The Beginning of the End

When people write to me, my gmail automatically attaches a signature to the bottom, and in it I list my works in progress. Even though I've spoken about it often, I'm surprised when I hear back from people who had no idea about The Cycle's existence.  For those who don't know, this will be the sixth, and last, series in the Elan Saga which when finished will consist of:

NOVELS

• The Riyria Revelations: 6 completed books: Theft of Swords (The Crown Conspiracy & Avempartha) • Rise of Empire (Nyphron Rising & The Emerald Storm) • Heir of Novron (Wintertide & Percepliquis)
  
  
• The Riyria Chronicles: 6 books (5 released one written and releasing in 2027): The Crown Tower   The Rose and the Thorn • The Death of Dulgath • The Disappearance of Winter’s Daughter  Drumindor • Blythin Castle
  
  
• Legends of the First Empire: 6 completed books: Age of Myth • Age of Swords • Age of War • Age of Legend • Age of Death • Age of Empyre
  
  
• The Rise and Fall: 3 completed books: Nolyn • Farilane • Esrahaddon
  
  
• After the Fall: 3 books (1 released two in development): Out of the Ashes • Between Two Evils
  Into the Darkness (release TBD)
  
  
• The Cycle: 5 books (3 written, two in progress) - releasing in 2028 . . . hopefully
  
  

SHORT STORIES

• The Riyria Chronicles: The Jester, Professional Integrity, May Luck Be With You, The Ashmoore Affair, The Viscount and the Witch
  
  
• The Riyria Revelations: Traditions
  
  
• Legends of the First Empire: Pile of Bones, Little Wren and the Big Forest
  
  
• The Cycle: The Storm, The Eternal Winter, The Last Hero, Beatrice
  
  

SUPPORTING MATERIAL

• The Elan Saga Compendium - a reference book for those reading The Cycle. If you run across or name or an item, and you can't remember the details - you can look it up in this companion book.
  
  
•  The Elan Short Story Anthology - while most of this will be short stories previously released, there are a number of new shorts for The Cycle and also some non-Elan stories I've written over the years.
  
  
• Behind the scenes of the Elan Saga - basically the "director's cut" where I show you how the sausage was made. I've been making notes while writing The Cycle, and I think people will find it interesting to hear how this all came together - and maybe even learn the things that never made it on the pages. 

Looking at that now, it's quite a body of work. And I couldn't be more proud of what I've accomplished. Given that I'm about 60% of the way through book number four of the series, I definitely feel like things are "wrapping up" and the curtain is coming down. I know that will sadden some of you, but it shouldn't. I'm planning on going out with my magnum opus, and anything added after it would be overstaying my welcome. 

While I'm busy writint The Cycle, Robin has been working on the short story anthology. Tim has recorded twelve or thirteen stories and there are two more that he'll have to do after the editing is done, but we do have one of them ready to go so we've released . . .

Some of you have already read this story because it's available in the ebook of our most resent release: Out of the Ashes, but even if you have, check out the audiobook because all stories are best when heard through the amazingly talented Tim Gerard Reynolds. Both ebook and audio will be available widely (including from our store). But the retail sites to go live are Amazon/Audible: ebook • audiobook

A few notes:

• I have enrolled this in Audible's all-you-can-listen library, but it's not yet approved, so you would have to do a cash purchase on Audible. I don't suggest using a credit for a short story.  But if you buy directly from me, you'll have access to the audio files so Audible won't be able to "claw back' the title at a future date. Plus I keep more of your money by cutting out the middleman.
  
  
• If you have NOT read The Death of Dulgath or Legends of the First Empire, I suggest you DO NOT read this short. By design, The Cycle assumes anyone picking it up will have already read everything that comes before so you will be exposed to major spoilers if you.
  
  
• If you read a copy, I'd greatly appreciate hearing you thoughts. You can post a review on Amazon from the links above, or supply one on goodreads.

