Well, I think the fact that you most likely have a lot of diagrams might cover for the book size, however I do think it would be wise to split it into two volumes. I wouldn't split it by difficulty though, as some people would most likely skip the first volume, and miss out on some fundamental concepts. But I'm just a kid, so what do I know?

Sounds like you know a lot - good point about splitting by difficulty leading some to skip important fundamentals.

Just a question, when are the books going to come out?

I know nothing, but the following *may* be helpful...

First of all, it sounds as if you LOVE geometry. That could be one reason why it's 550 pages. You may have gotten carried away writing stuff that doesn't really belong. Perhaps you should go through the book and cut stuff that you don't need. I know that will be torture to destroy stuff you worked really hard on, but it may be necessary. It may not be. I think it's worth a try.

Secondly, 550 pages is not very long for a math textbook. Then again, one of the problems about math textbooks today is that they are too long. I think they are too long because they are watered down by 000000s of exercises. Yours won't be, of course, but it may be too long because you got excited and wrote stuff you didn't need to write. See #1.

Thirdly, I wouldn't split it into two volumes. I'm assuming you still want it to be used as a textbook for a full year in honors classes. What school is going to use two volumes of a textbook in one year? Splitting it by difficulty would also be bad because of what siorange said. I think the best idea would simple be to cut it. See #1. You can put the extra stuff into your intermediate volume.

Obviously, you should make the final decision. You know a LOT more about writing books than I do, and your original books came out GREAT!!!! Good luck.

I think it would be better to keep it as one volume. If you make it two volumes, there will be some people who only have access to the first volume WLOG for various reasons (maybe the library lost its copy of the second volume). Then people who like to skim will have lots of trouble -- usually when I read math books, I don't start on page 1 and read until I hit the back cover. Rather I look at the table of contents and find a section that I think will be interesting. I don't think it's a bad way to learn at all. Presumably if you split it across two volumes, there will be cross-references between the two, and that's really annoying when you only have one of them. Just a thought. I don't think 500+ pages is too long for a book.

We hope to have the counting book out in Sept or Oct, Number Theory and Geometry in Nov or Dec.

My fear about a 550 page book is that it is, after all, an intro book. Will that scare a 7th grader? (Yes, I know nothing scares you, ComplexZeta.)

Hard to cut anything - the problem is that there's so much basic information that needs to be included, much more than in any other subject, before you get to the good stuff.

But aren't most other textbooks for 7th graders about that length? Most of my middle school textbooks were.

And most of them stunk, didn't they?

Yeah, I guess maybe it's not such a big deal if it's 550 pages. Hurm.

We could give more informed replies if given some idea of the table of contents.

Is the geometry book intended to be read along with AoPS Vol. 1+2, or can it be read separately?

True, but that wasn't the point I was trying to convey.

There's nothing wrong with a book that long to a young reader as long as it has a friendly print and plenty of pictures. Usually those long books just go in circles. I have a college textbook on biology that has 1200 pages and small print, and I dread reading it. On the other hand, I have a chemistry book 950 pages long, and I like reading it because it has colorful pictures and nice print.
I'll be in 8th grade next year.

What grades is the introductory geometry intended for?

Target audience is eager students grades 6-10. We will assume basic algebra skils.

Will put up a TOC sometime soon.

I say keep it as one book. Personally I have always longer books better! However, if it is possible to make two volumes with one appealing to Olympiad level students while the other is more suitable for middle school level students I think it would sell better.

There will be more geometry books coming - I hope to have an Intermediate one in Fall, 2006, and an Olympaid one the following year.

Keep it as one volume. Books in two parts are annoying. And a Volume 1/Volume 2 thing will scare a seventh grader more than a big book. Perhaps Part 1/Part 2 would be appropriate, so long as it's all in one book.

I say keep it as one book. 500 pages isn't too long. At least if it's interesting I probably won't be using the Intro one myself, but most people will probably prefer one book because it would cost less.

I myself would love a single large book versus a dual volume book. It would be cheaper, and I wouldn't have to switch books all the time(cross referencing).

Split by content: text/equations in one book, diagrams in the other...

Put me in the one-volume camp.

"Actually, adding things is not difficult, which is why a typical high-school geometry text is 600 pages long and contains almost nothing of interest, while a text from the Soviet Union is 100 pages long and crammed with interesting, meaty problems."

http://www.geometer.org/curriculum.pdf

(good document from a great site)

Best wishes on the writing projects; many of the MathPath parents are hungry for better math books for their children.

I think y'all have convinced me to go with one book. I pushed a little of the most advanced material into the beginning of Intermediate Geometry, and think I can get under 500 pages.

The geometer.org site is indeed excellent - its creator, Tom Davis, is the moderator at the West Coast ARML, and is an all-around great guy. (He's also a great example of someone having a rip-roaring fun life by excelling with his mind. Poke around his site and you'll see what I mean.)

I think it would be best to keep the book as one big volume. It will be unorthodox to split an introductory book into two volumes, plus you said the first volume (if the split was made) would be particularly dull. Also, I agree with Sirorange; people would skip through the first book and miss fundamentals if it's too dull.

That happened with me and this other trigonometry book a long time ago. It turned out I missed out on the chapter in the first volume that contained all the trig indentities...

Do these books contain the content from the Subject Classes? I've noticed they have the same names.
I already have the Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 books. How much of the content will be stuff I don't already have from the old books. Anyways, I'm really looking forward to the new books.