corporate to push shirts because they are cheaper to make and they have a surplus. Regardless of what I actually want, they figure if shirts are more prominent, I'll buy one for lack of choice.

I'm the consumer and the store is dictating to me what I want. That's a$$ backwards. I know what I want and if it's possible to get it the way I want it, there's no harm in asking for it, is there?

What's wrong with that? Is it illegal?

 

Another example: The newest Harry Potter movie...guess what. It's finished. It's in the can. It could have been released a month ago, but you know why it isn't in the theaters?

 

They wanted to save it for one weekend that was open in the summer of next year to compete for summer box office. One weekend, as opposed to basically dominating the Fall/Winter season. This is Harry Potter we're talking about. It will make money. You could release it without advertising and it would make millions. But the industry decision to not release it was all about business. They did their graphs and calculations, and it's still stupid in my opinion. What about the fans of the movie series? They're the consumers here. They don't give a crap about the consumer. It's the money that dictates their actions. And the rationale is "so what? You'd want to make more money too..."

 

If you see no problem with that then you are fully institutionalized, my friends.

 

I'm not saying we should pressure Sanderson in any way to change his writing or his attitude towards the project. The interview he gave Dragonmount assuaged my fears that he has the wrong intentions. He's spot on. I'm saying that if the man finishes the book as a single book, on time...He's approaching it as a single book that could be presented in two volumes. This is what he said.

The onus is on the publisher and the distribution as to how this work will come to us and in what form and time frame.

We as consumers, as fans, have a right to get what we want if it is available, possible, feasible. And in my opinion, the feasibility is only dependent on whether or not the piece is finished, not on how much shelf space is available.

That's pathetic.

Screw the shelf space, just send the damn thing to me in a crate. If the stores don't want to handle the books, fine, we'll eliminate that problem. They don't touch my book. Send it to me direct, because I want it. 

[Majsju]

Kids, what did I say about behaviour? Three steps closer to thread being locked...

[deathgate]

Many haven't even tried to read a single book by this guy.

Listen to that podcast. You'll get excited about what is in store. The guy is very dedicated to this project, and a total fan, very bright.

 

I have now read four of his books and really liked them all. He seems very humble and accessable also.

 

As for whether there should be two books? Absolutely. Tor cannot make a decent book half the size of AMOL (I'm talking physically not content wise). I would be pretty angry if it tears apart before I have even finished it.

[Mr Ares]

Look, I get it, you barely give a s#** about the ending of the series. That's obvious.

 

You're more interested in defending your small views on the book selling market.

You don't understand or relate to my passion to see the end of this series come to fruition, nor do you care to investigate the author who is finishing this series.

 

That's all I'm getting from you out of this particular exchange.

 

So, to me that's pretty soulless. You post regularly on these boards, as a supposed fan of the series and you're trying to project a cool exterior, I get it. Very Euro of you.

 

Don't patronize me though. Don't act like I'm naive and don't know it's a f$#%ing business. I know that.

That's why you're an ignoramus in this particular instance. You should know better.

 

If I want to vent and say whatever I wish about how stupid I think said business is run, that's well within my right as a free person in a (relatively) free society.

You know this already. You're not that dense are you? So don't act like you are. It insults me and it insults you too.

 

I regard it as a minor miracle that we're even getting an ending to the series, so if I rant and rave about the Sanderson taking on this difficult task, don't get jealous that you're not that into it or Sanderson, and take my enthusiasm down. That's f@#%ed up.

Jonn, I do care about the end of the series. But what you are saying is ridiculous. This is a business, yet you complain about them trying to make money. Yes, you are being naive. How is the book indstry being run "stupidly"? Why is it less stupid to make them give over space to authors that no-one cares about? Not to mention that I've already read one book by Sanderson, and I plan on reading others. Also, cool exterior? Not often I get accused of projecting that. Thanks, I think.

 

RAND:

 

Bookstores put their weight on the industry, and change the game. That makes them fair game. In the interview Sanderson stated the he gets pressure from publishing because bookstores want a certain number of pages in a book. This is before he even writes the damn book.

 

OK

This is like me going to a clothing store and I want say...a sweater, because it's cold, but the store only wants to sell me shirts. They got a memo from corporate to push shirts because they are cheaper to make and they have a surplus. Regardless of what I actually want, they figure if shirts are more prominent, I'll buy one for lack of choice.

