Michael J. Sullivan's Blog, page 29

New York Times Bestseller

So, I should have been posting on this sooner, but things have been a bit crazy here as of late.  But Age of War made the New York Times Bestseller list! It came in #9 on the monthly list for audiobooks. Big congratulations to Tim Gerard Reyolds, Del Rey, and Recorded Books who all share in this prestigious accomplishment.




















Yes, I saved the complete bestseller list and you can find it here.  Age of War can be found on page 6 under the category of "Audio Monthly Best Sellers." This, added to Age of Myth and Age of Swords hitting the Washington Post's hardcover bestseller list are some of my proudest moments as an author. Thank you all for the continued support of Legends of the First Empire.

Fantasy for Freedom Fighters

Outside of Robin, there is one thing that I cherish above all else: Freedom. I've been fortunate to be born in a country that values this ideal, and I know that I enjoy that privilege because of men and women that serve in our armed forces. Recently, I received a great letter from Daniel D. stationed in Afghanistan, who was writing to tell me that he and some of his friends were really enjoying The Riyria Revelations and The Crown Tower (books he found he found at the USO/MWR).  

Robin came up with the great idea to send Daniel the rest of my work (and a spare set of Revelations in case multiple people want to read at the same time), so we put together a box of books and sent it out.

























This got us thinking.  Why not do this on a larger scale? And hence FFFF (Fantasy for Freedom Fighters was born).  Here's how it's going to work. 

1. I earn extra money when you buy directly from me (it cuts out the retailer middlemen), so I'm going to set aside 10% of all my profit from direct sales to buy copies of my books from my publishers and pay for shipping. 

2. If you are a service person stationed overseas (I'm focusing on those overseas rather than domestically because entertainment choices are harder to come by), or have a loved one overseas, and you want them to get a book care package, you can fill out this form to request books . If I don't get enough requests, I'll utilize Books for Soldiers and Operation Paperback and look for people who are requesting fantasy books.

3. If you already have my books, but want to participate in FFFF, you can send a donation from this page and that'll get more packages out to more service people.

4. I'll keep track of the donations, money raised by book purchases, and packages sent. I'll keep people updated so we can all see how this program is working, and how many service people we are aiding.

And that's pretty much it. I'm excited to see where this whole thing goes.

July Book Cover of the Month

Last night I discovered that Age of War is in a "March Madness" type competition where there are brackets where covers go against one another in rounds. I dedicated my latest book to Marc Simonetti (the cover artist whose amazing work has graced the covers of my last 5 books) and I'd love it if he ended up winning the competition. That said, I want you to vote for the covers that you honestly think are the best ones. So, why don't you head here and vote. I'll keep people posted as the competition continues.

How to get out-of-print Age of Swords hardcovers

I've received a number of emails from people looking for Age of Swords in hardcover.  Well, with the release of Age of War, and because the paperback is now available for this title, Del Rey won't be doing another printing of the larger version, so this book is now officially out of print. As with many books that reach this stage, the resellers are selling their copies at premium pricing (and I receive nothing for copies bought from them).

























There were some remaining copies in the warehouse which I'm in the process of procuring. It may take a bit as I have to make some arrangements and have them shipped to me, but Robin is taking orders now on a first come first serve basis, and we should have copies available in about a week. These are not "used" copies the are brand new and we'll be selling them at list price $28.00. So, if you failed to get a copy of Age of Swords in hardcover when they were first released, you can still get them for a short time. Buying from me also means you can have the books signed and dedicated plus we'll throw in an autographed bookmark. You can pre-order your copies here.

Writing Fantasy Podcast: Dead Robot's Society #503

The Dead Robot's Society is a podcast that I've been on several times in the past, and I've enjoyed each visit. They recently had me back again and you can listen in here:


I'm joined by Terry and Paul to discuss what "fantasy" is and how to write it. This is episode 503, so a big congrats to DPS for breaking the 500 barrier. Here's to the next 500 episodes!

Historical Fantasy Bestselling List

Today's Daily Deal for Theft of Swords got that book to the spot of Amazon's  Historical Fantasy Bestseller list. When Robin told me this, I was of course thrilled. What I didn't expect was to find out that I actually have 10 titles on that list of 100!  These include:

#  1 Theft of Swords (Kindle)#  5 Age of War (Audio)#10 Age of Myth (Audio)#13 Age of Swords (Audio)#22 Age of War (Kindle)#54 Age of Myth (Kindle)#61 Rise of Empire (Audio)#76 Age of Swords (Kindle)#83 Rise of Empire (Kindle)#87 Heir of Novron (Kindle)So a big thank you from Robin and I for all the support of both Riyria and Legends of the First Empire. We're thrilled that so many people are picking up the books...and if the ratings are reflective of public opinion, it looks like you are enjoying them!

