9th Goodreads Choice Nominee!!

Our thanks go out to everyone who did a write-in for Age of Empyre for the Goodreads Choice Awards. Due to your efforts, I'm pleased to say we received our 5th nomination in a row and our 9th since 2010!

The full list of the semi-final round includes the following titles:

Here's a bit about each.

Title	Author	Shelved	# ratings	Rating
Age of Empyre	Michel J. Sullivan	15,086	3,857	4.42
Battle Ground	Jim Butcher	40,832	12,885	4.50
Black Sun	Rebecca Roanhorse	45,525	1,642	4.37
Bone Shard Daughter	Andrea Stewart	34,032	1,659	4.26
Burning God	R. F. Kuang	28,363	470	4.49
City We Became	N.K. Jemisin	114,394	19,278	4.03
Deadly Education	Naomi Novik	114,868	46,258	4.40
Empire of Gold	S.A. Chakraborty	46,295	10,630	4.54
Empress of Salt and Fortune	Nghi Vo	30,550	4,241	4.09
Girl and the Stars	Mark Lawrence	32,868	3,753	3.91
House of Earth and Blood	Sarah J. Maas	262,288	83,193	4.43
House of the Cerulean Sea	T.J. Klune	109,827	23,994	4.53
Invisible LIfe of Addie Larue	V.E. Schwab	240,642	26,363	4.10
Once and Future Witches	Alix E. Harrow	71,988	2,631	4.21
Piranesi	Susanna Clarke	84,017	12,198	4.38
Peace Talks	Jim Butcher	71,674	22,302	4.21
Rhythm of War	Brandon Sanderson	49,707	552	4.56
Smoke Bitten	Patricia Briggs	37,596	17,301	4.43
Trouble with Peace	Joe Abercrombie	13,558	4,099	4.69
Wintersteel	Will Wight	10,118	4,929	4.81

You can vote in the semifinal round here.

Goodreads Choice Award 2020

It's time to vote!  No, I'm not talking about the 2020 Presidential Election, we've already done our civic duty there. I'm talking about the Goodreads Choice Award!  I have two books eligible this year:

• Age of Death (Book #5 of Legends of the First Empire)
• Age of Empyre (Book #6 of Legends of the First Empire)

Neither made the first round, booo!  But due to my amazing fanbase, a number of my past titles have made it into the second round through the write-in process. Having two books eligible means that they might split the vote making neither one eligible, so if you are thinking of writing one in, please choose Age of Empyre as I think that will be the one that most people will be selecting (since it is the last in the series.  

But if you are going to try to help to get it to round #2, you have to hurry - today is the last day for voting! As always, you help would be greatly appreciated!

New Titles added to the Hurt Sale!

As some people may already know, we've been having a 50% off sale to get rid of stock that we received from the Ingram warehouses.  What is a "hurt book?"  It's a book that was shipped from the warehouse to a bookstore and then later returned to the warehouse.  These are 100% new books (no one has owned them before), so they (a) have no markings in them, (b) are not missing and pages, or (c) haven't been dog-eared.  But because they have "traveled a lot" (from the printer to the warehouse, from the warehouse to the bookstore chain's warehouse, from there to the individual stores, possibly back to the book chain's warehouse, and then back to Ingram where they normally live), they may have is some minor "wear and tear" on the exterior.  This could mean a scuffed dust jacket a banged corner, or some other minor imperfections.  

In some cases, these books are indistinguishable from books that have come right out of a printer's box, but they are declared as "hurts" because they go to the "returns" warehouse rather than the warehouse that ships out books that come directly out of a printer's box. 

Now, until just recently we DID NOT have any "hurts" for Age of Death or Age of Empyre because these are fairly new titles (one released in February of this year the other in June), but we did receive some of these now, and so the sale has been expanded to include all six titles.  This means you can now get an entire set of the series that has been SIGNED by me for just $84 rather than $168!

What if you already have some of the books?  No problem, you can buy just one or all six at just $14 apiece!  

I should also note that in addition to receiving Legends of the First Empire "hurts" we also received some of Grim Oak Press's anthologies. We have sold out of Unfettered and Unfettered II but we still have a few copies of Unbound (which includes a short story by me) and a fairly sizable number of Unfettered III.  Each is just $15. Here's a bit about those anthologies:

• Unbound: 501 pages •  Only 20 copies left • Signed by Michael J. Sullivan •  includes short stories by Michael J. Sullivan •  Terry Brooks •  Joe Abercrombie •  Jim Butcher •  Mark Lawrence  •  Brian McClellan • Anthony Ryan  •  Brian Staveley • Rachel Caine • Kristen Britain • Harry Connolly • Delilah Dawson •  David Anthony Durham • Jason M. Hough  • Mary Robinette Kowal • John Marco • Tim Marquitz • Seanan McGuire • Peter Orullian  •  Kat Richardson •  Shawn Speakman  • Sam Sykes • Mazarkis Williams
  
