AMoL to be Divided into 3 Volumes - What would RJ say?

[Kaznen]

I suppose I can live with the split, as long as the Tower of Ghenji thread is resolved in the tGS.

[Tyrell]

There isn't a chance in hell bookstores aren't going to put a book from a multi NYT Best-selling series on the shelf, even if it runs to 500K words to be honest.

 

Sure maybe they said "well look, that's gonna take up a lot of shelfspace", frankly I don't think they did : I'm calling shenanigans on this whole excuse, but lets say they did. What does Tor say? "Tough luck" Would do fine, RJ knew that, if you've sold 30 million books you can do whatever the hell you like, bookshops can't afford for you to say "alrighty, I'm taking that criticism on-board and I'm taking my 30 million sales elsewhere".

 

But getting back to the scenario, the bookshops whine about the fact that you can only fit two 400K word books in the space where you might normally stick four 200K books, and here instead of fighting with their considerable selling power Tor see their chance to milk and give in. That's what I'm seeing.

 

I know Brandon throws some anecdotes about his books and the bookshops, but I'm sorry, I'd never heard of Brandon prior to his being made the writer of AMoL (or should we call it TGS, FFS.  AMoL it will be! Viva la revolution) it just isn't the same circumstance. Brandon hasn't been published worldwide, he hasn't sold millions upon millions of books, he is not Robert Jordan, or he certainly wasn't prior to his coming onto this project, he doesn't have "The international No.1 bestseller" written on the cover of his books. In short there is no way he can relate his own experiences as a new writer trying to get by to the current situation in which the much anticipated finale in a twelfth (thirteenth, fourteenth :() book series is being released.

 

RJ would have gotten AMoL on the shelves, on nice big display at the with the rest of the books arranged around the display and something along the lines of "Epic Finale" and "International and/or NYT Bestseller" hanging around in big letters if he handed in a 800K word manuscript. He swore he'd deliver one book and I think he, if noone else, was aware of the exact amount of power he and his 30,000,000 sales worldwide had. Thats approximately 1 book for every 2000 people on the planet, this is HUGE for what he was writing. I know JK Rowling has sold more than that, a lot more than that, but she wrote the same easy story seven times which every single schoolchild could read and be happy about how the power of love and friendship triumphs over evil power *vomit* RJ wrote a serious, difficult epic fantasy series and as far as I know he was by far the most successful, best selling of any most likely aside from Tolkien. RJ would have had the balls to use his weight to get what he wanted done.

[Kaznen]

Large chain bookstores never hesitated to make room for Harry Potter novels.

[Jestr1323]

Unfortunately, the Harry Potter series, I think, is a more wide known series than the Wheel of Time

[Casco]

And i dont want to whait until 2011 to start reading AMOL..

[Jestr1323]

hell no! not that i'm pushing, but they've already got part 1 ready to go. Well, edit anyway, so, might as well. Give the fans something to grasp. Get some closure on some things, open up new things to make them want more! Gettin all excited again, ha!

[Builder]

This sucks balls bigitme. I totally agree with both Luckers and Mr Ares. Why the f*** do we have to have three books when we could have only one, or two?

 

Bah, I'm just repeating what the others have said, but that doesn't mean I don't like the idea (or DECISION!) to make it into three volumes!

[Charlz Guybon]

 

Are we to ignore that money is playing its part? Even though in the long term we don't care? I mean, you could be honest.

 

 

I care. RJ signed contracts promising AMOL, 2 more prequels and the Outrigger Trilogy, and was paid. Splitting AMOL means she's on the hock for less money back.

[RobertAlexWillis]

What we will get cannot ever be exactly what he would have given us.  That is simply the way it is.  The moment he died, this book got a lot larger, because when Brandon and Harriet write for him, they have to err on the side of including things that he might or might not have.  There has always been more of this story than what we got on the page.  Robert Jordan, as its writer, always did the first editing between all that was in his mind and notes to what he put on the page.  The writing process is now a different one.

 

Brandon and Harriet had the choice between making "one book" their ONLY consideration, and warping the story until it would fit, or not taking this one, single requirement and making it supersede every other consideration.  I think that they have made the right choice.  They are telling the story, completely as they can, to get as close as they can to what RJ wanted us to know.

 

In splitting up the books to tell the whole story, I believe they are giving us something closer to what Jordan wanted.  Getting the story right was always a greater concern than "one and only one more book".

