George R.R. Martinspent a decade in tv set before realizing he wanted nothing more to do with it . The fantasy author , who had succeed multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards for his fiction in the 1970s and early1980s , had grown threadbare of receive budgetary restrictions limit the scope of his work . And if there was money , there was minuscule clip : As a faculty author and producer for the CBS seriesBeauty and the Beast , Martin knew he had 46 minute to tell a cogent story . It was n’t nearly enough .
Calling it a “ reaction ” to his 10 years in tv set , in 1991 Martin began to chalk out out a serial of fantasy novels that would feature hundred of characters , sprawl scope , and no web ceiling . When the 704 - pageA Game of Throneshit shelves on August 1 , 1996 , it received incontrovertible notice and respectable sales , but there was little speck of the hysteria that would observe .
Born in 1948 , MartinattendedNorthwestern Universityand pursued degrees in journalism . At 21 , he sold his first piece of fiction to the anthology magazineGalaxy ; a novel , give way of the Light , followed in 1977 . His phantasy was wide in scope , but had elements of the mundane to ground his stories . Other writer , Martin onceobserved , comprehend the big tropes but did n’t " have the dogs in the mansion of the castles scrap under the table . ” Martin preferred a lived - in approach .
In 1985 , Martin was engaged as a faculty author for the CBS revival ofThe Twilight Zoneand got his first taste of the compromises of television . conform a Roger Zelazny tarradiddle title “ The Last Defender of Camelot , ” Martin had scripted a faithful recreation of the climax where a swordsman is fighting against an enchanted , empty suit of armour near Stonehenge .
“ Then the line manufacturer forebode me in and allege , you could have Stonehenge or you could have horse , but you could not have horses and Stonehenge , ” MartintoldTIMEin 2011 , “ because there is no Stonehenge around here and we ’re going to have to build that out of papier - mâché on the sound leg . And if we contribute horses there , when they start galloping around , the rocks will shake and fall down . ”
The virtual demands of telly finally wore on Martin ’s nerves — even bad was the fact that he could toil on a labor and then not even see it produced . On the ontogenesis deals following his employment onBeauty and the Beast , MartintoldJanuarymagazine that “ nothing ever got made … It was one of the things that in the end frustrated me and drove me back to volume . ”
In 1991 , Martin was beginning work on an unrelated science - fiction rubric , Avalon , when an musical theme pop out into his foreland : dire savage puppies in a summer snow . An entire chapter followed , and Martin wassoonworking on the book every spare minute he could . In 1993 , hewrote a letterto his agentive role update him on what he was now callingA Game of Thrones :
At the clip , Martin thought a trilogy would be sufficient to tell his story , which is how the task was snitch . Of thefour publishersinterested , Bantam Books made the best offer , ascribe editor program Anne Groell to the serial publication . Groell , who hadseensome of Martin ’s employment while it was in circulation , found that even non - fantasy fans working at the publishing house were talk about it . A Game of Thronesseemed like a indisputable thing . And if it was n’t , Martin figured it would n’t take much metre to make out . " I ought to finish … by 1998 , " hetoldan Omni Visions chat elbow room in 1996 .
Whilesales wererespectable for Bantam ’s first printing — make out by collector for its silver - foil binding — A Game of Throneswas not a commercial-grade bang . When Martin showed up for account book signings , some storeswould be well-nigh empty . At one Dallas location , Martin pick up up when he sawhundreds of peoplelining up . But he soon understand they were after a new form of address in theClifford , the Big Red Dogseries .
Readers and independent booksellers continued to go across around copies to admirer , and those friends handed them over to others in a kind of literary proselytizing . As Martin added to the saga — three Holy Scripture became five , then a plan for seven — the audience raise . By 2011 , more than 15 million copy ofA Song of Ice and Fire , the mantle name for the series , had been sold .
In 2000 , Martin was involve if the reason he return to playscript — the spotted predictability of film and idiot box — might one twenty-four hour period lead him back by offering to adaptThrones . “ I have had some interest in the book , yes , ” he answered . “ I do n’t know if anything is going to come of it . ”