Signed, but not yet sealed and delivered

As some may know, the Riyria Revelations were: 

• originally released by a small press: Aspirations Media Inc. (for The Crown Conspiracy) 
• then released through self-publishing (for Avempartha through Wintertide)
• and finally released by Orbit (for Percepliquis)

These books came out every six months on October 1st and April 1st starting in 2008.  Well, except for Percepliquis which was delayed by 9 months so it's release could be aligned with Heir of Novron (which came out in January of 2012).

That means we are just a little less than two years from the series' 20th anniversary, and I'd love to have special editions to celebrate that milestone. Now, I know that sounds like a lot of time to plan for a special edition, but it took more than a year and a half to negotiate a contract the last time I approached Orbit for permission to print hardcovers of Revelations, so Robin started early. In April of 2026, she reached out to Orbit, and as of a few days ago, we have a signed contract!

For the twentieth anniversary  I had several goals in mind.

• I wanted to return to the original six-book format rather than the two-book omnibus editions. 
  
  
• I wanted the number of copies created to be large enough to run a Kickstarter. Afterall, a lot of fans missed that original printing (which we have now dubbed "the rare editions"). Why is that? Well, it's because they were only available "by invitation only" because the number of permissible copies was so small.

• Over the years, we have played around with a few different design options for faux-leather editions, and each had their own issues. But our most recent incarnation (the ones created for The Riyria Chronicles) are versatile enough to make it possible for all books in the Elan Saga to have a similar look and feel - and I wanted to mirror that design for the 20th anniversary edition of Riyria Revelations.

• But I can't lie, I'm still a fan of the original artwork that I created for the author-published books, and I didn't want to lose them.  The good news is, I can include those graphics on the front end sheets.

So, based on that, this is what we came up with for the 20th anniversary of the books (click on the image for a higher resolution look.

Here are some details from the signed contract:

• Territories: Worldwide but granted through 2 contracts: Orbit USA & Orbit UK
• Contract's effective date March 1, 2028
• Kickstarter cannot last any longer than 6 months from effective date
• Books must be published within 18 months of effective date
• No books may be sold after March 1, 2031, and any remaining copies must be destroyed
• Format: deluxe faux-leather copies - no standard trade hard covers permitted
• Price of a six-book set $260 (no individual sales allowed)
• Number of copies permitted: 3,000 (for NA) and 750 (for all other territories)
• Advance to be paid to Orbit: $78,000 (for NA rights), $19,500 (for all other territories)

Based on the above - we anticipate the following for the Kickstarter:

• Kickstarter launch date: March 7, 2028 12:00 noon (EST)
• Kickstarter end date: March 28, 2028 2:00 pm (EST)
• Reward levels: $260 without slipcase | $299 with slipcase
• Number of copies available: 3,750

If you missed the Kickstarter for the Riyria Chronicles deluxe editions, you can order copies from this link. Boxsets sold there are discounted $60 (for a four book set) and $80 (for a five book set that includes Drumindor). Also sales from that site include free US shipping and deeply discounted (50% off) for non-US shipping).

NOTE: We probably won't do any reprinting of the Riyria Chronicles books until their 20th anniversary, which won't be until 2033. So if you think you want a complete set of the Elan Saga in this deluxe format, be sure to order soon as supplies will no doubt sell out.

Okay, back to the Riyria Revelations series. If you would like to sign up to be notified when the Kickstarter goes live, use this link (775+ people have signed up as of 10/26/2026).

And that about covers it. We expect the UK contract to be signed by the end of next week. I can't tell you how excited that this beautiful set of books will be a reality. This was the one roadblock to having all books in the Elan Saga using this new design.  So, yes, there will be announcements about similar editions for Legends of the First Empire and The Rise and Fall.

Riyriacon, New Release, and Cycle Update

Sorry for the late post on this, but we were busy with Riyriacon and had to get the Luray house winterized and catch a plane for Key West.  

What is/was Riyriacon? 

