Peace Talks First book that made Dresdenverse feel smaller -Spoilers

[JumpyDragon]

I did notice the other day that PT (according to Google Play) is 352 pages, and BG is 432 pages. More meat to the bones. It's tough when books need to be split, especially during the writing process. I'll probably always treat PT and BG as one book due to this in the future.

[Mira]

I did notice the other day that PT (according to Google Play) is 352 pages, and BG is 432 pages. More meat to the bones. It's tough when books need to be split, especially during the writing process. I'll probably always treat PT and BG as one book due to this in the future.

That is why I waited until not to do my reread of PT so it runs into BG.  I still don't buy the reasons for splitting it up though..  I recently bought a 750 page book, it didn't cost anymore than a 350 page book.  Actually if you add the prices of the two books together it is going to cost us more than one big one would.

[JumpyDragon]

It sucks. Kind of like when Paolini split Brisingr into 2 books and the Inheritance Trilogy became a series. During the splitting of Peace Talks into 2 books, there may have been scenes cut and shelved for future book use. Maybe the publisher told him that writing a book over 500 pages would technically "break" his contract and therefore increase the cost. Who knows... At least we only had to wait 60 days for part 2.

[Mira]

It sucks. Kind of like when Paolini split Brisingr into 2 books and the Inheritance Trilogy became a series. During the splitting of Peace Talks into 2 books, there may have been scenes cut and shelved for future book use. Maybe the publisher told him that writing a book over 500 pages would technically "break" his contract and therefore increase the cost. Who knows... At least we only had to wait 60 days for part 2.

I really don't understand why we had to wait two months for the second book..  Why didn't they just sell them separately at the same time?

[JumpyDragon]

I really don't understand why we had to wait two months for the second book..  Why didn't they just sell them separately at the same time?

In a ComicCon interview this year, Butcher said that the best his publisher could do was 60 days.

[Mira]

In a ComicCon interview this year, Butcher said that the best his publisher could do was 60 days.

  I find it hard to believe that though, but then what do I know about the publishing business?  However it still doesn't make logical sense, they print books everyday, since both books were done and edited, then all one has to do is print them and get them out to be sold.  I think it is more about hyping it for sixty days, then when it comes out,  you sell more books and make more money. 

[CrusherJen]

If it was a smaller publisher, with less books to publish, that might have been simpler... but Penguin is huge, with many authors under its imprint, and print schedules planned months in advance. With all their other commitments in place, putting out both books at once probably wouldn't have been possible, especially considering the quantities needed for a best-selling series like this one. Yeah, we think Jim's a big deal (and for good reason!  ) but fast-tracking Battle Ground more than 60 days would have likely meant delaying other, even bigger authors' works, and that's something Penguin probably couldn't do, contractually or physically.

That's my guess, anyway. It might not be completely accurate, since I never worked in publishing, but I did work in bookstores for many, many years, and I remember seeing some lines' publishing schedules worked out months in advance. That might not be the only reason, but I'd figure printer limitations and scheduling was part of it.

[Mira]

If it was a smaller publisher, with less books to publish, that might have been simpler... but Penguin is huge, with many authors under its imprint, and print schedules planned months in advance. With all their other commitments in place, putting out both books at once probably wouldn't have been possible, especially considering the quantities needed for a best-selling series like this one. Yeah, we think Jim's a big deal (and for good reason!  ) but fast-tracking Battle Ground more than 60 days would have likely meant delaying other, even bigger authors' works, and that's something Penguin probably couldn't do, contractually or physically.

I think it is more about the original contract that was signed between them, it was carefully planned in advance, before Jim ever put a word down on paper.  Big publishing companies would have insisted upon it.

[CrusherJen]

I'm not saying you're wrong... but sometimes there's a certain amount of flexibility in writer's contracts. Things happen, and books aren't always completed by a deadline. Some authors get contracted for a certain number of books in advance, say, "three novels in two years, with at least one belonging to a particular series." Nobody expected Peace Talks to get split until it happened, so I'm not sure it would have been planned for in the original contract.

(Rob Thurman, an author I adore, only had two books come out in a series I loved, because the publisher didn't pick up the option to print the third. The first two didn't sell enough to merit it, according to the publisher. I still mourn not knowing what would have happened next... hopefully we'll find out someday.)

[Bad Alias]

I will say that just about everything is much more complicated than someone who doesn't have a lot of experience with it tends to think. I remember seeing a video of a college age girl running a tractor. It looked more complicated than Houston space command during the Apollo era. I mean, I knew farming is a lot more complicated than putting a seed in a hole in the ground and making sure it got enough water, but I don't think I could run a tractor on a serious farm without training.

[Mira]

I will say that just about everything is much more complicated than someone who doesn't have a lot of experience with it tends to think. I remember seeing a video of a college age girl running a tractor. It looked more complicated than Houston space command during the Apollo era. I mean, I knew farming is a lot more complicated than putting a seed in a hole in the ground and making sure it got enough water, but I don't think I could run a tractor on a serious farm without training.

Actually trackers are pretty easy to drive, I've done it..  However they can be a dangerous piece of equipment and several farmers are killed each year driving them.  However you are right, farming is a lot more complicated because you are dealing with living things and ever changing conditions that have to be compensated for otherwise, livestock dies and crops are lost.. Sometimes it happens no matter what you do right.

[Bad Alias]

I've driven tractors too. Just not like the one I saw this girl driving. I don't think such complicated tractors existed 10, maybe even five, years ago. The one I drove was operated almost exactly the same as a stick shift car with some controls for the tractor parts too. All the instruction I needed was my dad telling me "this does that, and that does this." It was pretty straight forward.

Found it. https://youtu.be/9dQItxc5zto. She's got at least four screens in there.

[Mira]

I've driven tractors too. Just not like the one I saw this girl driving. I don't think such complicated tractors existed 10, maybe even five, years ago. The one I drove was operated almost exactly the same as a stick shift car with some controls for the tractor parts too. All the instruction I needed was my dad telling me "this does that, and that does this." It was pretty straight forward.

Found it. https://youtu.be/9dQItxc5zto. She's got at least four screens in there.

Take away the screens and it still is a tractor.. Notice it has the usual steering wheel and goes about five miles per hour.  Sounds like the screens were mostly for data concerning the crops that she was harvesting, and it sounds like they make that much easier as well.  I admit all the computer screens would burn my brain to ash, but I am not tech wizard.. But take them away and it still a tractor, okay maybe a one or two hundred thousand dollar tractor, but still a tractor.

[Bad Alias]

Take away the screens and it still is a tractor.

Take away what makes a thing complicated, and it's not complicated. I could get in that tractor, start it, and drive it. It doesn't mean I wouldn't destroy the crops in the process, much less, accomplish something useful.

Sounds like the screens were mostly for data concerning the crops that she was harvesting, and it sounds like they make that much easier as well.

Exactly. She's doing it the easy way.

[Mira]

Take away what makes a thing complicated, and it's not complicated. I could get in that tractor, start it, and drive it. It doesn't mean I wouldn't destroy the crops in the process, much less, accomplish something useful.

Well, yeah, there is a lot more to farming than one thinks, a lot more.. I know, I've done it.  Ever
try pulling a calf in near zero conditions?  I have, it isn't easy and the little bugger actually lived!
Then the young mother rejected it, it ended up in my living room.