[cervantor]

Neal said: Yeah, it sounds dubious to me too, but I won't get anywhere by shouting at people about it. My theory is that if I keep writing a book every nine months or so at some point I'll hit critical mass and publishers'll be trampling each other to acquire them (then I woke up and it was time to get to work).

Sometimes things are out of your control, so the best you can do is just keep doing what you do, and I think you'll get your due.

Hobbit said: It's an old topic of debate, Robert, but the splitting of books into two has caused some lively discussion round here; not only from TOR but also some of the George RR Martin books and the Tad Williams here in the UK and Peter Hamilton in the US that I can think of.

Regarding this topic, I can understand how frustrating this is for readers and authors alike. Yet, from my experience in the music biz, looking at it from the publishers' point of view, for them, it's a business, and they have to make decisions that they feel will most benefit the company, and that does not always adhere to what the writers and readers believe is for the best...

[nealasher]

I'm the kind of person that tends to want to do everything e.g. I don't have an agent and have negotiated all my publishing deals myself. However, there comes a point where you have to step back and say, "You're the experts, you get on with it." Macmillan have done bloody well for me. I was dubious of the cover they did for Gridlinked. I was wrong. I left them to sell my foreign rights and they've now sold me to nine countries, which is more than some agents manage for some other well-known SF writers.

As for Tor US, I just cannot know the market out there and what's for the best. I leave it entirely up to them. Also, the fact is that if I had the power to throw my weight around, then that would be because I sell very well, and in that case they would already have bought The Line of Polity.

[cervantor]

No agent huh. That leaves me even more impressed :cool: