Scott
asked
Rian Hughes:
Is it true that you had to cut a chunk of XX out? If so, is there any hope of every getting an uncut version? What was your inspiration for XX? And what did your writing/planning process look like for a book so complex?
Rian Hughes
Hi Scott – I did edit out a sizeable chunk. It was a sub-plot that had the least bearing on the structure of the whole, so was simply the easiest to excise. The excised portion was still in draft form — it would take some work to bring it up to publishable level, so it's unlikely that a new edition will include it. There were also many other shorter philosophical/ideological digressions (a paragraph to a page or two) I removed in the later edits as I thought I may already be testing my readers' patience and wanted to come in under 1000 pages, especially as this was my first novel and a book of this size is a big ask of any reader.
The book was laid out in InDesign, with colour-coded sections and a short description of what happens in each chapter on a second, non-printing layer that was visible on the thumbnail "pages" view, but could be turned off for the final PDF export. This meant I could see the structure and flow of the whole book at once, and rearrange pages/edit visually, which was an enormous help. The key sections were written first, and then the linking sections, and then the sections between the linking sections, and so on. Along the way, some of the linking sections became key sections, and others were dropped. Placeholder character names were changed as their primary role in the narrative became more apparent, and then the whole was printed out as a physical book via Blurb POD so I could more easily gauge it in the final form. This was corrected, polished and tweaked over 14 versions (and probably another 4-5 versions before the first physical printout edition) before it was submitted to Picador's editors, who did a thorough line edit but made no other changes. Around 10-15 copies of the final POD version (in a red and black cover that is similar but not identical to the final yellow and black version) were sent out for advance review purposes and internal publisher and promotions use. These will have minor differences, but are essentially the same.
The book was laid out in InDesign, with colour-coded sections and a short description of what happens in each chapter on a second, non-printing layer that was visible on the thumbnail "pages" view, but could be turned off for the final PDF export. This meant I could see the structure and flow of the whole book at once, and rearrange pages/edit visually, which was an enormous help. The key sections were written first, and then the linking sections, and then the sections between the linking sections, and so on. Along the way, some of the linking sections became key sections, and others were dropped. Placeholder character names were changed as their primary role in the narrative became more apparent, and then the whole was printed out as a physical book via Blurb POD so I could more easily gauge it in the final form. This was corrected, polished and tweaked over 14 versions (and probably another 4-5 versions before the first physical printout edition) before it was submitted to Picador's editors, who did a thorough line edit but made no other changes. Around 10-15 copies of the final POD version (in a red and black cover that is similar but not identical to the final yellow and black version) were sent out for advance review purposes and internal publisher and promotions use. These will have minor differences, but are essentially the same.
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