And so it begins . . . a red carpet roll out of Michael's protégé

Hey all, Robin here. Michael and I have been keeping a pretty big secret under wraps, but it's time to start letting the proverbial cat out of the bag. I'm speaking about the identity of the co-author who, along with Michael, has written Out of the Ashes (Book one of the After the Fall series). We couldn't be more excited about this, especially because the situation is truly unique: a complete unknown (queue Bob Dylan music), who hopefully will become a full-time author overnight. 

When I'm alpha reading Michael and I'm trying to get a point across about something that REALLY needs to be addressed, I pull out my big-gun phrase: "I cannot begin to express how strongly I feel about this." It's a series of words rarely spoken that will make Michael sit up and pay attention. I use this now because I'm about to make two statements that have that same degree of gravitas.

1. Michael is "more than a little" protective of his characters and world.
   
   
2. Michael does NOT play well with others

Given those two statements (and how strongly I feel about them) the odds of Michael co-authoring a book are about the same as the sun failing to rise tomorrow. So the fact that he has, is really saying something.

Michael is so proud of his co-author, and he wants you to love what they produced so much that he's planned a red-carpet roll out. He wrote a 7-piece series of blog posts giving you a behind the scenes look into both the author and the creation process. The first one is live now, and links to the other installments will be posted over the next few days. I hope you'll tune in for them because the story of how this all came together is an interesting as the book itself.

• How a polite email led to a new Elan series
• A School for Wizards: From card houses to Hogwarts
• The Project: This time we're doing Spiderman—the Avenger's edition
• Starting the Book: How nothing becomes something—or at least it seems that way
• The Outline: For both a novel and the life of a novelist
• Chapter One: A month of trial and errors
• Out of the Ashes: An apt title for the book and the process that created it

Metrics, measures, and success

Hey all, Robin here. Michael and I might just be old fuddy-duddys, but we aren't glued to our phones (I don't know where mine is most days) like many are. As such, we've  never used Tik-Tok or Instargram, and we aren't really on social media (goodreads being the exception). Yes, we have facebook accounts, but we haven't looked at them in years, and I really need to make Michael a BlueSky account (as we don't use twitter these days either), but there are just too many other things to do.

Being as isolated as we are (both in our remote living location and electronically), we don't know much about Michael's popularity - or lack there of. But there are two metrics I look at with a fair amount of regularity and that is the number of followers on Goodreads and Amazon.

Well, today I looked and Michael hit 42,000 followers on Amazon - that's an amazing number to me. Especially when we started this whole "writing thing" and I took up the mantle of "getting people to know the books exist" I asked Michael, "So how would you need to consider yourself a success?" He replied, "If fifty people read my books." But then he paused a moment, and added a clarification. "But they have to be people I don't know."

Now, granted, not all 42,000 of those people have Michael's books, and while he has "sold" more than 2.5M copies, we also don't know many of those have been read, but based on review numbers, I think it's safe to say it's more than 50 :-)

Michael's numbers on Goodreads are even better: 92,400+ followers. There was a time when he was ranked #40 on the most followed list, but he's slipped from that height over the years.He's now barely haning on to the bottom rung (#50), and I suspect he will soon fall off completely, but I think he's been on it for over 10 years which is quite impressive.

So while I have your attention, if you don't currently follow Michael on Amazon or Goodreads, I'm going to make an appeal for you to do so. Why? Well it's not to boost Michael's ego — he doesn't know any of this "number stuff," and I suspect he doesn't care one way or the other.  It's only me, the ex-engineer, that looks at such things. But if you do hit follow, you'll be notified when a new book of Michael's hit the shelves, and I think if you are reading these words, that might be something you'd be interested in knowing.

• Goodreads - Click "Follow Author" button below Michael's picture on the left hand side.
• Amazon - Click "+Follow" button to the right of Michael's picture on the left hand side.

As always, thanks for the amazing support.

Legends of the First Empire Hardcovers Out of Print

As many of you may know, the Legends of the First Empire was a hybrid publishing project. The first three books were released through Penguin Random House's Del Rey imprint, and the last three books were self-published by us. These books were also released as mass market paperbacks, ebooks, and audiobooks (both dramatic multi-cast dramatic and non-dramatic single-narrator) editions.

