I finally found an idea for a book that is completely stand alone and publishable. Problem is ( i think) that its a tad to long. Let me explain a bit: It is based in a fictional world that is kind of based in 1400 medieval Europe. A civilized nation lives on an island half the size of Britain and is over populated. The king is in his nineties and has no heir or family to take over for him, so he calls on three children from the noble families of the nation. He tells them that they were going to compete for the job of heir. So now the children go and train - thing is, the people are getting restless with the poverty and demand the king to step down. The king, knowing he has little time left (he is ill), calls the kids to his chambers and tells them to kill him and replace him. The MC, one of the children named Frank, is the only child who follows the orders. Frank kills the king and the kids claim the throne using a letter that the king had written explaining what happened. The system the king designed to figure out which kid is going to be king is a sort of noble republic - each noble family (there are six) votes for which child they want as king. Anyways, the kids decides to form a triumvirate of sorts. They had sent scouts in boats to the east of the island and they had found a new land. The new kings decide that they should invade and conquer this new land. They gather an army (which isn't hard with 13 million people on a small island) and begin to invade the new land. Without rambling anymore, they go and take over a huge continent and they grow up (one of the kids die) and two of them have a civil war. After five years of civil war, Frank calls on a semi noble family (rich enough to be noble, but not actually apart of the noble group) and tells them he would make them a noble family if they helped him in his campaign. Revon, a sixteen year old from the family, takes few thousand men and takes them west of the island and into another part of the continent that hadn't been discovered. Revon takes over barbarian states and invades the other king's (Harry) territory and together, Frank and Revon forces him to surrender. So together, this is going to be at least 600 pages. It's a big project, but I already have 100 pages down. What I am thinking of doing is having acts. This whole story is eight year and if I wrote everything that happened it would be a lot of pages. Act 1: Child princes get trained and compete to be king. (est. 150 pages) Act 2: Conquest of the new land. (est. 200) Act 3: Civil war (Est. 250) To shorten the book, I would have a few years in between each act. Act 2 would start a little later in the conquest. The middle of it (where all the action is) perhaps. Act 3 would be just before Frank asks Revon to invade. What do you think? (sorry for text block)
from what I know, 600 page would be 200'000 words and that's too much. for a first time author. split it in two. The first must be able to stand alone. try getting that published. having the sequel ready will help you getting a deal from what I hear. (please note, i've never published anything so this is only my comprehension of how the business works.)
First, stop thinking in terms of pages, in favor of word counts. Submission guidelines are solely in terms of word counts. It sounds to me you're trying to fit 20 pounds of manure in a ten pound sack. Okay, not manure, but that's essentially the saying. Either now, or after you have painfully typed it all in, you will need to decide which scenes are less important to the story and can be cut. I'd cut them now, and save your fingertips some wear and tear. If you by some miracle find you have come up short, congratulations. You have plenty of material on hand to build with if you need it after all. DXividing the story into parts isn't a bad plan (you can call them acts if you wish). It's a good way to divide the story into widely separated time periods.
Thanks for the replies. I get what you mean guys. 200,000 words is a ton and well, unless your George R. R. Martin, not a smart idea to do. I still plan on wanting 120,000, but I'll have to outline it a bit. Thanks for the replies. -Kingzilla