 It was the second year of a get together of Riyria fans at our place in Luray.  Robin had to fly up from Key West and we hosted several days of "Riyria" events including Q&A panels, listening to The Storm and The Eternal Winter audio recordings, playing a Riyria TTRPG, meeting and greeting, and a Riyria inspired Cards Against Humanity game. There was also a field trip to the Luray caverns and I believe some people did a hike down Dark Hollow Falls in Shenandoah National Park. For aspiring or self-published authors, there were critique sessions where their work was reviewed by members of Novel House including Lorian Ellis, John Petrila,  Gregory Amato, and Tora Taylor.  

And speaking of Lorian Ellis . . . we had printer proofs of the physical books of her debut novel, so she could hold them in her hands and even take them with her.  There are a few minor adjustments that need to be made, but all in all they came out well.

Photo by Elliot Johnson

New Release - Book #1 in the 5th Elan Saga Series

The digital versions (audio and ebook) of Out of the Ashes (Book #1 in the After the Fall series) are now out in the world.  As I said, the print books need a few minor adjustments to them, but we hope to have them on the press by next week. This is is our sales so far:

• 1,942 Audiobooks (through end of September)
• 1,982 ebooks (through mid-October)
• 1,100 deluxe hardcovers editions (through early-October)
• 1,277 regular hardcover editions ((through early-October)
• 6,301 total books

For those that don't know, here is what a debut fantasy author can expect if they had a standard "modest" launch from a traditional big-five publisher (like Orbit, Del Rey, or Tor)

• 1st year's US sales: 1,000 - 3,000
• lifetime US sales: 2,000 - 5,000

That means we've already past the lifetime sales, and it's only been 10 days since the release of the audiobook and 8 days since the release of the ebook. And of course the print book numbers are only pre-orders that were sold through our Kickstarter.

If you missed the Kickstarter, you can pre-order your hardcovers through our Late Backer Survey.

For those looking for audiobooks, here are your choices: Apple Books | Audible: US | CA | UK | AU | DE | FR | ES | JP | IN 

For those looking for eBooks (but avoiding Amazon), here are your choices: From the author | Bookshop.org | Barnes and Noble (nook) | Apple Books | Kobo | Smashwords | Vivlio | Thalia

For Amazon eBook Shoppers: US | CA | AU | UK | MX | BR | DE | FR | IT | ES | NL  | JP | IN 

We are still waiting for links to populate for the following: Google Play, OverDrive, Everand, and Hoopla, and we'll make those available when they go live.

The Cycle Update

It's been awhile since we've had a Cycle Update, and to be honest it's on a bit of a hiatus at present.  I need to get my office setup again and there is a lot of yard work to do in Key West since we've been gone for several months. But here is where things stand.

• Lorian Ellis now has books #1 thorugh #3. She's the first person other than Robin to get a look at them.
  
  
• Book #4 is definitely past the halfway point. It's currently at 88,464 words and 18 of the 30 chapters are completed. My hope is to have it finished by early April 2027.
  
  
• Book #5's outline is being fleshed out as Book #4 is written, and the hope is that it will come together quickly.  
  
  
• If the above dates hold firm, and assuming the final book comes out to my satisfaction, then we plan on releasing the first book of the series in 2028.
  
  

The clock is ticking

 We are down to just a few hours until the end of the Out of the Ashes Kickstarter.

It's been great so far.  We've been consistently hitting the #1 most backed and the #2 most funded live fiction project.  Plus we got a number of stretch goals down.  I'm a bit distracted at the moment as I've been . . . 

• Proofing audiobooks from Tim Gerard Reynolds (for a short story anthology0
• Helping Peter with the Unbroken Kickstarter - 111,000+ surveys have gone out.  If you missed that one, late backing is available through this link.

#1 Most Popular Pre-Launch Fiction

 

So yesterday, we pushed the "coming soon" pre-launch page live for The Riyria Revelations deluxe hardcovers.  And when I checked today it was the #1 most popular fiction project. Given there are 1,166 projects in that category, I'm pretty impressed!

If you want to join the 500+ people who have signed up for notification, click here.