The Legends series has done very well for us:

• 2 books hit the New York Times bestseller list (Age of War and Age of Legend) 
• 3 books hit the Washington Post bestseller list (Age of Myth, Age of Swords, and Age of War)
• 3 books hit the USA Today bestseller list (Age of Swords, Age of War, and Age of Legend)

A mildly successful title hopes to sell 5,000 hardcovers and 10,000 is considered a very good release. In fact, publishers use those threshold for various escalation points:

• 1 - 4,999 books sold earn 10% of list price
• 5,000 - 9,999 books sold earn 12.5% of list price
• 10,000+ books earn 15% of list price

Hardcovers generally go "out of print" after 12 - 15 months, and from that point on, the paperbacks are the only physical copies available. But the Legends sold quite well and both Age of Myth and Age of War stayed in print for many years after their initial release. As for Age of Swords, Del Rey retired it just after the second printing. When a publisher does that, they either "pulp" the books (grind them up to be used for paperback editions), or sell the excess stock by the pound to remainder companies who offer deeply discounted books. As an author, we don't get paid for pulped or remaindered titles, but our contract DOES offer us the chance to circumvent those less than desirable fates for the left over copies. So in July of 2018, we paid $8,600 for 3,360 copies of Age of Swords. In other words, we bought the leftovers. I never thought we would sell all those copies through our online store, but I currently have less than 200 copies. 

That $2.57 a book is significantly cheaper than the $14 I pay (50% author's discount) when getting the other titles from Del Rey. Anyway, Age of War's hardcover print run ended in May 2024, when I could only receive a partial shipment of a large order I placed for that title. Likewise, I snapped up the remaining copies of Age of Myth in September 2024. 

Once Del Rey had no more copies of their hardcovers available for sale, I asked if I could retrieve the print rights for that format. And they agreed! This was mind-blowing news, considering my pleas to retrieve hardcover rights for Orbit's titles (a right they have NEVER exercised), have always fallen on deaf ears. I've even begged them to do a hardcover printing themselves, but that was likewise rebuked.

All told the Del Rey versions sold:

• Age of Myth - 19,361 copies earning $50,889.16
• Age of Swords - 9,204 copies earning $25,552.48
• Age of War - 12,585 copies earning $30,397.56

Now, since the books sold for $28 each in hardcover, and given the royalty rates above, a few math nerds might say, "Hey, that math doesn't add up" and you'd be right. The issue is that not all royalties are created equal, and I earn substantially less for books sold at a high discount or English language copies sold in other countries. Had all the books sold at the "standard royalty rate," I would have earned:

• Age of Myth - $70,816.20 ($19,927.04 more than I actually earned)
• Age of Swords - $28,714.00 ($3,162.52 more than I actually earned)
• Age of War - $42,357.00 ($11,959.44 more than I actually earned) 

That's just a little tidbit for any aspiring authors out there so that they know what to expect after signing their own publishing deals. Pay particular attention to the royalty rates in your contract and whether you'll be paid based on list price or net receipts.

So, what does all this mean to you, the reader? Well, if you read printed books rather than audio or ebooks, and you haven't picked up the Legends of the First Empire books, you'll only be able to get the small mass market paperbacks when buying through the retail chain. There may be a few hardcovers in the various retailer's warehouses, but I have no way of knowing how many there are, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are gone and the only sellers who have books are through the Amazon marketplace ecosystem.

Anyway, if you want hardcover editions, you can purchase them from us, but our supplies are very limited, so you have to hurry.

• Age of Myth - 122 copies
• Age of Swords - 177 copies
• Age of War - 0 copies
• Age of Legend - 41 copies
• Age of Death - 117 copies
• Age of Empyre - 51 copies

Once we ran out of Age of War, we started taking pre-orders for it (as well as for "complete sets)." We currently have 115 orders for Age of War, and 94 for all six books. If you have yet to get your full hardcover sets (and you think you'll want them), you can pre-order from this link. 

What about the possibility of a new print run - including deluxe editions? It's quite high, but also very uncertain from a timing perspective. Over the years, there has been tremendous consolidation (and more than a few bankruptcies), within the US book printing ecosystem. The result is there are only a few printers, and while they produce decent quality paperbacks, their hardcovers are not nearly as good as I've grown used to, and totally unacceptable with regard to special edition books with hubbed spines.

As you may already know, since Farilane's release we've been printing exclusively from China whose quality is absolutely amazing. The Drumindor books were shipped with a 7.5% import tax - a rate which has been in effect for several years), but The Riyria Chronicles books 1 - 4 (which are still on the press) will cost me much more. Unless you live under a rock, you may have heard about a number of tariff imposed on US goods:

• 20% from first Trump administration (although books were exempt from all but 7.5%)
• 10% additional tariff Feb 2, 2025
• 10% additional tariff Mar 4, 2025
• 34% additional tariff April 2, 2025
• 50% additional tariff April 9, 2025
• 41% additional tariff April 11, 2025

In such a climate, my current plan is to ONLY do small US-based press runs, and no large print runs until after current trade war has some resolution. As it stands now, my tariff rate would be 145% + 7.5% = 152.5% which can't be absorbed, and I won't sacrifice quality, which leaves me no idea when a mass print run for the Legends books will take place.