I'm the consumer and the store is dictating to me what I want.

No. The store can stock what it likes. You can buy what you like. If the shop isn't selling what you would like, go somewhere they do sell what you want. Don't complain about the industry, because the industry does not exist to serve you. Book shops would prefer to sell shorter books, but they will sell longer ones as well. But why antagonise them needelessly? Not to mention other factors involved, such as the advance already paid for books RJ is never going to write. This is not just "book shops are evil for wanting to sell shorter books". Also, one flaw in your shirts argument - if everyone wants shirts, but only a few people want sweaters, why should shops aiming for the mass market stock a niche product (sweaters) over a mass product (shirts)? There will be shops out there that cater to your particular tastes, in fiction or clothing. There's no need to get shirty because a particular shop is not aiming at the sector of the market that you happen to inhabit. Just don't go to those places, go to somewhere that sells what you want. You can live in peace.

 

Another example: The newest Harry Potter movie...guess what. It's finished. It's in the can. It could have been released a month ago, but you know why it isn't in the theaters?

 

They wanted to save it for one weekend that was open in the summer of next year to compete for summer box office. One weekend, as opposed to basically dominating the Fall/Winter season. This is Harry Potter we're talking about. It will make money. You could release it without advertising and it would make millions. But the industry decision to not release it was all about business. They did their graphs and calculations, and it's still stupid in my opinion. What about the fans of the movie series? They're the consumers here. They don't give a crap about the consumer. It's the money that dictates their actions. And the rationale is "so what? You'd want to make more money too..."

So the fans are the consumers? The consumers are the people who will pay money to see the films? They will make the most money, according to their calculations, by opening in the summer? So, in other words, more fans will be willing to go and see it in the summer than will be in autumn/winter? Yet by putting it on at a time when more fans will go and see it, they are not serving the fans? I think this point might require further elaboration.

 

Screw the shelf space, just send the damn thing to me in a crate. If the stores don't want to handle the books, fine, we'll eliminate that problem. They don't touch my book. Send it to me direct, because I want it.

OK, you get your book in your crate. While the bulk of the readers don't get it at all. Because book shops make up the bulk of sales, and the "problem" you are removing means the people who make up the bulk of your sales are now not selling your product. Personally, I'm not so desperate for a single volume release that I would want to screw over the casual fans who make up the bulk of the audience for the books, simply to satisfy my own selfish desires. I don't think you are either, but that is the impression I get from you sometimes.

[Graendals favourite]

I honestly don't think it matters that much for the reader whether the book is sold in one volume or two. The essential thing, as far as the literature is concerned, is that a Memory of Light is the twelfth volume of the Wheel of Time. Whatever happens, there will be twelve novels to the Wheel of Time, and at the same time these make up one great novel, the Wheel of Time. There is also a prequel novel, and two further prequels may yet be written. These are not part of the Wheel of Time, but they coexist with the Wheel of Time. None of this is changed if the novels are sold in parts, aMoL part 1 + aMol part 2 is still aMoL.

 

I think the final volume should be put out in a way that makes sense for the business: If there is something you like, you would like to eventually see more of the kind and you wish the people responsible for it also rewarded, you wish that they are successful to an extent in the competition. There are many people and products out there in the mass markets that only think of competition, that only think of making something that sells: for example the whole concept of Idols is to sell as many products as possible with minimum input, everyone knows no one actually cares what the Idols contestants' albums are actually about, the only purpose there is to achieve something that sounds decent to an uncritical ear. Well they do fulfill a certain social function I'm sure to some people, and there would be no point to spending more money in the production when it really is the advertising that sells it. And if the industry is able to gain some cheap money in one business, perhaps they are more able to operate in other businesses that also they find more worthwhile.

 

However the approach is the opposite to trying to make something good and then trying to sell it, and the process of making something new and putting effort into it so that you would be happy with it, that you think it would be worth the effort to others, this is most likely fairly costly. Unless you have a rich patron commissioning your works, you're likely not able to do anything unless you can sell it in a reasonable manner. There is no reason to tax yourself further by not thinking of the smartest way to distribute what you've made. People will find the good stuff if it is realistic, for example if aMoL again brings the Wheel of Time prominence in book shops, and they may stick with it, but outside of this it is easily the low-production-cost stuff that will win in competition.

