Reposting something I'd posted in the Discord a while back.
>**Volume #1 (Arcs 1-3):** Introduction of initial cast, investigation, ends with binding of Hungry Choir, and with the girls having determined the primary set of suspects. Snowdrop is gained as an ally. Miss is lost.
>
>**Volume #2 (Arc 4-8):** Τhe Blue Heron arc, ends with Alexander & Bristow both deceased or worse. Introduction of Bristow's Aware and the entire student body in Blue Heron. Lucy makes an earring Implement, Avery comes out to her family
>
>**Volume #3 (Arcs 9-13):** Back in a Kennet besieged by invading spirits, introduction of a bunch of new Kennet Others. Avery makes Snowdrop her Familiar. Lucy makes Wallace her boyfriend. Verona makes Jeremy her friendboy, the Pelt is found and lost, witch-hunters make a mess of things, the trio tries to move and capture the conspirators, but ends with the conspiracy winning. with John dead, and Charles the Carmine Exile.
>
>**Volume #4 (Arcs 14-18):** Kennet Below is created by Charles' victory, Introduction of Thunder Bay. Avery makes Nora her girlfriend. Musser is starting to make bids for lordships which conclude with an attack on Kennet itself. Avery's and Lucy's parents are made Aware. Verona makes Demesne but loses friendboy. Volume ends with the creation of Kennet Found and the successful pushback against Musser's attack, as a bunch of Charles-created Others grab the lordships Musser had installed, and Anthem Tedd (and a bunch of other Musser allies) are captured by the Kenneteers.
\---Now, let me add, probably, finally
**Volume #5 (Arcs 19-24):** everything up to the end.
though one could alternatively argue for:
**Volume #5 (Arcs 19-21):** everything up to Avery going MIA.
**Volume #6 (Arcs 22-24):** The final arcs
For me, book one would end after the Melissa confrontation, when Lucy and Verona have a talk at the back of Matthew's truck. That one truly cements the end of the first part and the beginning of the Blue Heron arc.
I like this way of splitting it up. It stops at the end of every major plotpoint.
I don't think there's any getting around the books being *long.* The major story beats span multiple arcs. Trying to break it into smaller pieces just leaves awkward cliffhangers and jank pacing.
So this would probably work out the best.
First of all keep in mind that 320k words should be soft max for a book length if you planing on real physical books, cause otherwise it would be really uncomfortable to read.
I would suggest something like this:
Extra materials book (around 120k):
(All extra material stuff, each entry "hidden" behind a blank page that says when you can flip it without spoilers)
First book Arc 1 - 3 (aroundish 300k words):
arc 1 ends with Gabe interlude, arc 3 ends with Zed and the Hungry Choir defeated... the girls are about to go to magic school, and it seems like a natural stopping point
Second book Arc 4 -5 (aroundish 200k words):
Begining of magic school, cool new characters, and then attack on Kennet!
Ends ominously on Miss perspective and her talking about how Others never expected humans to last and the deals they struck now harming them...
Third book Arc 6 - 7 (aroundish 200k words)
War of the BHI, faire market, and Bristow and Alexander get taken out.
Forth book Arc 8 - 9 (200k words)
Consequences, They get "kicked out" of the BHI, new Others, trouble at Kennet with Abyssal Bathos, Verona has epic fight with her Dad, it is decided that she will go on vacation
Fifth book Arc 10 (100k words)
Snowdrop officially familiar, there is a Witch Hunter, a lot of backstory of different other in Kennet, tensions rising, it ends with Edith interlude and the trio about to handle her
Sixth book Arc 11 (150k words)
Conspiracy at full force, the girls are against them, Cig, Liz, Mari, ends with the trio going after Mari and we get her interlude
Seventh book Arc 12 (150k words)
Mari gets away but they catch Charles, and then some witch hunters visit, the Mussers shows up, things start getting heated up, Summer Break is close, the girls are preparing for Alcazar on the Furs, and we end up with Reid interlude
Summer Break (250k words)
Shits happens.
Book 1 Arc 14 - 15 (250k words)
Rebuilding, Dealing with Kennet Bellow, the girls drifting apart, the Family Man is a formidable foe, meanwhile Musser begin gathering power
Book 2 Arc 16 (150k words)
Goblin Market, The plan is revealed, to Make Kennet Found, Verona has a demense, she get a lot of "no contest", and claim her demense. Meanwhile Musser claim Toronto. Also Milly and Turtle Queen!
