Jim asked Michael J. Sullivan:

Just finished Age of Myth. The sneak peak of Age of Swords says it won't be released until summer of 2017. Does mean it will take four more years to release all of them?

Michael J. Sullivan Hey Jim, A lot of people are excited about Age of Swords (and the rest of the series. That is good to see. The answer isn't 100% easy so bare with me.

The only date that we are sure about at this point is Age of Swords - which is indeed 1 year from Age of Myth. Del Rey hasn't actually seen that book yet (I've been working on editing books #2 - #6 since I turned in Age of Swords in April of 2015). AsI sometimes have to tweak early books as I write later ones I didn't want to have it "locked down" until I'm finished with edits to the last book (which should be in a few weeks).

Soon we'll be starting the beta read for Age of Swords (I needed Age of Myth released before doing that). Generally my beta reads don't result in huge changes to the story, but generally there is great feedback from the beta people that I want to take into effect. So....let's say that Del Rey gets the book in September (which is reasonable). That gives them plenty of time for their own editing process, cover creation, and so fourth to hit Summer of 2017. Which is why that date is when it is.

Okay so what about book #3 - Book #6. Well they really can't set dates until they have the books (to know if they need a lot of just a little work). So we can't really do anything until they have those, and again, I have to have Robin (my wife and main structural editor) go over those books one more time. And with a lot of work on Age of Swords happening in the Sep - Dec time frame that means they'll probably be able to get those other books early in 2017.

Once they have had a chance to read them, they can better judge the release calendar for the rest of the series. A year between books is common for a fantasy series, although they may do what I did when self-publishing which is space them out at six-month intervals. What I would prefer NOT to happen is releasing them in back-to-back months (like Orbit did with Riyria Revelations and Riyria Chronicles). I know that's good for those who want to binge read one book right after the other, but it's hard on me and the editors who have to go over all the books in a very short period of time....and it means that I can't be writing other works while those books are being rolled out. Spacing the books out means that I can have work done so there won't be a delay between one book's release and whatever I do next. Also, a year between releases would allow me to simultaneously advance multiple series. For instance if a "Legends" book comes out in the summer than I could release a Riyria book in the winter.

Other factors that come into play are how the sales for previous books go. For instance, let's say that book #2 comes out and the sales are initially high but fall of quickly, in that case it might make more sense to release book #3 sooner rather than later (because it would provide a boost to book #1 and #2). It would allow the ability to maintain some momentum.

Then, of course, there is taking into consideration other author's releases. Del Rey tries to keep a nice spacing between "like authors" so if Scott Lynch or Peter V. Brett have a book scheduled in a particular month, they wouldn't want my book coming out then. This allows the public relation and marketing people the ability to give each book appropriate attention.

So, what's the TL:DR gist of all this? We know when book #2 will come out, but let's not extrapolate releases for the other books until Del Rey gets those books and they can develop a plan for them. It may be that they come out once a year, or it may be that the later books are escalated to a 9-month or 6-month release cycle. There just is no way to know that right now. When adding the books to Goodreads I've put them at one a year just to give them "some date," but we'll know more once all the books are in Del Rey's hands which should be early in 2017.

Stay tuned!

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