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

[Casco]

 

Why?  You're getting the same story you wanted. 

 

Do you mean it? (BS = Robert Jordan?)

No, but it will be very close. The ending is however the same (RJ did wrote that before he did pass away).

[Mr Ares]

What if she decided to ignore your wishes and do something that she is well aware you wouldn't want?

Funny thing that, I know my wife and she wouldn't. Robert Jordan loved and trusted and lived with his wife for a very long time. That's why I believe he can trust her.

Yet she admits this is not what RJ would have done, not what he would have wanted.

 

We do not know how long RJ really thought this book would be when planning his wrap up to his work.

But we all knew it was going to be long.

Remember RJ thinks a lot of things are obvious (like the "tragedy" in Book 9 revealed in KoD that NO ONE got or Asmodean's killer who's still at large).

You mean the Amayar mass suicide or Graendal?

We don't know how many plot threads he planned to never resolve, which characters he would trim out, etc.

Well, given that BS is writing from an outline RJ left, the plots he will resolve are those RJ would have.

We don't know that he was counting on a much more printable final volume.

We do know he promised fans and publishers one last volume, no matter how big.

 

You have lost nothing

If you get it all at once you lose nothing. It cuts both ways - if they publish it all at once, it can be read all at once or in chunks, if they publish it in chunks it can be read all at once or in chunks.

You can wait and read it all at once, so what's the harm?

You can read it in chunks, so what's the harm?

But a nice, travel friendly book that's not a giant brick is great for trips and commuting to work via bus/light rail.

If you want travel friendly, not a giant brick, why the hell are you reading Robert Jordan? A nice small paperback is good for reading on the go, something like the Flashman Papers, the Dresden Files or similar. If I want to read a book on the go, hardback doorstoppers are not the top of the list. What I can fit in my coat pocket is, and Wheel of Time doesn't make the cut. Not to mention that size is actually a positive in fantasy. Hence Tor asking at least one of its authors to write longer books.

 

However, how many casual readers would spend $65 dollars for one book or even $40 dollars. Simply put the more a single volume costs the less quantity of that volume will be sold.

Simply put, this is the finale of Wheel of Time. It will sell. Because people want to read the ending (the ending that was promised in the next book). Plus, A Song of Ice and Fire sells, Malazan sells (though not nearly in the same numbers), and those two series are likewise very big. Plus, two volumes or three would take up more shelf space than one. This book will sell, and will sell well. Also, do any American readers know the RRP for A Storm of Swords in Hardback?

 

You contradict yourself.

No, I don't. They already plan to sell something doable in two volumes as three, so what's to stop them selling something doable in three as four? Even if BS objects, he admits he has little say in the matter.

 

Your scenerio keeps fans waiting until September 2011 to get the first installment of AMOL, that's nearly six full years from the publication of KOD.

My scenario waits until the book is actually written before it is published. You do have to write a book before it is published. Also, people waited five years for A Feast for Crows, it has been a further four years since then waiting for A Dance With Dragons, plus Auel, Tolkien, etc. People will wait and then pick up the book when it comes out.

Second your scenerio has serious draw backs.

Second, it has actually been done before. Those "serious drawbacks" didn't stop A Storm of Swords or To Green Angel Tower being released in a similar fashion (2 volumes, a couple of months apart) for their UK paperback editions.

Tor would have to determine the amount of books to publish for each volume before releasing any of them

They would have to do that anyway. The problems you outline hold true regardless, for the most part. They can deal with this the same way they would normally deal with such a problem.

Your scenerio also presumes that bookstores can be persuaded to pre-order substantial numbers of each volume within a two to three month period, which is not certain since if they doubt Tor's estimate for the sales of the first volume they would be very reluctant to pre-order the necessary copies of the second and third volumes.

Which does ignore the facts that they have done it before for other books, and every WoT book from Path of Daggers on has topped the bestseller lists.

 

Ok I can see that some of you are upset about the money factor of purchasing 3 books instead of 1 book BOO HOO! I for one don't want a crappy cut up short story that does not tie up all the loose ends of all the characters involved so if this is the last book & the story must end I don't care how many books it takes to get the story told right & to the fullest extent possible, I have not been reading this series (that I have completely enjoyed) just to have it fall apart at the end because their afraid to upset a bunch of cry babies that don't want to spend any more money on 2 extra books or 10 for that matter! I love this series & would hate to see it ruined because of some cheap people out there that have nothing better to do than piss & moan because things don't go their way, get a tisue & get over it! If you love this series then why would you want to end it like that! This series is so complex it can't end simply idiots! So set back relax & hope that the ending is as fantastic as I hope it will be.