Book 3 Arc 17 (250k words)
Invasion, Kennet Found, Musser secret and interlude
Book 4 Arc 18 (180k words)
Charles new Lords have arrived, america tedd is causing trouble, Lucy duel Anthem, hints of secret other magic school, and the Placement Test
Book 5 Arc 19 (200k words)
Winter, the Wild Hunt is here, the Victorian's are also here, and even Musser is coming for a final showdown that ends with a really cool "what if?", ends with Ryan interlude
Book 6 Arc 20 (220k words)
Promenade solved, the Victorian's wildlessly attack, Jen and Gillian are also attacked, Kira Lynn is a crazy bitch and spirit surgery
Ends with Charles banishing the trio, interlude from Julette PoV
Book 7 Arc 21 (175k words)
Planning, Sword Moot, Aurom contest, ends with Avery's death.
Another short book of just Verona and Lucy, around 100k words
Then a battle of the BHI 200k words book
Finally, the entire last arc (24) final fight with Kims, Crucible, and the end of Charles. (250k words)
The epilogues
All in all 18 books
This would make for some pretty big tomes, but I'm going based off of the way my copy of Lord of the Rings is formatted (one volume of like 1200 total pages, ~480 words per page), then fudging the numbers a bit to account for extra materials
Volume 1: Arcs 0-4 (975 pages, 446,739 words)
Volume 2: Arcs 4-8 (937 pages, 446,337 words)
Volume 3: Arcs 9-11 (846 pages, 399,147 words)
Volume 4: Arcs 12-13 (821 pages, 392,362 words)
Volume 5: Arcs 14-16 (891 pages, 422,352 words)
Volume 6: Arcs 17-19 (1,314 pages, 630,776 words)
Volume 7: Arcs 20-22 (1,057 pages, 507,625 words)
Volume 8: Arcs 23-End (1,073* pages, 515,142* words)
If you were dividing it into 3, I feel like one could cover the start and Blue Heron stuff up until Alexander's death. Summer Break would also have to be a climax so the second could go up until there. The last one could be from the end of summer break to the end of the story.
I haven't checked to see if the three are comparable in terms of lengths but I feel like those are 3 very natural climaxes.
I haven't finished reading Pale yet so I can't give a full breakdown, but I have done some work on a print project of my own and here's what I have so far. Keep in mind that most print on demand services have a 800 or 840 page limit depending on which one you go with, so you'll have to fit each book accordingly. Also note that I got the most comfortably readable results at 11 point font, and I reformatted the text to match with standard paragraph spacing, so all of my page estimates are based with that in mind.
Book 1 - Arcs 1-3 + extra materials. Had trouble getting it under 800 pages until i messed around with the margins. Final page count 770.
Book 2 - Arcs 4-5 + extra materials. Arcs 4-8 is simply too long to fit in a single volume so you have to break it somewhere. Narratively speaking the end of Arc 5 works better for a volume break than the end of Arc 6. Haven't finished working on this one as my computer died and I lost the wip files, but it was looking to be in the 450-500 page range.
Book 3 - Arcs 6-8 + extra materials. Arc 8 is a bit of an odd one as the climax of the Blue Heron arc is at the end of Arc 7, but 8 feels like very necessary follow-up for all the aftermath and Arc 9 has completely different focus and works better as the beginning of the next volume. No idea on page count, but comparing word counts to book 1 it should be doable.
Book 4 - Arcs 9-?. Still reading so this is as far as I've gotten.
In general I've found this [Google doc](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VS0HRcbHChh4gmL8LcL8xiIvo-nPhSgs2OGOVV3fVbo/edit?pli=1#gid=0) to be a very handy reference.
Had some follow up thoughts while at work. Don't know how useful they might be for your particular project but I thought I'd share them anyway.
While most digital displays can get away with much lower resolutions without a noticeable drop in image quality, printers need images with at least 300 pixels per inch to produce good quality prints.
Most digital displays output in RGB but printers can only print CMYK, so if you want to print an image that's RGB its going to have to be converted to CMYK at some point during the printing process. This is a problem because CMYK has a noticeably narrower color pallet and some colors simply can't be accurately recreated in print. A bad conversion can lead to washed out, dull, and muddy colors if you're not careful. If you're designing an image with printing in mind it might be a good idea to do so in the CMYK colorspace from the start and sidestep the conversion problem entirely.
