Michael J. Sullivan's Blog, page 31

Ten Year Anniversary Sale and Celebration

It was ten years ago today that I finished writing the Riyria Revelations, and I want to celebrate. Unfortunately, most of the books are not controlled by me, so I can't put them on sale. Orbit sets the price for most of the books (Theft of Swords | Rise of Empire | The Heir of Novron | The Crown Tower | The Rose and the Thorn). And Del Rey's non-compete clause prevents one of the books from being released into stores until October (The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter).

But I do have one book that I own complete rights to (The Death of Dulgath), and the great thing is it's a standalone tale that can be enjoyed even if you've not read any of the other Riyria stories.

So for he next week I've lowered the price on this book in all markets (because oftentimes when there is a sale it's only for the US). Here are some links were you can get the book on sale.

US regular $9.99 now just $2.99
Canada regular $9.99 now just CDN$ 0.99
United Kingdom regular £4.99 now just £0.99
Australia regular $9.99 now just $0.99
Germany regular EUR 6,49 now just EUR 0,99
France regular EUR 6,49 now just EUR 0,99
Netherlands regular EUR 6,49 now just EUR 0,99
Italy regular EUR 6,49 now just EUR 0,99
Spain regular EUR 6,49 now just EUR 0,99
Mexico reglar 107.44 now just 11.99
Brazil regular R$ 15,58 now just R$1,99
India regular ₹315 now just ₹65
Japan reglar ￥ 690 now just ￥ 99

If you know a friend who hasn't read any Riyria books, this would be a great way to introduce them to the series.

Just a few hours left: Theft of Swords Giveaway

I'm running a giveaway for 3 copies of Age of Myth, and it only has a bit more than 16 hours left. If you've not started reading the Riyiria books, this is an excellent opportunity to start. And if you are a Royce and Hadrian fan, well, sign up for the giveaway and give a copy to a friend. I'll sign the books and include a signed bookmark as well. Good luck on the drawing!


Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan Giveaway ends April 24, 2018.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter Giveaway!

From the Mail Bag: An Exceptional Art Project

Many are familiar with the fact that I enjoy receiving letters from readers. Some of my favorites are  the ones where two people in the same family are sharing the tale. Usually it's spouses, but I've also had dozens of letters from estranged siblings who have reunited over the books.  I've also had a lot of letters where three generations (child, parent, and grandparent) are reading the books together. I must say these letters were never something I expected to receive, but I treasure each one.

I'd like to take a moment to share something from a recent letter (with the author's permission, of course). Andrew Pendergast (who mentioned he and his son Jacob have been bonding over the books) wrote to show off this amazing artwork that his son made.


























Jacob had an art project due (he's a senior in high school) and he created this amazing piece showing Royce's and Hadrian's trip to Percepliquis. I'm honored that Jacob chose to use my work as inspiration for his assignment . . . and I don't think it could have come out any better than it did. Jacob used an exacto knife to carve poster board with delicate detail and used a light to eliminate the layers.

In a subsequent email, I learned Jacob is about to enter the Army after high school. I wish him well in his new career and thank him for his service. I'll also treasure this picture, and I'd like him to know how much I enjoyed finding out about it.

Unbound World's 50 Page Friday: Age of Myth

How did I miss this? Oh, I know, I've been so busy finishing up the edits on the last book of this series. In any case, Del Rey has featured Age of Myth for it's 50 Page Friday segment. So, if you've not started the Legends of the First Empire yet, here is an easy and free way to take a look at the first three chapters of the first book. Age of War will be coming out soon, so it's an excellent reason to give it a look.

Age of War a Featured Pre-order

Right now there are 1,616 titles on Audible that are waiting to be released and available for pre-order. I can't even imagine how difficult it is to decide what books to feature out so many. So I was thrilled when Robin mentioned that Age of War is getting top billing.  This shows that Audible has a good degree of faith in this book's release....kinda like being picked to be featured in the "hot new releases" section of a bookstore (but without the publisher paying a co-op fee). 
I think the exposure is helping. I also checked the best-selling pre-orders in Epic Fantasy and Age of War is #1.  So, thank you all for picking up the book early.  Robin is in the process of putting together some "pre-order goodies" for people who have the book orders already. We'll announce how to get them on Monday, and all formats will be eligible for the freebies (audio, hardcover and ebook).
It's starting to feel real! Won't be long now before Age of War is officially on the streets.

Book Giveaways!

Hey all, Age of War is coming, and as such I have a few giveaways to tell you about.

First, there is a drawing for first edition copies of all three Legends of the First Empire books.   This is open to people from all countries and we'll do the drawing at the end of June and ship the books in early July. There have been several printings of Age of Myth (and I think Age of Swords has also gone into at least one reprint) so this is an excellent chance to get books that might not be available anywhere else.Second, my publisher is giving away 25 copies of the Age of War Advanced Reading Editions. This drawing ends April 21st and the books will ship shortly after, that means people who win this drawing will be able to read the book several months before the official release date.For people who are pre-ordering the book, I hope to have a pre-order promotion posted soon where you can receive some initial chapters of the new book as well as some bonus material. Stay tuned for that!

