Michael J. Sullivan's Blog, page 43

Audible Black Friday Sale Ends 11/29 at 11:59 PM PT

With 472 discounted audiobooks, it'd be tough not to find something on your wishlist as part of  Audible's Black Friday Sale . I'm so pleased that one of mine (The Crown Tower) is one of them. With so many for sale, it's hard to choose which ones to focus on, but here are the ones that caught my eye, and hopefully one or more of them will be books you've been considering.


































 

Amazon editors pick the 20 best fantasy & sci-fi novels of 2016

It's that all important time of the year when the "best-of" or "most-anticipated" lists start popping up. I was honored that Age of Myth was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award (my 5th), and today I learned of another list. I'm pleased to say Age of Myth was also picked by Amazon as one of the 20 best fantasy and science fiction novels of 2016. It's pretty amazing company to be in, and I'm both honored and humbled. Here are the books:




































If you're like me, these lists are great for growing the TBR lists.  And Christmas is just around the corner, so if you see something you like, tell Santa. Who knows, he might just stuff your stocking with some good reads.

Narrators' Greatest Hits

It's been nearly two years since Audible took stock of their best narrators, and when they did, Tim Gerard Reynolds made the list!Ray PorterAndi ArndtGeorge NewbornTim Gerard Reynolds     Emily Woo ZellerOliver WymanTavia GilbertRosalyn LandorBronson PinchotGabra ZackmanGrover GardnerTherese PlummerAnyone who knows me is familiar with my undying respect for Tim's work. I consider myself honored to have him as a fellow collaborator. There's no doubt he is the voice of Riyria. Wait, I take that back, because it's too limiting. Tim is also rocking the voices for the Legends of the First Empire series, so I guess I have to call him the voice of Elan.

Tim's body of work has grown by leaps and bounds since his first release in July 2010. Theft of Swords was Tim's 6th recording and it was released in March 2012. Today he has more than 90 titles!




























It must have been difficult for Audible to pick from all those works to get Tim's Top 10, and I'm honored that two of the Riyria books made the list:
















So, if you've not heard Tim Gerard Reynolds yet, what's holding you back? If you have, then you already know how awesome he is. Either way, try one of these or any of the other books he's narrated. I haven't found any that aren't absolutely fabulous.

Red Rising by Pierce BrownDawn of Wonder by Jonathan RenshawThe Crown Tower by Michael J. SullivanThe Red Sea by Edward W. RobertsonFaithful Place by Tana FrenchChasing the Scream by Johann HariShift by Hugh HoweySon of the Black Sword by Larry CorreiaTheft of Swords by Michael J. SullivanPrince of Fools by Mark Lawrence

2016 Goodreads Choice Award - Final Round

Well, Age of Myth didn't make it to the final round, but it was an honor to be included at all. Ten books  had to go, and  I'm consoled by the fact that even after being cut, it was among some amazing company:























So that leaves 10 books in the final round of the Goodreads Choice Awards including:




















 

Goodreads Semi-Final Round

Voting for the U.S. Presidential election is over, but the second round of the Goodreads Choice Awards has opened. Five books were added through write in, and even if you voted in round #1, you can vote again for round #2. Here's the new list of 20 books in the running.




































This round of voting will go through the 13th. And then the field of 20 will be narrowed down to 10 for the final round. You don't have to vote for my book, but please vote for your favorite of 2016!











 

And we're done! Thanks for making The Death of Dulgath Kickstarter such a huge success.

Thanks to all the amazing backers that not only made The Death of Dulgath Graphic Novel a reality, but their generous support also made the project a huge success. More than $37,000 was raised from 801 backers!! The final two days saw nearly $8,000 in additional support, so we hit the $35,000 stretch goal. As always, the Kickstarter was a great time, and I'm so glad that the backers will not only get an exclusive version of the book, but also some great bonus swag.


















Now we need to get the book produced. The team is solid and I can't wait to see what they come up with. Thanks again for all the backers, and if you missed the Kickstarter, there may be ways you can pre-order the book through a separate store. More on that soon.

Author Writing Advice

I think aspiring authors are always looking for good advice. Jay Dee Archer recently asked a bunch of authors to relate our best advice,  and he compiled it all in a post you can find here.

There's a lot of good stuff mentioned and not just from me. Stop on over to find advice from Mark Lawrence, Djano Wexler, and over a dozen more. Good stuff all.

Age of Myth is a Goodreads Choice Award Nominee!!

Have I've mentioned lately how much I love Goodreads and the bibliophiles on that site who are so passionate about books? I'm thrilled that 2016 brings me my 5th nomination!! (Also nominated in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014).
