 

RJ, thank you for such a wonderful get away into another world it has been a pleasure!

Well, a crappy, cut up short story was never on the table. As we were never going to get that anyway, what's your point? Just because you are perfectly happy to pay three times for one book, doesn't mean everyone else should be. One book or twenty, there is not going to be any more story. We get just as much. So, however many books it will still be "told right and to the fullest extent possible". Also, this book won't tie up all the loose ends, according to RJ, but it will tie up all the major ones. You display your ignorance. This book will end no different for coming in two volumes, or three, or ten, or every chapter as an individual chapbook. It won't fall apart at the end unless BS forgets how to write, or Tor still has trouble working out how to correctly bind a book. Really, if you're not going to even bother working out what people are talking about or reading the thread, then why even bother posting? Just go away.

[CUBAREY]

Simply put, this is the finale of Wheel of Time. It will sell. Because people want to read the ending (the ending that was promised in the next book). Plus, A Song of Ice and Fire sells, Malazan sells (though not nearly in the same numbers), and those two series are likewise very big. Plus, two volumes or three would take up more shelf space than one. This book will sell, and will sell well. Also, do any American readers know the RRP for A Storm of Swords in Hardback?

 

Yes it will sell, but in the same numbers as a more affordable novel?

Many people who would fork up $29.99 for the Gathering Storm (price on Amazon) simply could not justify a $50 0r $75 price tag for one book. The name of the game for publishers (like everyone who runs a business) is maximizing profits. This is even a more obvious concern in a situation where the author has died and you will get no more books to sell from that author (either in the WOT universe or in proposed Samuri fantasy series that RJ had been working on). And maximizing profits must also be a concern to Harriet for the same reasons.

 

You can read it in chunks, so what's the harm?

 

I would have to wait an extra two years to read any new WOT. It may not matter to you, but it does to many of us.

 

No, I don't. They already plan to sell something doable in two volumes as three, so what's to stop them selling something doable in three as four? Even if BS objects, he admits he has little say in the matter.

 

Simple, cutting a story that has two natural break points into four books would lesson the series and while I admit that TOR and Harriet are  concerned with profits unlike you I do not believe that they would risk RJ's by putting out a crappy book.

 

Well, a crappy, cut up short story was never on the table. As we were never going to get that anyway, what's your point?

 

If you had actually read Sanderson's blog posts you would know that at an early point in the writing process he was faced with either writing a stream-lined book that either totally ignored many sub-plots or only gave them short thirft or writing a much longer book then first envisioned by himself or Tor. He choose the latter the consequence is that a book that was envisioned to be 250k to 400k by the person writing it has become a 800k+ and counting story.

[Dulahey]

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

[cseresz]

RJ said:...I knew I was doing something that was going to be longer than usual. But when I first started I thought that 'longer than usual' meant five or six books. I honestly thought I would finish it in five. When I finished 'The Eye of the World' date='' I thought I had a good chance of doing it in six.[/quote']Where did RJ say that? Certainly seems to indicate not a trilogy.

 

 

Story last updated at 8:21 a.m. Sunday, February 9, 2003

 

Local author's fantasy fiction as loved as Tolkien's

BY BILL THOMPSON

 

... "I have spent 18 years of my life on this, and I would like to finish it. I thought I was signing up for a 10K run. I knew it was not a stroll in the park. I knew I was doing something that was going to be longer than usual. But when I first started I thought that 'longer than usual' meant five or six books. I honestly thought I would finish it in five. But I discovered it wasn't a 10K run. It was a marathon, and I want to cross the finish line. Because these books are the way they are, I have to finish it for them to mean anything. After I complete the cycle I can take a breath. I can really go on a vacation." ...

 

 

 

Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" fantasy series spans nine books; he says the tenth in the series is planned December 7, 2000

Web posted at: 12:15 p.m. EST (1715 GMT)

By Michele Dula Baum

CNN.com Writer

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN)

 

..."In the beginning, I truly thought it was going to be four or five books," said Jordan, a tall, burly man with a salt-and-pepper beard, a shock of unruly dark curls and a seeming perpetual twinkle in his hazel eyes. "When I finished 'The Eye of the World,' I thought I had a good chance of doing it in six."

By the end of Book Two, "The Great Hunt," also released in 1990, Jordan was no longer sure. "I thought I'd better keep my head down and push on," he said. "Now, I think it will be at least three more books."

Jordan hastens to add, however, "That's not a guarantee it will be done in three books."

A slight pause for the gnashing of teeth. Even so, Jordan's fans will probably wait, if not always patiently. ...

 

[Mr Ares]

Yes it will sell, but in the same numbers as a more affordable novel?

