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Teresa Edgerton · 20th July 2006, 04:49 PM

I don't think 370,000 words would come out anywhere close to 1200 pages. But no, I don't think it would be easy to market such a book at all. You have to consider the cost of paper, which the publisher is going to have to figure into the price. A 370,000 word book would have to be sold at an exorbitant price, and that's a big risk for people to take when laying out their money for something by a new writer.

Also, if the book is too big, it can't be sold in mass market paperback (either as an original, or after first coming out in hardcover or trade paperback) because once a book reaches a certain size a paperback book would break it's binding. So an editor would take that into consideration when deciding to buy your book. (And if they did buy the book and decided to divide the book themselves, with an eye merely to the size, when it came time to bring it out in mass market, you might like their choice of where to break things off a lot less than your own.)

I very much doubt that it would be impossible to break up the book into two without destroying the narrative flow. You will know best if that could be done as the book is now; but with some restructuring and rethinking these things are usually possible. You never know about these things until you try, but if you set your mind to the task of dividing the book you might surprise yourself. (Especially if an editor says to either divide it or cut it down ruthlessly.) Sometimes, the very thing you're sure can't be done without spoiling the book turns out to improve it, because in rethinking and reworking it you find new ways to fix some of the flaws that baffled you before.

When I sold my first book, there was something that the editor asked me to change that I told her, "Oh no, I could never do that." She didn't insist -- perhaps because she had enough faith in me to believe that I would come around on my own and see the wisdom of making that particular change -- and after a few days I suddenly realized that there was a way to do it and make other aspects of the book better at the same time.

20th July 2006, 04:49 PM	#7 (permalink)
Teresa Edgerton Ink-stained Wretch Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: California Posts: 4,612	Re: Selling to publishers... I don't think 370,000 words would come out anywhere close to 1200 pages. But no, I don't think it would be easy to market such a book at all. You have to consider the cost of paper, which the publisher is going to have to figure into the price. A 370,000 word book would have to be sold at an exorbitant price, and that's a big risk for people to take when laying out their money for something by a new writer. Also, if the book is too big, it can't be sold in mass market paperback (either as an original, or after first coming out in hardcover or trade paperback) because once a book reaches a certain size a paperback book would break it's binding. So an editor would take that into consideration when deciding to buy your book. (And if they did buy the book and decided to divide the book themselves, with an eye merely to the size, when it came time to bring it out in mass market, you might like their choice of where to break things off a lot less than your own.) I very much doubt that it would be impossible to break up the book into two without destroying the narrative flow. You will know best if that could be done as the book is now; but with some restructuring and rethinking these things are usually possible. You never know about these things until you try, but if you set your mind to the task of dividing the book you might surprise yourself. (Especially if an editor says to either divide it or cut it down ruthlessly.) Sometimes, the very thing you're sure can't be done without spoiling the book turns out to improve it, because in rethinking and reworking it you find new ways to fix some of the flaws that baffled you before. When I sold my first book, there was something that the editor asked me to change that I told her, "Oh no, I could never do that." She didn't insist -- perhaps because she had enough faith in me to believe that I would come around on my own and see the wisdom of making that particular change -- and after a few days I suddenly realized that there was a way to do it and make other aspects of the book better at the same time.