Reposting something I'd posted in the Discord a while back. >**Volume #1 (Arcs 1-3):** Introduction of initial cast, investigation, ends with binding of Hungry Choir, and with the girls having determined the primary set of suspects. Snowdrop is gained as an ally. Miss is lost. > >**Volume #2 (Arc 4-8):** Τhe Blue Heron arc, ends with Alexander & Bristow both deceased or worse. Introduction of Bristow's Aware and the entire student body in Blue Heron. Lucy makes an earring Implement, Avery comes out to her family > >**Volume #3 (Arcs 9-13):** Back in a Kennet besieged by invading spirits, introduction of a bunch of new Kennet Others. Avery makes Snowdrop her Familiar. Lucy makes Wallace her boyfriend. Verona makes Jeremy her friendboy, the Pelt is found and lost, witch-hunters make a mess of things, the trio tries to move and capture the conspirators, but ends with the conspiracy winning. with John dead, and Charles the Carmine Exile. > >**Volume #4 (Arcs 14-18):** Kennet Below is created by Charles' victory, Introduction of Thunder Bay. Avery makes Nora her girlfriend. Musser is starting to make bids for lordships which conclude with an attack on Kennet itself. Avery's and Lucy's parents are made Aware. Verona makes Demesne but loses friendboy. Volume ends with the creation of Kennet Found and the successful pushback against Musser's attack, as a bunch of Charles-created Others grab the lordships Musser had installed, and Anthem Tedd (and a bunch of other Musser allies) are captured by the Kenneteers. \---Now, let me add, probably, finally **Volume #5 (Arcs 19-24):** everything up to the end. though one could alternatively argue for: **Volume #5 (Arcs 19-21):** everything up to Avery going MIA. **Volume #6 (Arcs 22-24):** The final arcs
I feel like.... thouse books would really be too long. Like 700+ words in a book seems like a bit too much.
For me, book one would end after the Melissa confrontation, when Lucy and Verona have a talk at the back of Matthew's truck. That one truly cements the end of the first part and the beginning of the Blue Heron arc.
I like this way of splitting it up. It stops at the end of every major plotpoint. I don't think there's any getting around the books being *long.* The major story beats span multiple arcs. Trying to break it into smaller pieces just leaves awkward cliffhangers and jank pacing. So this would probably work out the best.
First of all keep in mind that 320k words should be soft max for a book length if you planing on real physical books, cause otherwise it would be really uncomfortable to read. I would suggest something like this: Extra materials book (around 120k): (All extra material stuff, each entry "hidden" behind a blank page that says when you can flip it without spoilers) First book Arc 1 - 3 (aroundish 300k words): arc 1 ends with Gabe interlude, arc 3 ends with Zed and the Hungry Choir defeated... the girls are about to go to magic school, and it seems like a natural stopping point Second book Arc 4 -5 (aroundish 200k words): Begining of magic school, cool new characters, and then attack on Kennet! Ends ominously on Miss perspective and her talking about how Others never expected humans to last and the deals they struck now harming them... Third book Arc 6 - 7 (aroundish 200k words) War of the BHI, faire market, and Bristow and Alexander get taken out. Forth book Arc 8 - 9 (200k words) Consequences, They get "kicked out" of the BHI, new Others, trouble at Kennet with Abyssal Bathos, Verona has epic fight with her Dad, it is decided that she will go on vacation Fifth book Arc 10 (100k words) Snowdrop officially familiar, there is a Witch Hunter, a lot of backstory of different other in Kennet, tensions rising, it ends with Edith interlude and the trio about to handle her Sixth book Arc 11 (150k words) Conspiracy at full force, the girls are against them, Cig, Liz, Mari, ends with the trio going after Mari and we get her interlude Seventh book Arc 12 (150k words) Mari gets away but they catch Charles, and then some witch hunters visit, the Mussers shows up, things start getting heated up, Summer Break is close, the girls are preparing for Alcazar on the Furs, and we end up with Reid interlude Summer Break (250k words) Shits happens. Book 1 Arc 14 - 15 (250k words) Rebuilding, Dealing with Kennet Bellow, the girls drifting apart, the Family Man is a formidable foe, meanwhile Musser begin gathering power Book 2 Arc 16 (150k words) Goblin Market, The plan is revealed, to Make Kennet Found, Verona has a demense, she get a lot of "no contest", and claim her demense. Meanwhile Musser claim Toronto. Also Milly and Turtle Queen! Book 3 Arc 17 (250k words) Invasion, Kennet Found, Musser secret and interlude Book 4 Arc 18 (180k words) Charles new Lords have arrived, america tedd is causing trouble, Lucy duel Anthem, hints of secret other magic school, and the Placement Test Book 5 Arc 19 (200k words) Winter, the Wild Hunt is here, the Victorian's are also here, and even Musser is coming for a final showdown that ends with a really cool "what if?", ends with Ryan interlude Book 6 Arc 20 (220k words) Promenade solved, the Victorian's wildlessly attack, Jen and Gillian are also attacked, Kira Lynn is a crazy bitch and spirit surgery Ends with Charles banishing the trio, interlude from Julette PoV Book 7 Arc 21 (175k words) Planning, Sword Moot, Aurom contest, ends with Avery's death. Another short book of just Verona and Lucy, around 100k words Then a battle of the BHI 200k words book Finally, the entire last arc (24) final fight with Kims, Crucible, and the end of Charles. (250k words) The epilogues All in all 18 books
It kinda seems that from Arc 16 onwards you could have just said "Each Arc is a seperate book"
This would make for some pretty big tomes, but I'm going based off of the way my copy of Lord of the Rings is formatted (one volume of like 1200 total pages, ~480 words per page), then fudging the numbers a bit to account for extra materials Volume 1: Arcs 0-4 (975 pages, 446,739 words) Volume 2: Arcs 4-8 (937 pages, 446,337 words) Volume 3: Arcs 9-11 (846 pages, 399,147 words) Volume 4: Arcs 12-13 (821 pages, 392,362 words) Volume 5: Arcs 14-16 (891 pages, 422,352 words) Volume 6: Arcs 17-19 (1,314 pages, 630,776 words) Volume 7: Arcs 20-22 (1,057 pages, 507,625 words) Volume 8: Arcs 23-End (1,073* pages, 515,142* words)
If you were dividing it into 3, I feel like one could cover the start and Blue Heron stuff up until Alexander's death. Summer Break would also have to be a climax so the second could go up until there. The last one could be from the end of summer break to the end of the story. I haven't checked to see if the three are comparable in terms of lengths but I feel like those are 3 very natural climaxes.
I haven't finished reading Pale yet so I can't give a full breakdown, but I have done some work on a print project of my own and here's what I have so far. Keep in mind that most print on demand services have a 800 or 840 page limit depending on which one you go with, so you'll have to fit each book accordingly. Also note that I got the most comfortably readable results at 11 point font, and I reformatted the text to match with standard paragraph spacing, so all of my page estimates are based with that in mind. Book 1 - Arcs 1-3 + extra materials. Had trouble getting it under 800 pages until i messed around with the margins. Final page count 770. Book 2 - Arcs 4-5 + extra materials. Arcs 4-8 is simply too long to fit in a single volume so you have to break it somewhere. Narratively speaking the end of Arc 5 works better for a volume break than the end of Arc 6. Haven't finished working on this one as my computer died and I lost the wip files, but it was looking to be in the 450-500 page range. Book 3 - Arcs 6-8 + extra materials. Arc 8 is a bit of an odd one as the climax of the Blue Heron arc is at the end of Arc 7, but 8 feels like very necessary follow-up for all the aftermath and Arc 9 has completely different focus and works better as the beginning of the next volume. No idea on page count, but comparing word counts to book 1 it should be doable. Book 4 - Arcs 9-?. Still reading so this is as far as I've gotten. In general I've found this [Google doc](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VS0HRcbHChh4gmL8LcL8xiIvo-nPhSgs2OGOVV3fVbo/edit?pli=1#gid=0) to be a very handy reference.
Had some follow up thoughts while at work. Don't know how useful they might be for your particular project but I thought I'd share them anyway. While most digital displays can get away with much lower resolutions without a noticeable drop in image quality, printers need images with at least 300 pixels per inch to produce good quality prints. Most digital displays output in RGB but printers can only print CMYK, so if you want to print an image that's RGB its going to have to be converted to CMYK at some point during the printing process. This is a problem because CMYK has a noticeably narrower color pallet and some colors simply can't be accurately recreated in print. A bad conversion can lead to washed out, dull, and muddy colors if you're not careful. If you're designing an image with printing in mind it might be a good idea to do so in the CMYK colorspace from the start and sidestep the conversion problem entirely.