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[merlinscribe]

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Comments

Re: Writer’s cut

[merlinscribe]

Blade of Empire, as delivered to Tor, ran approximately 150,000 words. I think the published version had been cut by about 25,000. Tor does not want long books from me, even though they know and I know that's what my audience prefers. I am heartbroken at the number of subplots I had to NOT EVEN WRITE because I knew the length of book Tor wanted--when I cut a book, it isn't like just removing every other chapter: its cutting words out of sentences, sentences out of paragraphs, paragraphs out of scenes, and scenes out of chapters. I turned in Crown of Vengeance at 1600 pages, or roughly 400,000 words. Tor published about 150,000 of them. Unless Tor lets the series go out of copyright, there's no way I can publish a "Director's Cut", and I assure you they have absolutely zero interest in doing so.

The idea that publishers are in the business to support writers is nonsense. Publishers are in the business to make money, usually by publishing celebrity cookbooks, not novels. Alas!