 

This is my own bit of pop psychology here, but it may be that RJ was so adamant about "one more book" because he knew he was dying, and there was no way he could write two or three more.  He really desired to finish it himself, and so he drew the line at "one more no matter what".

 

In the end, I think it is a bit presumptuous for any of us to think that we know what he would have wanted better than his wife and editor.  Really.  I don't think that Harriet is doing this because she's hard up for profits.  In fact, I admit that if there is anything I find offensive in this conversation, it is the implication that somehow Brandon and Harriet are ghoulishly dragging this out for as long as they can to bring in a few extra bucks.

 

I understand eagerness to get the story.  I really do!  I want it now!  But you can't always get what you want, and casting aspersions, even just by implication, is not called for.  I have seen nothing but integrity and genuine best-effort in the process so far, and don't expect to see anything else.

[nnokwoodeye]

I think RJ would have done it in one book. But RJ was the series, Brandon Sanderson is a fan of the series and that a Huge difference. just imagine how would you have felt in his place, after you read all the notes and realize that there is so much to tell and that most of it would remain untold, and you are the one who would be required to decide what would be left out. That scary, and that is why Brandon Sanderson would give us a lot more information than RJ ever planned to give us. It won't be a RJ book, but it will be a WOT books. if you consider that from RJ we would have also got at least two prequels and probably one bonus book, you would realize the extra two books are kind of compensation for what we have lost (actually I won't be surprise if the last battle would be in the climax of the second book and the third would be for the immediate aftermath).

[xntric]

I'm ok with AMOL splitting into 3 volumes. Although it increases my expectation that AMOL will tie up most loose ends and provide epilogues of main characters after Taimon Gaidon.

[luftstark]

i don't feel so bad after reading sanderson's blog. I can live with 3 300k books... just hope they can get published as quickly as it's possible. But i don't see Tor publishing it before the holidays ... so... we better stick with the November 09, 10, 11 dates.....  that's a shame.. but still.. not so bad as splitting a book in 3 that could be 2. Splitting a 800k+ in 3 isn't that bad. And thinking that he may tie up most loose threads by doing it... it actually makes me feel confortable with the decision...

 

The only worry is... i do hope TGS don't blow up everyone's expectation... that would sux!!!

[zzyzx_scarecrow]

NO NO NO!!!

[D24g0n]

I do not believe that booksellers would say no to this book, regardless of how big it was.

 

Like others, I do not agree with the decision, but I do respect it.

[MikeRiley]

I'll admit I haven't read through most of the posts here, so what I'm saying might have already been stated a few times..

 

The problem I have with A Memory of Light being made into a trilogy is that it seems almost like a trick. Why A Memory of Light? Why keep that name when it's obviously going to be 3 books? They want to make it look like we're getting one book. We wouldn't have bought The Dragon Reborn if they cut it up and sold it a little at a time. The only way I see this being at all fair is if they reduce the prices on the books to reflect that we're only getting a third of the story.

 

Should I be happy the series is getting finished? That depends.. when is it getting finished? I mean, a few years is a long time and a lot can happen. Something is owed to the readers, and I know many will disagree with me here, but we've been following this series for a good amount of time - some of us have been for 20 years, even. The book was promised as a one volume thing and now that Robert Jordan is dead it seems they jumped at the chance to get more in. Who can say better what he wanted than his own wife and publisher? That seems a bit of a cop-out to me, especially considering Robert Jordan flat out stated multiple times this was to be one book even considering the binding. If we have a year to discuss part 1 and another year to discuss part 2 it will completely take away the fun of part 3. We will already know for the most part what's going to go down. And can you imagine having to wait an entire year to finish the climax of a movie? I should add, we will know what's going to happen in part 3 in advance because these are being written as one book. They aren't being written with 3 books in mind, so we will see plot points in part 1 that will be left unfinished until part 3, unless there is absolutely no flow between the books and they jump from point to point Tolkien-style, something that Jordan was very good at avoiding.

 

In short, it being three books is all well and good if they release it all up front as a boxed set we don't have to pay three times for. I'd rather wait a few years and get the finished product than have the climax to this story ruined by the effects of time. Not that it would take a few years, by that progress bar of Brandon Sanderson's it seems the book wouldn't take too much longer after the first year to finish, so why the long wait for the other books? If they want the money grab they should just be honest about it and hold off the title A Memory of Light until book 14 and call it what it is - 3 separate books.

[Shard]

Large chain bookstores never hesitated to make room for Harry Potter novels.

 

Grocery and Electronic stores, hell even Airport stores don't hesitate to make room for some Harry Potter Books.

