[Cyphon]

All hail.
Well when they dump the truckload of money after GRRM's death to get the rights, I know who I want finishing the series.

[Gothos]

25 pounds, 20 pounds, to me it's all grossly overpriced through differences in our respective economies. I'll still probably buy it, though.

[Abyss]

Chapters/Indigo is showing $25. Even with Canadian tax that's almost half the UK price.

[QuickTidal]

Werthead, on 21 March 2011 - 08:32 PM, said:

The only difference is if the book's page count is much higher than advertised. Somewhere around 1,100 pages in hardcover printers start pouring extra costs on. THE NAKED GOD (1,130 pages in hardcover) was £20 in 1999 at a time when the average hardcover cost was more like £14-£15.

It's funny, but (since I work in the printing industry) the difference between a 1100 page count and 1300....with a web press capable of printing 48 pages a form, it roughly 5 forms difference. Just as an FYI as a yardstick, web plates are about $50 per plate, and this will be a one colour (black) job, so an extra 5 plates awould mean the difference for the printer is a completely negligible $250, there is no finishing other than standard binding which (the forms come off the press folded and just need gluing) and the extra press time....probably two more hours added to the run (between 1100 and 13-1400 pages) which probably would cost a couple of grand.

All in all, the printer is probably looking at extra costs of maybe $5000 total, on top of a job that probably is in the millions for them profit-wise. Just gores to show you the that if the printer IS slapping extra costs on, they are lying through their teeth to get more money, cause as you can see it doesn't cost them THAT much more to print it.

A black and white web-job on book paper even at 1300 pages can probably be run in one shift with no foul-ups.

Sigh, I hope that price comes down.

[QuickTidal]

Abyss, on 23 March 2011 - 06:30 PM, said:

Chapters/Indigo is showing $25. Even with Canadian tax that's almost half the UK price.

Ah, you mean Chapters Indigo CAN be good for something,

Except we'll see if they stock the shelves with it....LOL

[wolf_2099]

bookdepository.com and co.uk has it listed for $25 Canadian, and amazon.com.

I ddon't know where you folks got your crazr prices, but it seems right on par here.

Crippled God and Wise Man's Fear were both $38 or so because of their size, I imagine ADWD will be the same in store, but online they are all $25 or so.

[Tsundoku]

MTS, on 21 March 2011 - 02:54 PM, said:

champ, on 21 March 2011 - 01:00 PM, said:

£25 is nothing short of a joke... but you can see it from the publishers point of view... The book been delayed for so long, when it is finally released the demand will be so high they can pretty much charge what they want...

£25 is a joke? Good lord, you don't know how good you have it. $40AUD for a new release hardcover - especially a high-demand one like ADWD - is pretty standard fare over here.

I've seen brand new Feist priced at $49-95 in the recent past. That's daylight robbery for that low a page count. The new Tom Clancy (plus some other dude) is about the $49 mark as well in a lot of places (when it first hit a month or so ago), but it's a lot thicker. I still wouldn't pay $49 for either though, and I'm a fan of Feist (yeah, still ...).

Haven't seen any fiction hardcovers for over the $50 mark but I'm sure that will change as soon as our $ takes a hit.

[MTS]

Sombra, on 24 March 2011 - 08:55 AM, said:

MTS, on 21 March 2011 - 02:54 PM, said:

champ, on 21 March 2011 - 01:00 PM, said:

£25 is nothing short of a joke... but you can see it from the publishers point of view... The book been delayed for so long, when it is finally released the demand will be so high they can pretty much charge what they want...

£25 is a joke? Good lord, you don't know how good you have it. $40AUD for a new release hardcover - especially a high-demand one like ADWD - is pretty standard fare over here.

I've seen brand new Feist priced at $49-95 in the recent past. That's daylight robbery for that low a page count. The new Tom Clancy (plus some other dude) is about the $49 mark as well in a lot of places (when it first hit a month or so ago), but it's a lot thicker. I still wouldn't pay $49 for either though, and I'm a fan of Feist (yeah, still ...).

