Michael J. Sullivan's Blog, page 38

July's Highest-Rated Books on Audible

I'm pleased to announce that Age of Swords has hit Audible's Highest-Rated Books of July list.

If you're looking for some good audio to listen to while you're hanging out at the beach or by the pool you might want to check out some of these:

Age of Swords | Michael J. Sullivan & Tim Gerard Reynolds | Book 2: Legends of the First Empire | 07/25/17 | 4.8 | 443 ratings

Besieged | Kevin Hearne & Luke Daniels | Short Stories in Iron Druid Chronicles | 07/11/17 | 4.7 | 1,429 ratings

Hue 1968 | Mark Bowden & Joe Barrett | 07/11/17 | 4.6 | 81 ratings

Accidental Sire | Molly Harper & Amanda Ronconi | Book 6: Half-Moon Hollow | 07/25/17 | 4.7 | 379 ratings

House of Spies | Daniel Silva & George Guidall | Book 17: Gabriel Allon | 07/11/17 | 4.7 | 784 ratings

Everything All At Once | Bill Nye | 07/11/17 | 4.6 | 59 ratings

A Beautiful,Terrible Thing | Jen Waite | 07/04/17 | 4.7 | 291 ratings

Trouble on Paradise | Craig Allison & R.C. Bray | Book 3.5: Expeditionary Force | 07/04/17 | 4.7 | 2,017 ratings

Sufficiently Advanced Magic | Andrew Rowe & Nick Podehl | Book 1: Arcane Ascension | 07/04/17 | 4.6 | 1,482 ratings

Battle Front II: Inferno Squad | Christie Golden & Janina Gavankar | Star Wars | 07/25/17 | 4.6 | 513 ratings

The Light of Life | Edward W. Robertson & Tim Gerard Reynolds | Book 4: Cycle of Galand | 07/11/17 | 4.8 | 1,312 ratings

Wired | Julie Garwood & Siskia Maarlevwled | Book 13: Nick Buchanan | 07/04/17 | 4.3 | 428 ratings

The Late Show | Michael Connelly & Katherine Moennig | Book 1: Renée Ballard | 07/18/17 | 4.4 | 1,293 ratings

Stillhouse Lake | Rachel Caine & Emily Sutton-Smith | 07/01/17 | 4.5 | 1,242 ratings

Northanger Abbey | Jane Austen | Multiple narrators | 07/18/17 | 4.6 | 112 ratings

The Break Down | B.A. Paris & Georgia Maguire | 07/18/17 | 4.2 | 460 ratings

Final Girls | Riley Sager & Erin Bennett | 07/11/17 | 4.3 | 792 ratings

Hell Divers II: Ghosts | Nicholas Sansbury Smith & R.C. Bray | Book 2: Hell Divers Trilogy | 07/18/17 | 4.8 | 921 ratings

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Published on August 02, 2017 06:15

Livestreaming with Kestroke Medium on August 7th 12:00 noon (EDT)

Hey all, I'm going to be sitting down with authors Josh Hayes, Scott Moon, and Ralph Kern next Monday at 12:00 noon (11:00 central). If you want tune in and listen here is a link. This will be the first interview I do from the "The Valley" (where Robin and I living now. For a long time, we couldn't consider such a thing because the Internet was so slow, but Robin was able to get us high speed which has changed EVERYTHING!

Hope to have some people tune in then.

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Published on August 01, 2017 07:08

Release Day + 5

Hey everyone, Robin here. I thought I would stop by and let people know how the release of Age of Swords is going. The answer - very well! We were thrilled that Barnes & Noble chose to highlight Age of Swords in their post about books coming out this week.

Here's the whole list:

Battlefront II: Inferno Squad by Christie Golden
The Five Daughters of the Moon by Leena Likitalo
Talon of God by Wesley Snipes and Ray Norman
Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw
Killing Is My Business by Adam Christopher
Raid by K.S. Merbeth
Wildfire by Ilona Andrews
Age of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan
The Unholy Consult by R. Scott Bakker
Assassin’s Price by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.
The White City by Simon Morden
Monster Hunter: Siege by Larry Correia
Star Wars Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to a Galaxy Far, Far Away by Tim Leong

Of course I watch the amazon rankings on release day, and the kindle version of Age of Swords peaked at 301 (280 places higher than Age of Myth's debut). The hardcover also beat Age of Myth reaching 1,923 (388 points higher than it's predecessor).