  
• Unfettered II: 651 pages •  Signed by Michael J. Sullivan (but he DOES NOT have a story in this anthology •  includes short stories by  Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson • Terry Brooks • Megan Lindholm (Robin Hobb) • Lev Grossman • Mark Lawrence • Naomi Novik • Tad Williams • Peter Orullian • Delilah S. Dawson • Jason Denzel • David Anthony Durham • John Gwynne • Brian Herbert & Kevin J. Anderson • Callie Bates • Todd Lockwood • Seanan McGuire • Cat Rambo • Robert V.S. Redick • Ken Scholes • Scott Sigler • Anna Smith Spark • Shawn Speakman • Anna Stephens • Patrick Swenson • Ramon Terrell • Marc Turner • Carrie Vaughn • Deborah A. Wolf

So far we have sold 427 copies (225 Legends books and 202 of the Anthologies), which have saved readers $6,000.  We still have a number of boxes left, so please help us clear these out and save yourself some money in the process.

Theft of Swords on Sale for $2.99

 

Well, my publisher didn't tell me about this, so I'm not sure how long the sale will last. But I stumbled over the fact that the ebook for Theft of Swords is on sale for just $2.99 (regularly $9.99). And because this book is actually an omnibus edition with two full-length novels, that means it's an even better deal (jus $1.50 per tale).

This is the first book in the Riyria Revelations which is a completed series of six novels sold through three volumes. The other two are Rise of Empire and Heir of Novron.  If you've recently read the Legends of the First Empire series, this would be a great time to dig into other books based in my world of Elan, and you'll be "in the know" and unfooled by a number of lies I tell about Elan's past in the pages of the Riyria stories.

This was my debut novel and the individual novels were released in 2008 (for the Crown Conspiracy) and 2009 (Avempartha).  The series is still a fan favorite with more than 45,660 4- and 5-star reviews on Goodreads and 1,384 ratings on Amazon.com.  Here is a bit about the book from the marketing copy on the back of the book:

They killed the king. They pinned it on two men. They chose poorly.

There's no ancient evil to defeat or orphan destined for greatness, just two guys in the wrong place at the wrong time. Royce Melborn, a skilled thief, and his mercenary partner, Hadrian Blackwater, are enterprising thieves who end up running for their lives when they're framed for the death of the king. Trapped in a conspiracy that goes beyond the overthrow of a tiny kingdom, their only hope is unraveling an ancient mystery before it's too late.

You can pick up your $2.99 copy from any of the links below:

Hurt Sale Update: 340 books sold $4,860 in savings

 

I want to thank everyone for taking part in the 50% off "hurt book" sale.  Our garage is really starting to clear out, and that's a welcome change.  We might even be able to get our car back in there soon! Here are some statistics for the books sold so far:

• 108 orders shipped
• 340 books sold
• $4,860 in savings to readers.

But we still have some books left (although we have sold out of Unfettered and have only one copy left of Unfettered II).  While the thought of burning books is abhorrent to me, it's better than dumping them into a landfill which is the only other alternative).   For those who don't know what a "hurt book is," they are new copies that weren't sold while in a bookstore and therefore returned to the warehouse.  Because warehousing books costs money, we had to get them "out of there" and the only place for them, for now, was our garage. 

Now some of these books are 100% pristine and others may have slightly bent corners or minor wear to the dust jackets. We, of course, are picking the best of the bunch when doing the shipping and at 50% off the cover price they are a great deal.

So if you are interested in quality hardcovers at deep discounts, please shop the sale and help me get access to my garage again. Any books not sold will have to be disposed of, and I'd rather not take that drastic measure. Hopefully, it won't come to that.

Now Available - Paperback for Age of Death

 

Although the official release date isn't until November 17th, we've received some copies of Age of Death in the mass market paperback format.  They are now available in our store, and like all copies bought directly by us, they will be signed. This edition follows the size and format of the titles released by Del Rey such that all the books are the same height and width.

This leaves just one title yet to be released in the smaller format (Age of Empyre) which is due to be released on March 9, 2021.  Once that last title is available, we'll make a boxset available similar to the boxset created by Orbit for The Riyria Revelations. The only difference, of course, is it will be the mass market paperback size (4.1" x 7.4" rather than the trade paperbacks which are 5.4" x 8.25")

Why the difference? Well, for books we publish, we match the size of the original publisher and Orbit chose to do their books as TRADE paperbacks and Del Rey did theirs as MASS MARKET paperbacks.

Virginia Early Voting

 

If you are like me and Robin, our "Voting Plan" was developed such that we don't have to physically show up to our polling place in November.  Long lines and possible exposure just made that seem like something to be avoided.  

So we voted absentee...but if you do that, make sure your vote has been received.  Most states have tracking information. For instance, in Virginia, you can check the status of your absentee ballot at this link.

Robin dropped her ballot off by hand when she had to do an errand "in town." But they wouldn't let her deposit mine, so she stuck it in the mailbox instead. 

Robin's got in a few days sooner:

But at least we know that both of them are safe and sound. We even put on our stickers, even though only each of us are the only ones seeing them ;-)