one massive tome or split into duology?

the very first book i ever wrote was called 'preyers.' someday, i plan on cleaning it up and shopping it around, but because of its size, i'm unsure what to do with it at this exact moment. a very rough estimation of it has it coming out to be around 900 pages, no possibility of sequels (God destroys the world in the end, so...).

in terms of what an editor would want to do, would he want to split it up or make one fairly hefty read out of it?

well, assuming i'd edit 200 pages out of it, that would leave a rather awkward split to me. about halfway through, there *is* a part i could split from, though i'd rather keep it a single book. seeing as how these larger books have been done before, is that completely out of the realm of reason to want it kept that way?

i'm not sure about the word count, as i calculated it terms of space used. the story itself is rather stuck in 'office pro' or something like that, and i haven't bothered bothering my wife to switch it into a WP i can actual access. just been lazy about it because, as mentioned, few sane editors would take it on as a first book.

sure, i'd like the royalties, but i honestly would prefer this to be one big book. personally, i hate breaking things up just for money's sake. if money was my sole motivation, i'd strip, lol. i also know that big books still get made. sometimes. wasn't terry brooks' first novel something like 900 pages ('elfstones of shanara' or something like that?). and that book was very, very, very average as i recall (typical tolkein rip-off). another problem i have with fantasy, which is one reason i stopped reading it way back when, is because i knew half of what i was reading was bullsiht, padding to make me buy a trilogy when one good-sized book would have sufficed more than adequately. i'm willing to shell out a few more bucks for a hefty book, and it makes me wonder how much of a drop-off from book one to book two there is in sales. quite a bit, it would seem, else why do it?

i hate to think what a modern editor would want to do to the bible. 'yeah, we like the story, but we're going to split it into four books because we think we could maximize sales that way. so, between individual books, we need them to have, like, 'endings' or cliffhangers so the reader wants to read the next episode.' (okay, i haven't written the next bible here, just trying to make a point.)

thanks. nah, i don't think the split would be especially difficult to do. around the middle of the book, one of the two protagonists arrives at the city of God, so, yeah, that's pretty easy to end the first book with. just don't want to.

you're right, i'd like to keep it one book if possible. the question was about what editorial direction a publisher would want to go and if it were possible to, ah, get my way on this. true, i'd like the extra money i suppose it'd get if divided, but, honestly, i doubt it would such a significant amount (since money isn't the reason i wake up every day, there needs to be a pretty sizable chunk of it to influence me one way or another-- i'm not above being bought or bribed, but i do feel it pays to give a reader their money's worth ).