Who knows? How many people will decide that 3 more books is two too many and stop buying the series?

 

I would have to wait an extra two years to read any new WOT. It may not matter to you, but it does to many of us.

Yes, you're called "the minority". Most readers will pick up the new one when it comes out. They won't be on tenterhooks waiting for the next one. Also, patience is a virtue.

 

Simple, cutting a story that has two natural break points into four books would lesson the series and while I admit that TOR and Harriet are concerned with profits unlike you I do not believe that they would risk RJ's by putting out a crappy book.

And how can you be so sure they won't find another natural break point?

 

If you had actually read Sanderson's blog posts you would know that at an early point in the writing process he was faced with either writing a stream-lined book that either totally ignored many sub-plots or only gave them short thirft or writing a much longer book then first envisioned by himself or Tor. He choose the latter the consequence is that a book that was envisioned to be 250k to 400k by the person writing it has become a 800k+ and counting story.

To get this into one book, I'd need to railroad the story from climax to climax. I'd have to ignore a lot of the smaller characters--and even some aspects of the larger characters. I just couldn't justify that. It wouldn't do the story justice. I cringed to consider what I would have to cut or ignore.

 

Perhaps I was wrong. Perhaps readers would have preferred a single, condensed volume so that they at least knew what happened. But I just couldn't do it. The Wheel of Time deserved better.

So it wasn't really ever on the cards. He looked at what he had, and decided that he couldn't butcher this book. Exactly what I said. Considered and dismissed, for fairly obvious reasons.

 

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

What's your point? You think you're being helpful? We've all seen it. We've all read it. We've all quoted from it. Why do you think we need another link to it?

 

RJ said:...I knew I was doing something that was going to be longer than usual. But when I first started I thought that 'longer than usual' meant five or six books. I honestly thought I would finish it in five. When I finished 'The Eye of the World' date='' I thought I had a good chance of doing it in six.[/quote']Where did RJ say that? Certainly seems to indicate not a trilogy.

Story last updated at 8:21 a.m. Sunday, February 9, 2003

 

Local author's fantasy fiction as loved as Tolkien's

BY BILL THOMPSON

 

... "I have spent 18 years of my life on this, and I would like to finish it. I thought I was signing up for a 10K run. I knew it was not a stroll in the park. I knew I was doing something that was going to be longer than usual. But when I first started I thought that 'longer than usual' meant five or six books. I honestly thought I would finish it in five. But I discovered it wasn't a 10K run. It was a marathon, and I want to cross the finish line. Because these books are the way they are, I have to finish it for them to mean anything. After I complete the cycle I can take a breath. I can really go on a vacation." ...

 

 

 

Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" fantasy series spans nine books; he says the tenth in the series is planned December 7, 2000

Web posted at: 12:15 p.m. EST (1715 GMT)

By Michele Dula Baum

CNN.com Writer

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN)

 

..."In the beginning, I truly thought it was going to be four or five books," said Jordan, a tall, burly man with a salt-and-pepper beard, a shock of unruly dark curls and a seeming perpetual twinkle in his hazel eyes. "When I finished 'The Eye of the World,' I thought I had a good chance of doing it in six."

By the end of Book Two, "The Great Hunt," also released in 1990, Jordan was no longer sure. "I thought I'd better keep my head down and push on," he said. "Now, I think it will be at least three more books."

Jordan hastens to add, however, "That's not a guarantee it will be done in three books."

A slight pause for the gnashing of teeth. Even so, Jordan's fans will probably wait, if not always patiently. ...

Thank you, cseresz. Seems like we can put this mythical trilogy to bed. All the quotes we have indicate an as-long-as-it-needs-to-be mentality, but an uncertainty over how long precisely that would be. Also, an absence of guarantees about length of series, with but one exception - 12 books. Eye of the World was never intended to be the first of a trilogy, but Knife of Dreams was intended to be the penultimate volume of a dodecalogy.

[Nightstrike]

I'm looking forward to all three volumes. They will be great reads. That's all that matters to me. Nice to get the first one this year. I'm looking forward to the encyclopaedia as well.

[Casco]

I'm looking forward to all three volumes. They will be great reads. That's all that matters to me. Nice to get the first one this year. I'm looking forward to the encyclopaedia as well.

My thoughts to. Im splitted though, i want to know the end of the story, but i dont want it to end :X I realy love the WoT world. I know, it cant last. I did read Brandons books (Mistborn series and Elantris) this last weeks and i have to say that he is good, realy good. Maby little to mutch about religions, but still very good. That was one of the best thing about WoT, it isnt all about religions. Infact, it is allmost nothing about religions.