Quote:
Originally Posted by murg
And the size of the books has increased since then. Before the PC, the mechanical process of authoring required a lot of work, post-PC the mechanical process got much easier. This allowed authors to develop more longer and complex books.
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That actually has more to do with perception of the market. In the 70s, publishers wouldn't buy books that big, because they didn't think people would buy them. (There's a story about Katherine Kurtz and the third Camber book, that involved a metaphorical pair of scissors and the last 150 pages, due to the publisher insisting on her living up to the contract for 300 pages. Lois McMaster Bujold's first (written) novel was cut in the middle because she knew it'd never sell at the length it'd end up.)
The market has changed to accept longer books, so publishes buy longer books, so writers write longer books. This is facilitated, as you say, but the PC revolution, but that's not cause and effect.