Sales seem to be continuing strong as it's #1 on all the Hottest New Epic fantasy lists (kindle, ebook, and audio):

But there's something even better than being on the Hottest New Release list, and that's being high on the bestsellers list. I just looked at the Epic audio best-sellers, and I was pleasantly surprised to see Age of Swords at #2 (sandwiched between Game of Thrones and another book from Martin's popular Song of Ice and Fire series).

When looking at the Epic best-seller list for books we see the audio at #7 and the ebook at #23. The fact that the hardcover isn't on the list doesn't bother me as there are no hard covers on that list and only two paperbacks (Game of Thrones box set and Name of the Wind).

All of this is a direct result of strong pre-order sales - so thanks to those who put in your orders early. Here's how Age of Swords compares against Age of Myth with regards to pre-orders: ebook up 59%, hardcover up 59%, audio up 45%! It's so great to see that people enjoyed Age of Myth so much that they wanted to jumped right in with Age of Swords.

Well, that's it from here. As always, our thanks go out to everyone for your support. I still have one last "launch thing" to do: writing the Making of Age of Swords, which I'm doing now. It should be available shortly.

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Published on July 30, 2017 05:36

Formatting problems with ebook of Age of Swords

I started seeing some reports of odd line breaks in the ebook of Age of Swords that made it difficult to tell when a scene ended and when one is continuing. My initial thought was that this must be a one time fluke and the person seeing the problem should just re-download. Then I got another report and then another. So I bought a copy myself, and verified that there is indeed a problem.

I've, of course, contacted my publisher, and I'm sure they'll get it addressed right away.

In the meantime, I've created a fixed ebook that doesn't suffer from the problem. If you want a copy, do the following:

* Send an email to michael.sullivan.dc@gmail.com
* Make the subject: "Send corrected Age of Swords ebook"
* Attach proof of purchase (your receipt or a screenshot of the book in your library.

And I'll email you a link where you can get your corrected version.
I apologize for this inconvenience, and we'll get it fixed just as soon as possible.

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Published on July 27, 2017 20:00

Age of Swords Now Available on Riyria Store

Robin's been able to take a few minutes and get Age of Swords added to my store, so those who want to buy the book directly from me (and get them signed), you can do so from this link.

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Published on July 26, 2017 11:15

It's Age of Swords Release Day!

It's finally here! Age of Swords (Book #2 of The Legends of the First Empire) is officially for sale. And it's The Hottest New Release in Fantasy! Thanks so much everyone for pre-ordering!

If you're about to dig in and want to refresh your memory about what happened in Age of Myth, here's a quick refresh that Robin put together. For those looking to get the book directly from me, I've not put it on my store yet, but here is a page where you can get a signed copy.

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Published on July 25, 2017 06:35

15 Current Best-selling Epic Fantasy Hardcovers of 2017

With just one day until the Age of Swords release, Robin was curious as to how the pre-orders were doing. Trying to figure out sales, and comparison to other books, is kinda like tea-leaf reading, but we turned to the site where most book sales occur (Amazon), and she did a search with the following criteria:

• Epic Fantasy Hardcovers
• Release date older than Jan 2017
• Sorted by best-selling

Now, granted, this is a momentary snapshot in time, if a similar search were to have been done in say February, the results would be much different, but it's close to release day so it's a good time for us to take a look at how Age of Swords is doing. She (and I) were quite pleased with the results.

Age of Swords is #6 (very respectable) especially given the company it's in. New releases by Tolkien, George R.R. Martin, Sanderson (2 books making the list), and many other foundations of the fantasy genre are on the list. If you are looking for a hot new release, here are the titles along with their release dates for ordering (or pre-ordering).