More Kickstarters coming soon

Hey all, Robin here. As we near the conclusion of the Kickstarter for Out of the Ashes (just 9 days left)! I've been looking ahead to our other projects. No, it's still too soon to discuss The Cycle books, but we are finally oh so very close to getting a signed contract for a 20th anniversary of the Riyria Revelations!  So close in fact, that I've built the Kickstarter page.  If you want to sign up to be notified when the project is live, just click here.

And if you missed the Kickstarter for the matching Riyria Chronicles . . . there are a few left (but once they are gone, that'll be it. We have been selling them at a discount (to get the warehouse cleaned out), so you can pick up one of the remaining sets at a $60 - $80 discount depending on whether you get all five or just four of the books.  To shop the sale, you can click here.  Given the difficulty when negotiating these rights, reprinting more isn't likely. So if you are looking forward to a complete set of Elan Saga books, get these before they are gone!

And for those who are curious . . . yes the Legends of the First Empire and the Rise and Fall series will be getting these cover treatments. Right now I'm in negotiation with another publisher for hardcover rights in the UK for Legends of the First Empire, and the plan is to do a joint printing with different cover designs between our two versions (it's pretty common to have different covers for the US and UK).  For that Kickstarter, we'll have both regular and deluxe versions (much like we are doing now with Out of the Ashes, and Sarah is working on what the deluxe editions will look like. While she's been doing that, I've started toying around with the regular editions.

We have launched the "notify me" page and you can find it at this link.  We also have a survey to let me know what books you are interested in, and we can make sure you get a pre-order created for you. To do that, you can sign-up here.

Well, that's all the news for now. Hopefully you find some of this stuff interesting!

Tomorrow's the day! Kickstarter launch for the new series!

Hey all, Robin here. Well, tomorrow is a big day as we will be launching our 14th crowdfunding campaign. This one is for Out of the Ashes: the first book in a new series called After the Fall. You can click here (or on the picture) to jump to the funding page. Oh, and I should note that there are some "early-bird" specials where people can receive a discount for being one of the first 100 people in each reward level.

With its release, that brings the total number of books in the Elan Saga to twenty-one!

Savvy veterans of the Elan universe will probably guess that After the Fall comes . . . well after . . . the Rise and Fall series, and you'd be right.  In fact, the new book picks up just a few days after the last pages of Esrahaddon. And if the final words of that book ("Hello, Brother") left you wanting more - then you're in for a treat because "more" is exactly what you can expect from this new series!  Not only will you get some further details about that clandestine meeting, but you'll also learn what has become of Nevrik, Jerish, Elinya and even how Esrahaddon was captured.

Now, for those who haven't read the Rise and Fall, that's not a problem because this series, like all the ones in the World of Elan, are designed to stand on their own. Sure, people who have read some (or all) of the books will have a bit of "insider information," but new readers should be able to jump right in without knowing some (or any) of what has come before.

One of the things that makes me most excited about this project is that not only does it usher in a new book, and series, but it also launches the career of a new author! Her name is Lorian Ellis, and I can't wait until you get to hear her tales and meet her characters - I love them so. 

And here's probably the best part about tomorrow . . . the first two chapters are posted on the Kickstarter so you can read part of the book starting at noon!  Just check out the "Sample Chapter" section of the Kickstarter, then pop on over to the Elan Discord server to share your thoughts with fellow Sullifans. 

Getting the opening of the book is great, but the obvious question is when can you read the entire story?  Well since the book is 100% written and edited, we'll be sending out ebooks (for those that order that format) on September 25th - the day after the Kickstarter is over -- assuming of course it funds.

As for the printed versions (both deluxe and regular hardcovers) here is what we're looking at:

• September 5th - send print-ready files to printer
• September 15th - get proofs back
• September 23rd - Kickstarter ends print quantities determined - print run ordered
• November 25th - books hit the presses
• December 9th - books ready to ship
• January 27th - books arrive in US
• February 3rd - books arrive in our warehouse and shipping begins. 

Now, all that said, I've put the ship date on the Kickstarter for March 2027 just to provide padding as things never go completely to plan.

So, that's my big news for this evening. I hope to see you tomorrow on the Kickstarter!!

Robin.