All the Treasures Bound

Jolly Saturday Morning Greetings,

I am wondering what to do with all the information I have regarding the series. As I'm ploughing through all the work I've done over the last three years to find a specific piece of information (something regarding the Well of Tears and ancient pre-Colombian cultures) I wonder about the sheer scope of the story I'm trying to tell. With my associative faculties running on all twelve cylinders I've amassed a huge pile of links between ancient religions, fairy tales, fantasy works, children novels, genre artwork, language sets and about a million characters from all over the storytelling world. I exaggerate a bit of course, but it certainly feels like it.

Even as I continue to write (or take a break like I've done the last few days again - I just can't seem to write consistently) I find myself daunted by the sheer amount of references to various mythologies and information I want to share with the reader. Does the reader even care or want this information? I doubt myself and the project I'm trying to undertake then and maybe that's the reason why I leave it be every now and then. I am intimidated by my own Muses.

And I've thought about the dreaded editing phase. 10% sheared away upon entering the 2nd draft and another 10% by a formal editor on handing over the book to the publisher. And that's if we're lucky enough to be accepted into the current saturated young adult reader market with a 100K+ worded novel. What will be left when the book finally hits the bookshelves? Are complete passages of adventuring and discovery going to be left in the dark, because we had to make room for the essential? The solution to this is the source book.

I am reading 'The Magykal Papers' by Angie Sage and Mark Zug, a source book following the succesful fantasy series Septimus Heap. It's a beautifully illustrated collection of information, presented as if written in the actual world of Septimus Heap himself. It contains character backgrounds, maps, illustrations and a lot more, all of which only adds to the experience of reading Angie's books. It is not unlike a set of 'DVD-extras' that you get when buying a movie. So I was thinking of doing the same, albeit in a slightly different way.

What if I let the editors have their way with the source material to make the book publishable for the lay reader, to just get the story out there at first. Then I could maybe convince the publisher to directly bring the novel out in paperback, while keeping the hardcover release for somewhen down the road. This hardcover would actually be very mush like a Director's Cut DVD, with extended scenes, added chapters, maps and illustrations as to reward the hardcore fan. It would also justify the higher pricetag. That way I would still be able to get the information of Simon and Sally's world out to the reader, while not obstructing any marketing schemes of the publisher.

What do you think?