• Beren and Lúthien by J.R.R. Tolkien | Middle-Earth Universe | 06/01/17
• Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson | Book 3: Stormlight Archive | 11/14/17
• The Black Elfstone by Terry Brooks | Book 1: Fall of Shannara | 06/13/17
• Besieged by Kevin Hearne | Short Stories: Iron Druid Chronicles | 07/11/17
• The Witchwood Crown by Tad Williams | Book 1: The Last King of Osten Ard | 06/27/17
• Age of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan | Book 2: Legends of the First Empire | 07/25/17
• Shroud of Eternity by Terry Goodkind | Book 1: Sister of Darkness | 01/09/18
• Year One by Nora Roberts | Book 1: Chronicles of the One | 12/05/17
• Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb | Book 3: Fitz and the Fool | 05/09/17
• Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson | Novella: Stormlight Archive | 10/03/17
• Assassin's Price by L.E. Modesitt Jr. | Book 11: Imager Portfolio| 07/25/17
• The Core by Peter V. Brett | Book 5: Demon Cycle | 10/03/17
• The Legion of Flame by Anthony Ryan | Book 2: Draconis Memoria | 06/27/17
• The Mystery Knight by George R.R. Martin | Graphic Novel | 08/08/17
• Red Sister by Mark Lawrence | Book 1: Book of the Ancestor | 04/04/17

Out of curiosity, we checked where Age of War (Book #3 of Legends of the First Empire) was falling and were pleased to find it in the top 50 (at 39). Pretty good considering it doesn't come out until next April!

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Published on July 24, 2017 06:31

Theft of Swords is a Kindle Daily Deal -- just $2.99 today only!

I just returned from vacation to discover that Theft of Swords (Book #1 of the Riyria Revelations is one of the Kindle Daily Deals. So, today only it is priced at $2.99 rather than it's regular $9.99 price point. That's 60% off. So, if you've been considering checking out the adventures of Royce and Hadrian, now would be a good time to give them a try. Or, if you're already a fan, consider gifting Theft of Swords to your favorite fantasy fanatic. Maybe they'll get as hooked as you are!

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Published on July 20, 2017 08:47

Schedule for Riyria Chronicle #4

So, yesterday I finished writing The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter (Book 4: The Riyria Chronicles). But that still means it's far, far from done. Here is the schedule I'm going to try to stick to in order to get the book from "written" to "released."

• May 18, 2017 – Finished first-draft start re-reading & editing
• May 25, 2017 – Book will go to Robin for alpha reading
• June 4, 2017 - I'll incorporate alpha reader feedback
• June 25, 2017 – Robin will copy & line edit in preparation for beta read
• July 2, 2017 – I'll re-read book with Robin's changes and tweak as necessary
• July 11, 2017 – Beta reading begins
• August 27, 2017 – Beta reading ends
• September 4, 2017 – Beta feedback incorporated and professional copy editing begins
• October 4, 2017 – Copy editing ends - begin re-read and accept/reject copyedits
• October 15, 2017 – Final manuscript done
• October 16, 2017 – Audio book recording begins
• October 23,2017 – ebook and print layout begins
• October 30, 2017 – proofing of pre-press files
• November 23, 2017 – books printed and shipped
• December 5, 2017 – on sale date, pre-orders shipped

This is, of course, a tentative schedule, but we need something to be working toward so people can plan appropriately. Marc Simonetti has already started on the cover design (part of which you can see above). And Tim Gerard Reynolds and the studio are already booked for the dates listed above. If you are excited about the book here are some links that may interest you.Sign-up to become a beta reader.Pre-order audio copy (and get free ebook edition).If you are interested in ebooks or print editions, an early-notification sign-up is here.If you think you might want to be a beta reader, you need to read this "Primer" first as it explains how the beta is conducted and what will be expected of you.

In any case, still a lot to get done in a short amount of time, but I think the novel is in good shape so hopefully everything will come together quickly.

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Published on May 19, 2017 08:12

Audible Fantasy 2 for 1 Sale

I love audio books, and Audible's 2 for 1 sale is always a great opportunity to pick up a few extra listens. From now until May 22 (11:59 PT) these are the audio titles in the fantasy category on the 2 for 1 sale.