Ryan Mueller
asked
John Gwynne:
As an aspiring epic fantasy author myself, I'm curious about the word count for Malice. I've seen you mention cutting it from 300,000 to 280,000, but I don't think the final product was that long. Was it?
John Gwynne
Hi Ryan, great question. Yes, you're right, the figures you mention were early on, where I edited Malice myself, before submitting it to an agent. When I was taken on by my agent, John Jarrold, he also did an edit before he submitted Malice to publishers, which took it down to about 270,000 words.
The final word-count for Malice was 211,000, after my editor at Tor UK got her red pen out :) A much-needed winnowing, mostly of sub-plots and side-characters.
The final word-count for Valour was 215,000, and for Ruin (published this coming July) it is 270,000 words.
Hope that helps.
All the best with the writing, I wish you every success,
Best,
John
The final word-count for Malice was 211,000, after my editor at Tor UK got her red pen out :) A much-needed winnowing, mostly of sub-plots and side-characters.
The final word-count for Valour was 215,000, and for Ruin (published this coming July) it is 270,000 words.
Hope that helps.
All the best with the writing, I wish you every success,
Best,
John
More Answered Questions
Jake Brownlee
asked
John Gwynne:
Hi John! Thank you for writing my favorite fantasy series ever! One of the reasons I loved the series so much was the amazing since of morality, and the stark contrast of good and evil. I was wondering why, in a time when popular fantasy books seem to be morally dark and far from uplifting, you wrote a book based on love, loyalty, and above all TRUTH AND COURAGE!?
Matt Horwood
asked
John Gwynne:
Hi John! I just need to let you know how much I love the faithful and the fallen series. I'm currently half way through valour and I can't stop reading it. Silly question really but how do you think of all these place names and character names? Are they based off of real places or people? They all work so well!
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