Editing A Feast for Crows (section)

== Delay in publication  ==

The novel was published five years and two months after the previous volume in the series, ''A Storm of Swords''. This was due to a series of problems that arose during the writing of the novel. George R. R. Martin originally planned for the fourth book to be called ''A Dance with Dragons'' with the story picking up five years after the events of ''A Storm of Swords'' (primarily to advance the ages of the younger characters). However, during the writing process it was discovered that this was leading to an overreliance on flashbacks to fill in the gap. After twelve months or so of working on the book, Martin decided to abandon much of what had previously been written and start again, this time picking up immediately after the end of ''A Storm of Swords''. He announced this decision, along with the new title ''A Feast for Crows'', at the World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia on 1 September 2001.<ref>[http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Month/2001/09/ n]</ref>. He also announced that ''A Dance with Dragons'' would now be the fifth book in the sequence. 

The reason for the subsequent delays were that the novel grew too long and the format changed from the previous book, with the introduction of short-lived POV characters who only had one or two chapters apiece. Martin also wrote a 250-page prologue to the novel which he then scrapped and scattered throughout the novel. Finally, when the novel was nearing completion his publishers realized it was significantly longer than ''A Storm of Swords'' and requested it be split in half for publication. After initially considering publishing it as 'Part 1' and 'Part 2', Martin's friend and fellow author [[w:Daniel Abraham (author)|Daniel Abraham]] suggested splitting it by POV and location instead, which Martin agreed with. Thus ''A Feast for Crows'' only contains the POV characters from the South of the Seven Kingdoms and the Iron Islands. The characters in the north, in the Free Cities and in Meereen (including fan-favorites Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen) will return in the fifth book. The split of the novel also meant that the series would be seven rather than six books long. ''A Dance with Dragons'' remains the title of the fifth book. 

Martin supplied a note at the end of ''A Feast for Crows'' explaining the reason for the split and promising that ''A Dance with Dragons'' would follow with the missing POV characters 'next year'. However, subsequently Martin embarked on a four-month signing tour in the US, Canada and Europe at the request of his publishers and lost that time in writing the novel, which was expected some time in 2007 but not published until July 2011.