So, unless you are satisfied with the small mass-market books, please place your order or pre-order (for those Age of War or complete sets) as soon as possible. I need to determine a quanity soon, and if you wait too long and miss that small print run, it may be several years until we have new hardcovers for these amazing books.

As always, we thank you for your continued support.

Free novels, Short Stories, and Bonus Material

Hey all, Robin again. We've seen some recent success at some of our Reader Initiatives including:

• Reading Buddies - Elan Discord Server
• The Cycle Discord Server
• Sullivan's Spoils YouTube Channel 

But there is one initiative, I've invested a lot of time in that isn't getting much traction, and it's 100% free! It may be because you just don't know it exists. So, here I am to "give you the skiny." 

For those who aren't familiar, Royal Road is a serialized fiction site where authors (both aspiring and established) post stories for free. It tends to lean toward the LitRPG and Progression fantasy genres, but there is also a fair amount of Science Fiction, Cozy Fantasy, and even a bit of traditional epic stories.

I started posting content on this site about a year and a half ago. This includes short stories, entire novels, as well as bonus features (like the deleted scenes from Esrahaddon, and recaps of Legends of the First Empire books).  

In the world of Royal Road, Michael is an extremely "small fish" - which is something that baffles me since he has more than 2.5 Million books sold. But, it is what it is, and I'm not planning on abandoning the platform. To date we have 1,645 pages posted (over 500,000 words).  Here's what you'll find there:

• Riyria Chronicles - has three full-length novels: The Death of Dulgath, The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter, and Drumindor - so if you are strapped for cash, but sill want to read stories about Royce and Hadrian, you can go there.
  
  
• Riyria Revelations - the intention was to post all six books of the Riyria Revelations, in the hopes of getting people "hooked" on his stories, but Orbit objected and they made us remove them from the site. So currently it's just a "stub" with the opening of Theft of Swords. The reason the three books of the Chronicles are still live is because we control the licensing rights to those books.
  
  
• Riyria Short Stories - while the cover implies just 4 shorts, it actually has 6 stories in it including May Luck be With You - which is a Royce background tale that indicates how he got his name. Two of these shorts were incorporated into the novel, so if you've read them, you already know what happens, but four of them contain original content released in various anthologies.
  
  
• Burning Alexandria & The Game - are non-Elan based short stories and they are fabulous. I wish more people had wread them - each has only a handful of followers and favorites.
  
  
• The Elan Dossier - is where the bonus material can be found. 
  
  
• What's Next  is the most important  chapter. I (or Michael) regularly update this to let people know where we are on various projects.  
  
  
• Reading Order - alsways a difficult subject to broach, but several options are provided
  
  
• Q&A - answers to questions posed to Michael - you can submit your own questions by sending an email to michael (dot) sullivan (dot) dc (at) gmail (dot) com - with the subject: Elan Dossier Q&A
  
  
• Two non-Riyria short stories regarding Elan: Pile of Bones (Suri & Minna), Little Wren and the Big Forest (Origin of Gronbach Myth)
  
  
• Glossaries from: Theft of Swords, Rise of Empire, Heir of Novron, Age of Myth, Age of Swords, Age of War, Age of Legend, Age of Death
  
  
• Book recaps: Age of Myth, Age of Swords, Age of War, Age of Legend
  
  
• Bonus Matter: Making of the Death of Dulgath
  
  
• Bonus Matter: Nolyn: Author's Note, Afterword
  
  
• Bonus Matter: Farilane: Author's Note, Afterword
  
  
• Bonus Matter Esrahaddon: Author's Note, Afterword, Esrahaddon in Riyria, Deleted Scenes
  
  
• Bonus Matter Drumindor: Author's Note, Afterword

As you can see there is a lot of good stuff out there but Michael's Riyria Chronicles has less only 1,057 followers and only 282,595 views.  Now 282,595 views may seem like a lot, but on Royal Road it's nothing. For instance, despite being  #31 in the most-rated completed story list, the title at #30 him has had 5,612,600 views, and the top title has 22,141,002 views.  So, if you haven't read these books, consider checking them out on Royal Road - after all they are free. Or if you have friends or family who you've been trying to get to read the books and they just haven't, remind them that they can read three full-length novels for free from here! If you are doing a re-read, consider reading on Royal Road, and of course rate and favorite it. All these actions can get its stats improved, and if that happens, then Riyria will have more visibility on a site that has millions of readers, and you'll have more people to talk to about these incredible stories.

As always, we thank you for your support.

Don't miss Nolyn in the Audible BOGO Sale!

Hey all, Robin here. I want to first thank everyone who has been commenting about our new feature Sullivan's Spoils. The first episode has been received very well - and I'm all preparing episode 2.

