Experimenting with novel layouts

I could be wrong, but I thought the Titus Crow books were in fact shorter novellas (two to each book, I believe?) compiled into larger books ("omnibus editions"), and in fact each book was not a standalone novel, just two novellas (or short novels) in one. :/

I can't say whether or not your idea would work with a publisher. It doesn't seem TOO out there, but I imagine somebody else will come along to offer more educated comments.

Unless you are well known and respected as a published author, I would avoid anything that significantly differs from the norm in terms of format. An agent I spoke to told me that they receive 60-70 unsolicited partials or queries a week so most are binned. From their perspective, they are looking for something that they can make money on and in the present times of economic uncertainty, they may be less willing to take a risk. I heard this expressed by someone else in the industry - in Northern Ireland - that they are also less willing to take a chance on a new author, too. As I am operating in Ireland/UK, this is an opinion from there, things might be different elsewhere in the world.

It may be worth mentioning that the place I've seen that method used most often is in childrens books. Still sounds like a perfectly readable device in adult fiction to me, though.

You've already written it that way - I'm assuming you've edited it within an inch of its life? Might as well see how it does. He who dares wins, etc. =)

@edit - The Witcher was written like this, wasn't it? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Witcher) So you may have more joy with non-UK european publishers/agents.

The only way to ensure failure is to not try. If this is the work you set out to do and you feel you've done it as well as you possibly can, then you should not hesitate trying to put it out there.

bloodletting and miraculous cures by vincent lam features 12 short stories that are interwoven as one novel. so something like what you are talking about. it was his first novel and he did exceedingly well with it. it won the 2006 Giller PRize and has been picked up for a movie.

http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385661430

and here is a critical essay about cyclical story novels that mention some other works.

http://jsse.revues.org/index312.html

So to ease your mind, it has been done and it has been done successfully so all that matters now is if the writing is good enough, and that's usually what it comes down to no matter the form of your novel.

I don't see it as a problem as long as you explain how this "novel" is structured and how the "short stories" actually come together as one coherent novel. And as long as you do it well and tell a compelling story with compelling characters, I don't think you'll have a problem selling it, if you're upfront with them on the structure.

I mean, look at the novel Big Fish. Its structure is quite unconventional. It's also a very short book. It got sold, read, and made into a movie.

I've seen this done in two other novels.

In Case We're Separated by Alice Mattison is billed as Connected Stories. I thought it was very well done and a great read.

Also, the last three short stories in Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri are connected to one another. Again, it was well done and I really enjoyed it.

Lumley jumped the shark with all of the books that came after The Clock of Dreams. Even The Clock of Dreams ended up jumping the shark in the end when he completely tore the Cthulhu Mythos limb-from-limb and reinvented it in accordance with his own views and storyline instead of striving to stay true to the Mythos.

Even the Call Of Cthulhu game authors (and they put out a very good Encyclopedia Cthulhiana) denied the Lumley storyline for its depiction of Elder Gods who could actually concern themselves with petty humans.

I loved the books too, but even I knew when I was originally reading them that the first was the only decent book in the series and the rest were just Lumley trying to find the voice he was searching for to write his Vampyr series (which also sucked - Lumley's a much better short story writer than he is a novelist IMO).

If you're going to try to emulate Lumley, try emulating some of his better stuff than the Titus Crow books. The first book in the series is an excellent example of Lumley at his best. The first book in the Vampyr series is an example of Lumley at his best. Try to emulate those because Lumley has a habit of losing his way and clumsily berating the reader over the head with things the reader already knows or that Lumly wants them to know or remember.

He can get away with it. You probably can't.