There will be three rounds of voting:

* Opening Round Nov. 1 - 6
* Semifinal Round Nov. 8 - 13
* Final Round Nov. 15 - 27

During the opening round, Goodreads will be accepting "write-ins" and five more books will be added to the list for the semifinal round of voting. So if you don't see your favorite, consider telling Goodreads about it. The only requirement is publication date and it should be from Nov 2015 to Oct 2016. The second round will see voting for the full group of 20. Then the field will be narrowed to 10 books for the final round. I don't expect to win, being nominated is honor enough, but if possible I would like to make it to the final round. We'll see if that happens.  

I'm not going to ask for your vote. I want you to pick the book that you think deserves to win (no matter what that is). But please do  vote in all rounds so your favorite book has the best chance at being named the best fantasy book of 2016. As far as I know, this is the only award that is a "people's choice" (selected based on votes of readers). As such, it is the most important award that I can think of.  



 

How Do Goodreads Members Rate Books?

Some time ago (April 2016 to be exact) Goodreads hit a milestone of 50 million reviews. That's a lot of feedback! The first review was written by Otis Chandler (founder of Goodreads) on September 4, 2006. The gang at Goodreads analyzed the reviews and they showed some interesting data about how the ratings breakdown. Here it is:


If you calculate the average, it works out to 3.98. I was, not unsurprisingly, interested about how my own books stacked up against the site-wide average, and Robin was nice enough to do some number crunching for me.  Here are the results:
Title5-star 4-star3-star 2-star 1-starTotalAverageTheft of Swords 13,529 12,433 4,269 937 360 31,528 4.20 Rise of Empire 11,718 9,451 2,546 332 99 24,146 4.34 Heir of Novron 13,439 7,610 1,984 307 109 23,449 4.45 The Crown Tower 7,325 6,007 1,679 289 120 15,420 4.31 The Rose and the Thorn 5,510 4,236 1,057 105 34 10,942 4.38 The Death of Dulgath 2,055 1,706 415 42 18 4,236 4.35 The Crown Conspiracy 4,495 4,232 1,807 410 152 11,096 4.13 Avempartha 2,791 2,438 768 124 21 6,142 4.28 Nyphron Rising 2,366 2,032 592 75 14 5,079 4.31 The Emerald Storm 1,974 1,684 552 70 10 4,290 4.29 Wintertide 2,619 1,700 450 62 20 4,851 4.41 Percepliquis 2,803 1,291 302 43 15 4,454 4.53 Age of Myth 1,913 1,541 437 90 27 4,008 4.30 Total Reviews   72,537      56,361      16,858      2,886       999      149,641  4.31 % of Reviews48.5% 37.7% 11.3% 1.9% 0.7%
 Difference with Average  +11.5% +3.7% -9.7%-4.1% -1.3%

I'm pleased to say that after almost 150,000 reviews (for the Riyria books and Legends of the First Empire) the 5-star and 4-star reviews have been much higher than most books, and the 1-star and 2-star reviews were much lower.

It's always great to take stock and see how people are receiving what I write, and I'm so glad that you all seem to like the books! Thanks for reading, and if you rated one (or several) of my books on Goodreads, thanks for that as well.

Theft of Swords is a Kindle Daily Deal - $2.99 Today (10/14/16) Only

Wow, I didn't know it was coming!

Every day Amazon picks a few e-books from the millions they have for sale and put them on a deep discount known as the Kindle Daily Deal . Generally there are titles from Mystery/Thrillers, Romance, Sci-fi/Fantasy, and Non Fiction. Today's Fantasy pick is Theft of Swords and until the end of the day you can get it for just $2.99 (normal price $9.99 - that's a saving of 70%). It's rank has risen nicely and it's already a best seller. So thanks for people who have picked up a copy.


As for the other daily deals. Here's what's on sale:
$2.99 -  Theft of Swords: (The Riyria Revelations #1 & #2) by Michael J. Sullivan$1.99 -   Strong Poison (The Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries Book 6) by Dorothy L. Sayers  $1.99 -   The Cater Street Hangman (Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Series Book 1) by Anne Perry $0.99 -  Rogue in Red Velvet (The Emperors of London series) by Lynne Connolly$1.99 - Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen by Laurie ColwinAlso, keep in mind that if you buy the kindle version of Theft of Swords you can get the audible version at a discount because it is whisper sync enabled. $12.99 rather than $29.39 member price. Not as big of a discount, but for two books read by the amazing Tim Gerard Reynolds, it's worth considering. Congratulations on all who get in not he deal!