Right now a lot of our efforts are going to "The Cycle, a project that I'ms sure will be Michael's biggest and best work yet.  But IT IS ONLY for those who have read all 20 books in the Elan Universe. If you skip Riyria, or Legens, or Rise and Fall, then you absolutely should skip "The Cycle" - because it's ONLY designed for die-hard fans and it will make little to no sense to those who try to read it without the pre-requisites.

Luckily, Audible is going to help those who have missed the Rise and Fall series, as they put Book #1, Nolyn, in one of their huge promotions - Buy One Get One Free Sale.  And if you've read Legends, then you absolutely won't want to miss Farilane. Both Michael and I think it's his best single work ever, especially for those who read Legends first.

There are a lot of good titles in the sale, and I thought I should give you some other choices for your "other credit pick. So here goes:

Title	Author	Rating	# ratings
Nolyn	Michael J. Sullivan.	4.6	6,771
The Princess of Potential	delemhach	4.8	631
Bastion	Phil Tucker	4.7	3,318
Circe	Madeline Miller	4.7	55,327
The Wizard's Butler	Nathan Lowell	4.7	8,395
Dawn of Wonder	Johnathan Renshaw	4.7	42,418

• Nolyn is the first book in the Rise and Fall series and it follows the events directly after the end of the Legends of the First Empire series. 
  
  
• The Princess of Potential is a standalone book set in The House Witch series. It's written by delemhach, someone we feel so strongly about that Robin took the time to run her Kickstarter and we have helped her self-publish her next serie The Ether Witch. It's cozy fantasy filled with humor and a touch of romance.
  
  
• Bastion is the most popular book written by Phil Tucker, a great friend of ours who is doing very well, the rating and number of reviews speak for itself.
  
  
• Circe is one of Michael's favorite books, so an easy pick for a recommendation
  
  
• The Wizard's Butler, is written by another fellow author friend from very far back in the day when Michael self published. Nathan is a tremendous writer, and a damn fine narrator - he actually did the first audio narration of The Crown Conspiracy back in the day. His Tales of the Solar Clipper series is fabulous "slice of life" science fiction with an easy flowing writing style and great characters. We've not read Wizard's Butler but we are picking it up as part of the sale.
  
  
• Dawn of Wonder is read by our narrator Tim Gerard Reynolds. I listened to it and found it to be a darn fine tale, so big thumbs up from me, and it looks like I'm not alone in that opinion.

So, if you want to pick up these, or any of the 100 other titles that are part of the sale, head on over to Audible but be quick. The sale ends April 11, 2025 at 11:49 PM PT.  I hope you grab a few - they are a steal at twice the price!

Sullivan Spoils - Season 1 Episode 1 is launched!

Hey all, Robin here. It's finally begun! The first episode of Sullivan's Spoils has launched. The plan is to do one or two a week.  Check it out! Just in time for my 63rd birthday!

Drumindor books are in - Kickstarter orders shipped - buy direct from our store is now open

On Monday March 24th, we received 20 pallets of Drumindor books and on Thursday April 3rd, a USPS truck with 11 pallets consisting of 2,419 orders left our warehouse. 

For those who don't know, publishing works on a quarterly sales cycle that has certain calendar cutoffs. Based on it's print date, this title was slated for the fall 2025 sales calendar, and the earliest a book in that quarter can go live in the retail chain is August. Tuesdays are always release days in the book business, so we made Drumindor's book release date August 5th. So, from now until then, pre-order pages are up, and the more pre-orders we get, the sales reps will work harder to convince the buyers at the various retail sites to make their first order a high number. 

If you want to pre-order, here are some links you can use:  Amazon |  Barnes and Noble | Books-a-Millon | !ndigo | Waterstones | Powells | Wallmart | Target | Blackwells | Foyles | IndieBound | Bookshop.org | Canadian Indie Bookstores | Thalia |  Beter World Books.

Oh, and if you use a libary, they take book request from patrons seriously and usually they have an online form for submitting book requests. So it would be greatly appreciated if you would ask them to add a copy of Drumindor to their collection.  Use ISBN 978-1943363711 when making a request. 

I've also modified our own online store to take orders for both editions of Drumindor and you can only purchase the deluxe edition directly from us. Buying direct has several advantages:

• You can get your copy now instead of waiting for August
• The books will come signed
• A much higher % of the money you pay stays with me by cutting out the middle men

At this time, we ONLY have hardcovers for book #5 (Drumindor). The other four books of the Riyria Chronicles are on the press now, and we expect them to be ready to ship to us by the end of May.  Generally speaking, it takes 7 - 8 weeks for the books to arrive at our warehouse in Virginia, so we expect to have them around the end of July.  We have also provided pre-ordering for these books, but you won't be charged until they arrive and are ready to ship.

It's been a long time coming, but we are thrilled to finally have these beautiful editions available. I hope you'll pick up a copy as they are sure to be a great additon to any shelf.