Hardcover editions of Riyria are going to be a reality

For those who don't know, all my recent books (those published since 2015) have had hardcover editions, but the original 5 books of Riyria were only produced in trade paperbacks. There were a few hardcovers produced as a book club edition, but they (a) sold out years ago and (b) weren't the best quality.  We've finally received agreement from Orbit to buy the rights to do a hardcover edition on our own (yeah, it's odd to pay someone for the right to publish books I wrote, but that's the nature of traditional publishing).

Now, there is a catch...we had to limit the print run (Orbit wouldn't let us base the number on demand). When we get all our ducks in a row, we'll be launching a Kickstarter, and since the numbers are limited, it'll be one of those first come first served things. So, we are have a sign-up form and all people on it will be told ahead of time the day and time of the Kickstarter's launch.  So, if you want copies, please sign up now.

Okay, a few things to note:

The books will have new covers, and I'm sure Marc Simonetti will be the designer for them (although I've not yet commissioned him for them, but he's always done any covers I've asked him to).There will be two versions (a) a Rare edition (which should match the rare editions of The Death of Dulgath and The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter) and (b) a limited edition.As for the covers of limited edition versions, they'll match the limited editions of the other books (full graphic rather than a small graphic with a color block). But, I'm also going to get pricing to see if we can offer a dust jacket that matches the hardcover edition, that way you can have a "match a set" even though we don't have three versions of the books like we do the other ones. No promises until I find out the printing costs, but that's my plan.If you plan on getting a matched set of the limited editions, and don't already have the other two books, you'll have to hurry. We have about 50 copies left of Winter's Daughter, and about 75 copies of the Death of Dulgath. You can buy those limited editions here.If you don't have a hardcover edition of The Death of Dulgath, there are 2 copies left at Amazon, but, we do have about 300 copies here and once those are gone, there will be no more of them. You can buy those limited editions here.Well, that's about it. Robin's been working on this contract for over 2 years, and while the ink is not yet dry, it is being "written up" so we feel confident in making the announcement now. Hope you are as excited as we are.

Age of War Pre-ordering

Hey all, sorry I meant to make a "page" and I instead created a "blog post."  Doh!  For those who want to pre-order Age of War directly from me, I can send you a link where we are offering a limited number of signed copies.  I'm keeping the link to just members of the "Dark Room" at the moment (our secret/private Goodreads Group). If you want an invite to it, send me an email with the subject "Dark Room Invite"

Last of the First Edition & First Printing

Hey all, Robin and Sarah spent the weekend organizing our new shipping department in the carriage house we built out in the valley.  In doing so, we now have all our books organized and categorized. For those who have been asking about first printing and first edition copies...no, we don't have any Age of Myth left. The only copies we have here are 4th printing ;-(.

But...we do have 22 copies of Age of Swords 1st printing. Since there are just a few of them, we have set them aside and you can only get them from this page.  All future shipment of those books will be the most recent printing (which I think is on it's third printing)

We also have a VERY few copies of the original paperback editions of Riyria self-published books (including 8 "full sets" and a few extras here and there). If you are interested in getting any of those books, send us an email and we'll coordinate with you.

Advice from the mailbag: Write bad books

People often email me asking for advice about writing. I answer the questions directly, but as I do receive similar questions, it makes sense to post some of them in the hopes of helping other authors, published or aspiring.  Here is a paraphrased question I received recently:

I'm struggling with writing fiction. I find planning a book extremely difficult let alone a series of them. I have abandoned more than a few projects in the past, frustrated that I couldn't come up with good enough plot twists or how to satisfyingly end the book. Any advice?

Here is how I responded:

It is hard to remote diagnose, but my advice in how to avoid being discouraged about not coming up with good enough plot twists or a satisfying end, is to not try to write the perfect book. One of the biggest obstacles for aspiring writers is to think what you create must be great. All too often writers make impossible goals and when they fail, grow discouraged. It is highly unlikely that anyone can hit a home run the first time they step up to the plate; one does not make a symphony after their first piano lesson. 

What separates writing novels from brain surgery, (or more accurately one of the things)  is that no one dies when you screw up a book. It can take from eleven to seventeen years to become a good surgeon. It took me twenty years to become a decent writer, and that doesn't include the first ten years where I wrote three complete novels, dozens of partials, and a dozen short stories. That's what I did  between the ages of thirteen and twenty-three. I doubt too many kids get to practice medicine at the age of thirteen. 

Writing is insanely complex. All literate people can do it, so it appears easy, but while most people can whistle a tune, few can compose a jingle much less an opera. Even after thirty years, and more than thirty novels, I still learn all sorts of new stuff every day. Why? Because good fiction writing has so many facets, but at its heart is how you think, and how you communicate this using words. There is an infinite number of ways to do this, and as a writer you need to make millions of decisions, many of which will make or break a book. Only through trial and error, only through committing to your sub-conscious and muscle memory of the basics, can you hope to master enough of the complexity to get it right enough to succeed at making people love what you write. 

So don't sweat it. Write bad books. Write awful books. Make lots and lots of mistakes. That's how you learn. And never, ever, aspire to become perfect. To be perfect is to give up. Concentrate, instead on constant improvement, on learning, on doing better on the next novel you write. Give yourself the freedom to fail and you will learn to write.