Theft of Swords Daily Deal - save 66% just $2.99 today only

It's happened again! Theft of Swords is a Kindle Daily deal and discounted to $2.99. That's a savings of 66% off the regular $9.99 price.  If you haven't started the series yet, now is a good time to start! And if you have read the book, consider gifting it to a friend you've been trying to get hooked on Riyria.

Need some convincing?  Well,  its sold several hundred thousand copies, is liked by 96% of the Goodreads readers (of which 42,000+ have given it a 4.2 rating with more than 34,800 4- and 5-star reviews). Plus there are 845 Amazon reviews and an overall rating of 4.4 over there.

So, grab a copy and enjoy the savings, and as always, we thank you for your support.

Age of War hits bestseller list

It's always nice to find yourself in the New York Times on a Bestseller list. No, it's not THAT list (this one lists the top audiobooks for the week), but, hey, I'll take it! Age of War hit #3 and shares the list with the likes of James Patterson, Bill Clinton, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, and J. K. Rowlings.

Here's the full list along with some information about their authors, narrators, release dates, ratings, and # of ratings/reviews.

TitleAuthorRelease DateNarrator Rating #Something in the Water Catherine Steadman   06-05-18Catherine Steadman4.48,086Neverwhere Neil Gaiman 04-11-17 Neil Gaiman4.4 22,514 Age of WarMichael J. Sullivan 07-03-18 Tim Gerard Reynolds 4.8708The President is Missing Bill Clinton &
James Patterson 06-04-18Dennis Quaid4.13,846The OutsiderStephen King 05-22-18Will Patton4.615,411Super Powereds:Year 4Drew Hayes 07-03-18Kyle McCarley 4.9466SpymasterBrad Thor  07-03-18Armand Schultz 4.6378
The Testamentof MaryColm Toibin 09-10-13Meryl Streep4.11,061The TroopNick Cutter 02-25-14Corey Brill4.12,272
Harry Potter andthe Sorcerer's StoneJ.K. Rowling11-20-15Jim Dale4.958,518

This is probably the geekiest thing I've ever done

So I'm a geek, which shouldn't be a surprise to anyone (after all I do write fantasy books for a living). But when Robin and I were editing Age of War we would sometimes get into arguments about the placement of various aspects of the layout of Alon Rhist. Now part of that was because the city change a bit during the writing and some earlier sections of the book weren't updated. So, it was good that Robin challenged me on these things and it allowed us to fix any continuity errors that had crept in.

But after all was said and done I started thinking about whether I could build Alon Rhist in 3-dimensions. You know, a kind of Lego Land model if you will. Well, I don't possess the number of Lego blocks to make that possible but luckily there is a Minecraft map builder that allows for unlimited blocks. So, yeah, I built Alon Rhist in Minecraft and made a video as I walked around the area. Geeky, sure. Fun? Well, I thought so. And because there may be a few people who are interested I'm posting the video here for your amusement.

Age of Myth on Sale, Age of War releases tomorrow!

I'm pleased to announce that Age of Myth has been included in Audible's July 4th Sale. Great timing considering Age of War (Book #3 of the series) goes live tomorrow!  And if you are getting ready to read Age of War, and want recaps for the previous two books, don't forget you can get them here .


All books are just $5.95 and I've gone through the sci-fi and fantasy category to show you some other books that are available.



Here's some information about each title from Audible to help you decide what to pickup for the great price of $5.95 each.TitleAuthorNarrator  Rating  # Reviews  Neverwhere  Neil Gaiman  Neil Gaiman 4.4 22,137 Age of Myth    Michael J. Sullivan   Tim Gerard Reynolds  4.6 9,285 Strange the Dreamer     Laini Taylor   Steve West  4.5 2,140Practical Magic  Alice Hoffman   Christina Moore  4.2 1,247Best Served Cold    Joe Abercrombie   Steven Pacey  4.x 2,810 Binti  Nnedi Okoafor Robin Miles  4.x 1,355Child of Fire  Harry Connolly Christian Rummel 4.x 410 Dungeon Born    Dakota Krout   Vikas Adam  4.x 7,028Fated  Benedict JackaGildart Jackson 4.x 5,143Marked    P.C. Cast &
 Kristin Cast  Caitlin Davies  4.x 372Nevernight  Jay Kristoff Holter Graham  4.x 1,518 Stonewielder    Ian C. Esslemont   John Banks  4.x 241 Super Powereds: Year 1    Drew Hayes   Kyle McCarley  4.x 6,419The Fatal Tree  Stephen R. Lawhead   Simon Bubb 4.x 164The Fifth Season  N.K. Jemisin    Robin Miles    4.x 7,021The Spirit Well   Stephen R. Lawhead  Tim Gerard Reynolds  4.x 9,285 Dawn of Aspects  Richard A. Knaak  Scott Brick  4.x 1,198The Last Wish Andrzej Sapkowski Peter Kenny4.x7,057
The sale is only running for a few days so you'll have to hurry. I hope you find something great to listen to.