QuickTidal, on 27 July 2020 - 03:55 PM, said:
The whole "all three books are essentially done" thing way back when he released the first one....smacks 100% of GRRM's post AFFC hardcover afterword comment about ADWD being not far away because most of it was indeed written since he'd just split AFFC into two books...then nearly 7 damned years later...ADWD finally comes out...
The difference was that GRRM didn't make the mistake of saying the book was already 100% done and ready to go. Suggesting that the book would come out a year later when that was already looking dodgy when the book was published (and highly questionable when he first suggested it five months earlier when AFFC was submitted), and I know people who urged him to leave that promise out but his response was along the lines of, "It'll be fine, I can see how to do it."
It was very clearly Not Fine, and I think probably the single main reason why he refused to give any updates at all on TWoW (and had to be kind of pressured into giving each update he has done). That said, it was not a lie, certainly not of the order of Rothfuss when he said all three books were 100% done and ready to go, but a mistake.
Quote
In fairness like, as I understand it it is fairly standard to not submit any of a book till the manuscript is done- no point the editor making notes that the author may yet make completely irrelevant in the course of further writing and development. GRRM does it otherwise but he writes differently to many and also committed to shortening the post-completion editing time by doing it his way.
If you're a "tentpole" author - an author who's books are guaranteed to sell so much that the publisher's bottom line for the entire year will be dramatically impacted by the booking coming out - the situation becomes rather different, and the author and editor are expected to work much more closely together and for more feedback to be available. I know Scott Lynch is in much more regular contact with his publishers even before the first draft is complete, and Joe Abercrombie also has a much more thorough back-and-forth with his editor.
It sounds like Rothfuss has not only not provided any material at all from Book 3 in nine years, but he has also not communicated significantly with his editor for six years, which is the bit that's really bemusing. Even GRRM flies to NYC once a year or every two years to speak to his publishers in person (usually involving an apology about the book not being done and discussions about future plans), and exchanges telephone calls and emails much more frequently. It sounds like Rothfuss has been ghosting his publisher whilst going on Twitch several times a month so people can watch him play video games which is really weird.
SE had the opposite problem, his editors not giving him any feedback and not bothering to let him know until he was a year into working on WALK IN SHADOW that FALL OF LIGHT had bombed and they wanted him to write something else, which is also weird (but is also not unknown, especially when behind the scenes there'd probably be wrangling about cancelling the contract outright or letting him finish as a courtesy because of how successful his earlier books were etc), as they lost a year which could have been spent on THE GODS IS NOT WILLING instead, and we'd have it out by now.
This post has been edited by Werthead: 29 July 2020 - 12:08 PM
Help