Haven't seen any fiction hardcovers for over the $50 mark but I'm sure that will change as soon as our $ takes a hit.

The funny thing is our dollar is actually more valuable than the US dollar at the moment.

[Werthead]

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS passes 1,600 manuscript pages.

For comparison, A STORM OF SWORDS was 1,520 MS pages and 420,000 words. That must put ADWD well north of 430,000 words, making it one of the longest SFF novels ever written. The only ones that are longer that I know of are Peter F. Hamilton's THE NAKED GOD (470,000) and THE LORD OF THE RINGS (460,000).

Better get some reinforced bookshelves in.

And yes, this is way past the longest of any of Erikson's books (to the tune of about 40-50,000 words).

[Cyphon]

There must be something wrong with me that I salivate at the thought of the size of that tome.

This post has been edited by Cyphon88: 28 March 2011 - 12:35 PM

[Tapper]

Werthead, on 27 March 2011 - 09:54 PM, said:

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS passes 1,600 manuscript pages.

For comparison, A STORM OF SWORDS was 1,520 MS pages and 420,000 words. That must put ADWD well north of 430,000 words, making it one of the longest SFF novels ever written. The only ones that are longer that I know of are Peter F. Hamilton's THE NAKED GOD (470,000) and THE LORD OF THE RINGS (460,000).

Better get some reinforced bookshelves in.

And yes, this is way past the longest of any of Erikson's books (to the tune of about 40-50,000 words).

Interesting. Now, the question does introduce itself: will ADWD be converted to two seperate releases in paperback? If so, will these be released at the same time?

[Abyss]

QuickTidal, on 23 March 2011 - 06:50 PM, said:

Abyss, on 23 March 2011 - 06:30 PM, said:

Chapters/Indigo is showing $25. Even with Canadian tax that's almost half the UK price.

Ah, you mean Chapters Indigo CAN be good for something,

Except we'll see if they stock the shelves with it....LOL

With the significant exception of SE/ICE books pub'd by Tor UK, i find Chapters to be quite timely. DANCE is worth huge dollars so i'm sure they'll make the effort.

Cyphon88, on 28 March 2011 - 12:34 PM, said:

There must be something wrong with me that I salivate at the thought of the size of that tome.

Seconded. At that sizxe, even a mediocre SIF novel like FEAST is value for dollar. mostly.

Tapper, on 28 March 2011 - 01:06 PM, said:

Werthead, on 27 March 2011 - 09:54 PM, said:

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS passes 1,600 manuscript pages.

For comparison, A STORM OF SWORDS was 1,520 MS pages and 420,000 words. That must put ADWD well north of 430,000 words, making it one of the longest SFF novels ever written. The only ones that are longer that I know of are Peter F. Hamilton's THE NAKED GOD (470,000) and THE LORD OF THE RINGS (460,000).

Better get some reinforced bookshelves in.

And yes, this is way past the longest of any of Erikson's books (to the tune of about 40-50,000 words).

Interesting. Now, the question does introduce itself: will ADWD be converted to two seperate releases in paperback? If so, will these be released at the same time?

If they did, i imagine almost certainly they would, since the hb and tpb would already be released by then. There's no value in drawing the mmpb release out.

[Tapper]

Except to buy GRRM another year with an actual release (of sorts) in it.
Although he may buy enough time with the HBO series to allow him to write the next piece at his own pace and in relative rest.

[Werthead]

ADWD will definitely be in two volumes in the UK. This latest news makes a two-volume American paperback also more likely.

I'd be more concerned about the possibility of a two-volume hardcover. Based on GRRM's comments in that LJ thread, it sounds like ADWD getting this big was not on the agenda when Bantam announced the release date, and he's rather bemused this has happened, especially with more stuff to come (hopefully not too much). So far there is no indication that Bantam are seriously considering this, but the size of the book is extraordinary, especially if it comes in at say 1650 or even 1700 MS pages when it's fully done.

