An interesting discussion of China Mieville, Fantasy Economics and Tolkien which bounces between these two blogs: start here, detour here and here, and end up back where you started for the rebuttal.
Somewhere (perhaps in the referring blog, I lost track) I found a link to an audio interview with China Mieville at The Agony Column, which also has an interview with Peter Watts, who has just come out with a sequel to Starfish and Mealstorm, which is being published in two parts. As he explains in his author’s note (quoted in the interview): …Henceforth, books by midlist authors will not receive wide distribution if they cost too much — that is, if they weigh in at more than about 110,000 words. “Behemoth is over 150,000 words long, and was almost complete by the time this policy came into effect. Hacking away a third of it was not an option (believe me, I tried)…A two-part release was the only alternative.