 

Essentially, regardless of the business I esteem the Wheel of Time very high. As a reader (or listener or consumer in general), it is works like the Wheel of Time that I would wish to be successful. Thus I wish the Wheel of Time to be as successful as possible-- as rewarding to its makers as possible-- as it is rewarding to the readers. Also since I believe the Wheel of Time in general is a very positive thing in life, I wish it to be very popular also, so I wish it is marketed so that many people have a realistic chance to find it and try it out. It is the reading that makes the book, not it sitting on a shelf, though if it is on a shelf someone can pick it up.

[Jonn]

*sigh*

 

Alright, I'll apologize... Mr Ares, forget about it. I get worked up is all, it's not that personal between us, honestly. I understand what you're saying, and it's reasonable for the most part, considering where you're coming from. I admit I do get a little too dramatic about it all. Please forgive my passion.

 

Obviously losing RJ SUCKS. It is like...losing a relative. For me, such things kind of don't register easily or smoothly. It hits me sometimes in a delay and I get weird about it, especially on boards because it's honestly one of the only opportunities I get where I can "discuss" the Wheel of Time at any length. Not an excuse, just elaborating why my behavior is kind of jagged and childish sometimes. Again, I apologize.

 

This series means a lot to me. I grew up with it. It's corny, but each volume that has come out is like a watermark for my identity. It's very personal to me that this last novel be done right.

 

I was very excited by the interview Sanderson gave to Dragonmount on the podcast. Every implied gesture he makes when talking about his writing just comes off wonderfully and he hasn't missed a step in my eyes. I just want this to be better than just good. Maybe I'm projecting my hopes on the guy.

 

I am very confident though, that this guy can finish. My issue is anxiety about the remaining wait...how the book will be released, then received by the public as well as the industry. The anticipation would kill me if I weren't so determined to live to read the end of the series.

 

Frankly though, I get weary of that whole attitude that, I don't know the world, society has about...things, life, whatever you want to call it. The whole "it's not personal, it's business..."

I hate that. I really do. It's this apathetic attitude that has ruined how people deal with one another, in my opinion.

Pointing no fingers at anyone in particular here, mind you. I think it's just the world we live in now. It's so easy to write things off as being business, not personal. It's not personal until you're the one getting screwed over. I understand there's a need for pragmatism, but I think it's a lazy philosophy to live by. Sparing yourself the toil of having to actually consider more than one side and decide for better or worse how you react, not solely based on business...Yeah, that sounds complicated. I don't know, it's just a thought. I'm feeling odd, and no I'm not intoxicated...not much at least.  ;)

 

I'll taper this thought with this though: The "business" decision is not always the RIGHT decision.

[Graendals favourite]

Frankly though, I get weary of that whole attitude that, I don't know the world, society has about...things, life, whatever you want to call it. The whole "it's not personal, it's business..."

I hate that. I really do. It's this apathetic attitude that has ruined how people deal with one another, in my opinion.

Pointing no fingers at anyone in particular here, mind you. I think it's just the world we live in now. It's so easy to write things off as being business, not personal. It's not personal until you're the one getting screwed over. I understand there's a need for pragmatism, but I think it's a lazy philosophy to live by. Sparing yourself the toil of having to actually consider more than one side and decide for better or worse how you react, not solely based on business...Yeah, that sounds complicated. I don't know, it's just a thought. I'm feeling odd, and no I'm not intoxicated...not much at least.  Wink

I very much agree on some points there. The "it's not personal, it's business" attitude I think rather amounts to lazyness. Not that I think things were better on that account before, I think they were worse, only we have this modern society with lots of people and information etc, but really, many such attitudes amount to people thinking, "I can't be bothered to think today, if I speak to people I will repeat what I said yesterday and not listen to what they say, and if they say something different they're wrong anyway."