[Khalus]

We wouldn't have bought The Dragon Reborn if they cut it up and sold it a little at a time. The only way I see this being at all fair is if they reduce the prices on the books to reflect that we're only getting a third of the story.

 

Well that is already being done not only for WoT but many other epic novels in countries all over the world.  This is no different except we're getting one enormous novel broken into 3 extremely huge parts of which hasn't been done before/often.  This is of course due to translation issues taking much longer and many times extending the book even more beyond the initial length.

 

...and I sure would have, WoT deserves being read no matter how many parts it takes to get it all too us!

[MikeRiley]

Good stories deserve to be read, but they also deserve to be in one book (or if multiple, sold together) and not hacked to pieces for more money. If this is done as A Memory of Light parts 1-3 my collection will remain books 1-11 and I'll just read this at the library. Unless of course they plan to charge a third of the price we got book 11 for. Because you know, if they are marketing this as 3 parts of one book, we should be paying full price.. for one book.

[Alderthal]

Well, this is just what I feared. 2 more years until the Wheel of Time series is finished is BS, especially since Brandon Sanderson's contract says he'll complete the book well before the end of 2009. A month or two between release dates, I can live with, since I know nothing about binding issues and would've trusted Tor's word that a 700k book just can't be binded properly.

 

A year between releases just means Tor decided to forsake their integrity and loyalty to the fanbase and decided instead to suck at the cash cow's teats.

 

I will not be buying any more Wheel of Time anything or heck, Tor anything as thanks for ruining my favorite series with their corporate BS.

[Gentled Ben]

I'm leaning towards the library and a used book store, myself.

[Khalus]

Heh, each and every one of you that keep saying you won't buy another Wheel of Time book will get all giddy when they near release and each and every one of you will pre-order and/or rush out to the stores to get your copy.  Stop playing "but they should only charge us 1/3 the price or they're milking the series for more money" or "don't give TOR anymore money, I'm just gonna rent them from the library!" BS

 

Even though the books are scheduled to have the subtitle of A Memory of Light or so they say for now; this is in all actuality 3 more novels in the series instead of one!  For all we know the 14th book will be titled A Memory of Light and before book 12 gets released this Nov. the subtitle will have been removed...

 

Many of you are acting very childish and crying up a storm over all this good news.  Do you all really want this series to end and be over with this Nov{had it been possibly to finish by then} or live on for a few more years?  Just cause RJ isn't around anymore you all think these decisions wouldn't have been made by him as well....you don't know that and RJ just may well as been faced with these same issues and extended the series too....seriously grow up!

[MikeRiley]

Heh, each and every one of you that keep saying you won't buy another Wheel of Time book will get all giddy when they near release and each and every one of you will pre-order and/or rush out to the stores to get your copy.  Stop playing "but they should only charge us 1/3 the price or they're milking the series for more money" or "don't give TOR anymore money, I'm just gonna rent them from the library!" BS

 

Just because you don't mean what you say doesn't mean I don't. Sorry (well, no I'm not), but if I say I won't be buying something, I won't be buying it.

 

Even though the books are scheduled to have the subtitle of A Memory of Light or so they say for now; this is in all actuality 3 more novels in the series instead of one!  For all we know the 14th book will be titled A Memory of Light and before book 12 gets released this Nov. the subtitle will have been removed...

 

Brandon Sanderson said he was writing this as if it was one book. That means we will know a lot of what's going to happen in part 3 in part 1. Releasing them so far apart will only give us the chance to discuss everything in depth and figure it all out ahead of time.

 

Many of you are acting very childish and crying up a storm over all this good news.  Do you all really want this series to end and be over with this Nov or live on for a few more years?  Just cause RJ isn't around anymore you all think these decisions wouldn't have been made by him as well....you don't know that and RJ just may well as been faced with these same issues and extended the series too....seriously grow up!

 

Do I want the series to end? Yes. It's a great series but that doesn't mean it should be artificially prolonged just to cost us more money. If you're so intent on keeping it around forever, read a word a day. Robert Jordan knew about these issues and he said it would be done in one book if it required its own cart to carry it with. To me, it sounded like he was saying it would be finished in one go, book 12 would be the final book and he wanted it finished. For Tor to put the books out a year between each other, the final book cut up in 3 parts goes entirely against his stated plans for the book.

[Majsju]

It seems to me that perhaps we all should take a couple of deep breaths, and let these news sink down a bit...