On the one hand, a single-volume hardcover of that size will satisfy more people: after the six-year wait getting a book some 60-65% longer than AFFC will alleviate some concerns. On the other, profit margins will be tighter for a book of that size, and to get the book down to a comfortable page count will involve tight margins and a small font. On those grounds, splitting the book in two may be more attractive, but they WILL get a storm of protest over the move, especially if they also split the ebook (which has no publishing constraints). Voyager would also likely get a lot of abuse if they tried to charge people £25 twice. If the gap between the two volumes was any more than a month, that would also be hugely unpopular.

I think it's more likely they'll wait until GRRM is done and try to cram the whole thing into one hardcover, with a crowbar and masking tape if necessary, and then use its giganormous size as a selling point. Depending on the final size, this thing could come in at 25% longer than THE WAY OF KINGS and THE WISE MAN'S FEAR, even more over THE CRIPPLED GOD.

[Mentalist]

Werthead, on 27 March 2011 - 09:54 PM, said:

A DANCE WITH DRAGONS passes 1,600 manuscript pages.

For comparison, A STORM OF SWORDS was 1,520 MS pages and 420,000 words. That must put ADWD well north of 430,000 words, making it one of the longest SFF novels ever written. The only ones that are longer that I know of are Peter F. Hamilton's THE NAKED GOD (470,000) and THE LORD OF THE RINGS (460,000).

Better get some reinforced bookshelves in.

And yes, this is way past the longest of any of Erikson's books (to the tune of about 40-50,000 words).

now, the question is: how much of that will be taken up by Appendices showing the various family trees?

[caladanbrood]

I wonder if this will be the first time we can't fit more than one copy faced-out on a shelf. Wise Man's Fear was struggling, the second one hangs out a tiny bit, but it did manage 2. If it's much thicker than that, any second copy put on there will just fall off the shelf! Producing a book that big would definitely not be a popular move.

[Tsundoku]

Cyphon88, on 28 March 2011 - 12:34 PM, said:

There must be something wrong with me that I salivate at the thought of the size of that tome.

Remember, (supposedly) it's not the size, but what he's done with it that matters.

[Abyss]

Werthead, on 28 March 2011 - 11:26 PM, said:

... On those grounds, splitting the book in two may be more attractive, but they WILL get a storm of protest over the move, especially if they also split the ebook (which has no publishing constraints). Voyager would also likely get a lot of abuse if they tried to charge people £25 twice. If the gap between the two volumes was any more than a month, that would also be hugely unpopular....

...and yet people will buy it anyways. And the publishers know it. Factor the profit of double sales to everyone who buys both vs the lost dollars from those who refuse and i'd bet it's no context, two-books wins.

Mentalist, on 29 March 2011 - 04:33 AM, said:

...now, the question is: how much of that will be taken up by Appendices showing the various family trees?

Don't forget the heraldry! You NEED to know whose sheild has three limpid purple mermaids on a black square edged with blue diamonds, yellow moons and green clovers!

- Aebyss, ...caen't keep aell the Aegons, Aeryns aend Aereons straeight...

[QuickTidal]

Cyphon88, on 28 March 2011 - 12:34 PM, said:

There must be something wrong with me that I salivate at the thought of the size of that tome.

Nothing wrong with you. I feel the same way. LOL! We're all so hopeless.

[Ceda Cicero]

From GRRM's blog:

Quote

Lots of stuff to report, lots to comment on... but I can't just now.
Too much going on.

Saw sone AMAZING artwork by Justin Sweet today. His studies for the eventual WORLD OF ICE AND FIRE concordance. What a talent. If the roughs are this good, the finished paintings are going to make my head school.


Hope to see something equally cool this evening.

What you guys think? Wert? Anyone? Is today the today? I have a gut feeling it may be.