 

On the other, well there's business and business. Small business perhaps do not have so much choice in how they run matters, if they do not have so much money to spare, but for larger ones I do think the most traditional "business"-attitude is rather harming. The decision-makers often want to play things safe because there is competition and they need to secure their backs against stakeholders who will not understand seemingly unnecessary risks leading to losses, but for any business not making new investments and innovations and especially not putting value on the product, this leads to bad results on the long run. That is, of course one must be aware of what goes where, but businesses cannot be run bureaucratically, according to some static business theory. And the theories aren't worth too much either, considering just the current economical situation which arose from a perfect text book model of how things should supposedly be run according to some schools of thought, and the reality of which could have be seen coming ten years since with just some common sense. Problem is I guess that anyone who wants to succeed must trust their vision and get things right in a chaotic world. Not that I am sure what this has to do with anything, but there it is.

 

Anyway, I think perhaps in the future things continue improving. Now is better than the middle ages, after all, when most people really could only survive and breed. Now they have to learn to think for themselves, too, but many do not and they distort the markets so that what sells best is products made for robots. Well, I exaggerate, to an extent at least, but people often do seem to want everything ready and chewed, with no input from them needed and nothing learned from the new experience. I better stop this now or who knows where I will veer off to.

 

I think what we've heard of Sanderson sounds very promising. Since RJ couldn't finish the book, you couldn't ask for better than a fantasy writer who is a fan to do it for him. Perhaps as events have transpired, the book will end up having its own sort of magic. Not only because of historic masterpieces that were left unfinished, but BS finishing the last book, while the book fulfills RJ's vision in full as described in the notes, it truly is also independent of RJ, sort of larger than life since, while of course RJ as a writer had had assistance from many people while writing it etc, even its creator could not finish it alone. So there is an element that is left to chance in the book, RJ created something of which not even he could know all the details in the end, but it was still made according to plan. I guess the WoT world remained alive for him too, as it is to remain to us with the untied plotlines.

[Majsju]

Making a guess based on what was said in the podcast...I think we can hope for the prologue being released as an ebook, perhaps towards the summer. Then the first half of AMOL in the autumn. The split will be just before all hell breaks loose, so part two will focus completely on the last battle. Which will be epic, Brandon hinted at +200000 words just for the last battle. Phew! ;D

[Jonn]

Making a guess based on what was said in the podcast...I think we can hope for the prologue being released as an ebook, perhaps towards the summer. Then the first half of AMOL in the autumn. The split will be just before all hell breaks loose, so part two will focus completely on the last battle. Which will be epic, Brandon hinted at +200000 words just for the last battle. Phew! ;D

 

It is indeed massive. I was looking at the Sanderson Meter on his site today and he did a comparison of what he's written for A Memory of Light and other substantial fiction works.

 

A Memory of light is going to be slightly (or more than just slightly) longer than Lord of the Rings, perhaps even War and Peace.

 

I think this rather fitting given that those two works loom large as great influences on RJ's vision for this series.

 

I think now I'm at a place where I can accept this book being split, but I still won't really like it. The saving grace is that Sanderson has basically soothed my fears by stating pretty clearly that his approach is to write this as one book and leave it up to Harriet and Tor whether or not it gets split.

 

One the one hand I want to read it in the form it's being written as, and that's as one book. Not changing my mind on this. RJ conceived it from the beginning to be his last book of the series for this storyline. True to that promise Sanderson is writing it that way. The ball is firmly in someone else's court.

Otherwise, if this book ends up over 700K words, yeah, one book or no, I can see that there would be a logistical concern.

 

Still, I'm firm in my belief that if it's meant to be a single book, it should be distributed as such. I have a deep dislike for "to be continued" in any medium. That's redundant in a multi-volume series anyway. The whole idea is that we'll continue until eventually the end comes. This book has been conceived as and is meant to be the end.

 

Let it be that. Don't draw this out.

 

As a compromise, fine split it in two, but make the final release before the year is out.

 

Face it, it's going to come in a single volume edition eventually anyway, and that's going to be the version people will always prefer.

 

Honestly, who prefers reading Lord of the Rings as a three part series? It works as a movie, but as a book, obviously it's best read as it was meant to be by the author.

[Majsju]

As much as I would love to see a single volume, the reality of it is that with a +700000 word book, a split would occur naturally.

 

However, I like what Brandon said about wanting to see a collectors edition, with a leatherbinding that could handle such a massive volume.

[DemandredFO]

I know there are still many revisions and stuff but the bar on the first revision of what will presumably be book I of Amol reads 100%.  I think thats pretty cool