Is the Epic Novel Dead?

Would anything issue Gone with the Wind today? This June marks the 75th anniversary of the epic Civil War novel's publication. So I concept it might be exciting to think if Ms. Mitchell's book would have stood a opening of getting published in this day and age.

Let's discard the definite disparity in collective taste between 1936 and the gift day. Instead, the request should be whether a 1,037 epic novel (of Pulitzer Prize-winning potential) from a first-time author has a opening in this gift publishing environment.

Epic

I'm going to be an optimist and say yes. It would be published. But it wouldn't have a Macmillan logo on its spine. Or that of any of the other Big Six publishers. A small independent might pick it up, but it's even more likely that it would make its debut as a self-published e-book, and then, due to popular demand, work its way into print and subsequently into film.

From what I understand, the story behind Gone with the Wind's former publication is no ifs ands or buts marked by happenstance. Mitchell, a reporter in Atlanta at the time, was asked to give Macmillan editor Harold Latham a tour of the city. At his insistence, she reluctantly let him read her fragmented novel (it filled a suitcase and lacked a first chapter) and the rest is history. (A recently released book by Ellen Brown and John Wiley, Jr. Chronicles these events and more: Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind: A Bestseller's Odyssey from Atlanta to Hollywood.)

Today, just about every piece of publishing advice you get from agents or publishers is:
Your novel should not exceed 110,000 words. Your novel should be unblemished and polished.

Some even draw a direct line between distance and quality. think what agent Noah Lukeman has posted on his blog:

To speak to a bigger issue, artistically, it is rare for a first novel to truly need to be over 500 (or less than 200) manuscript pages. 99% of the time, this sort of page count will point to the fact that there is something wrong with the author's execution.

I agree that first-time writers are often prone to dumping the kitchen sink and more into their novels, but does this mean that aren't exceptions? That the epic story has lost its place in our culture? Sure, you might argue that our epics are now chopped up into sequels Harry Potter/Star Wars style. But if you don't have a firm resolution at the end of installment #1, your chances of publication are very slim.

The theorize for this goes beyond our society's expanding struggles with Adhd. Printing costs for large novels make them too much of a risk in these unsettling economic times. Shelf real estate in bookstores is other factor, especially now that many of the big chains (i.e., Borders) are windup their doors.

For proof, take a look at the page counts for the top 10 hardcover books on the Nyt's Best-Seller List for this week ( March 20, 2011 ). The median page count, according to my calculations, is 384 pages. And most of these books weren't penned by newbies.

That's why I think Gone with the Wind, if Ms. Mitchell had written it today, would make its first appearance in e-book form. The cost of paper and shelf space are non-factors. So are publishers' preconceived notions of what a novel should look like. All that matters is whether readers like it. If the story is exciting and well-written, if it's a page turner, distance won't matter to them.

The epic novel is not dead. It's merely evolving. And thankfully, "tomorrow is other day."

Is the Epic Novel Dead?