 

Regarding RJ insisting on making it a single volume, keep in mind that we are talking about the man who believed he could finish the story in 5-6 books. I think he spoke partly from underestimating how long AMOL would have to be, and partly from hoping he would be able to pull some strings if he had been with us when AMOL hit the stores.

I am quite convinced he would have accepted splitting AMOL once he realised how many pages he had actually written.

 

That we now see it split into three parts instead of two, time is a huge aspect here. Had RJ not gotten sick, it is quite possible he would have been finished with AMOL now. But since that did not happen, a lot of time was lost. Brandon explains this very well in his article.

 

As for the book getting stretched out beyond what RJ intended, are you kidding? Who of those directly involved would want this? Brandon, who just have started to get his own career going, a career he must more or less put on hold for quite some time? Who signed a contract to write a minimum of 200000 words, meaning that everything he writes now is him working for free? Ok, Brandon seems to be one of the nicest guys in the business, but come on, he is a family man, with bills to pay.

 

As for whether or not the books should be released close to eachother, that would mean getting the first part out at the earliest in the fall 2010, a year later than what we get now, and the final part still coming out in 2011. Brandon is not a machine who can write 24/7 until the book is done. Heck, the workload he has put in so far is quite astonishing.

But, if it is important to you that you get all the parts released close to eachother, just pretend they do not exist and wait until the final part is published. Me, I will be hanging on the bookstores door in november, and I will do the same in 2010 and 2011.

[Khalus]

Brandon Sanderson said he was writing this as if it was one book. That means we will know a lot of what's going to happen in part 3 in part 1. Releasing them so far apart will only give us the chance to discuss everything in depth and figure it all out ahead of time.

 

Well technically the entire series is one book spread over 11 novels thus far, and I don't know about you but after reading the novels many times I already know what is going to be covered in the next 3 books!  Of course I don't know the order and the exact details but we all have a general idea of what that will be.  There could be even more details now that there will be 3 novels instead of 1 and I eagerly await them.

 

Well its been 3+ years since KoD and have we figured out everything that will happen, nope!  Its been since the end of Fires of Heaven {6 novels} when Asmodean died?  Have we figured that out yet, nope! etc etc etc

 

You assume too much, and just cause Brandon Sanderson said hes writing it as 1 novel doesn't mean that is what will happen!  Didn't he also say he was trying for one novel also and that clearly didn't happen and wasn't his decision.

[Vambram]

It seems to me that perhaps we all should take a couple of deep breaths, and let these news sink down a bit...

 

Regarding RJ insisting on making it a single volume, keep in mind that we are talking about the man who believed he could finish the story in 5-6 books. I think he spoke partly from underestimating how long AMOL would have to be, and partly from hoping he would be able to pull some strings if he had been with us when AMOL hit the stores.

I am quite convinced he would have accepted splitting AMOL once he realised how many pages he had actually written.

 

That we now see it split into three parts instead of two, time is a huge aspect here. Had RJ not gotten sick, it is quite possible he would have been finished with AMOL now. But since that did not happen, a lot of time was lost. Brandon explains this very well in his article.

 

As for the book getting stretched out beyond what RJ intended, are you kidding? Who of those directly involved would want this? Brandon, who just have started to get his own career going, a career he must more or less put on hold for quite some time? Who signed a contract to write a minimum of 200000 words, meaning that everything he writes now is him working for free? Ok, Brandon seems to be one of the nicest guys in the business, but come on, he is a family man, with bills to pay.

 

As for whether or not the books should be released close to eachother, that would mean getting the first part out at the earliest in the fall 2010, a year later than what we get now, and the final part still coming out in 2011. Brandon is not a machine who can write 24/7 until the book is done. Heck, the workload he has put in so far is quite astonishing.

But, if it is important to you that you get all the parts released close to eachother, just pretend they do not exist and wait until the final part is published. Me, I will be hanging on the bookstores door in november, and I will do the same in 2010 and 2011.

 

QFT and Agreement.

And those of you who are saying that you will wait until 2011 and/or read these final 3 books out of a library, then I feel sorry for you because you will be cheating yourself out of a project of love done by Harriet and her team, and Brandon Sanderson that will put a fitting conclusion to the greatest epic fantasy series of all time, that will RESPECT the work of James Oliver Rigney, and that will conclude most of the loose threads that RJ left in books 1 through 11.

 

http://www.dragonmount.com/Books/Memory_of_Light/harriet_interview_01.php

 

http://www.brandonsanderson.com/article/56/Splitting-AMOL