Audible's Most Anticipated Sci-Fi & Fantasy of Fall 2017

Audible has just released it's fall preview where it highlights their most anticipated releases that are coming soon. I'm proud that The Disappearnce of Winter's Daughter is one of their featured selections. Here's the full list.

Title	Author	Narrator	Series	Genre	Release Date
Artemis	Andy Weir	TBA	N/A	Contemporary Sci-Fi	11/14/17
Oathbringer	Brandon Sanderson	Kate Reading & Michael Kramer	Book 3: Stormlight Archives	Epic Fantasy	11/14/17
The Book of Dust	Phillip Pullman	Michael Sheen	Book 0: His Dark Materials	Epic Fantasy	10/19/17
A Plague of Giants	Kevin Hearne	TBA	Book 1: Seven Kennings	Epic Fantasy	10/17/17
The Salt Line	Holly Goddard Jones	Hillary Huber	N/A	Post Apocalyptic	09/05/17
The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter	Michael J. Sullivan	Tim Gerard Reynolds	Book 4: Riyria Chronicles	Epic Fantasy	12/05/17
Stolen Lives	Multiple	Multiple	Book 2: X-Files	Contemporary Sci-Fi	10/03/17
Year One	Nora Roberts	Julia Whelan	Book 1: Chronicles of the One	Epic Fantasy	12/05/17
Revenant Winds	Mitchell Hogan	Oliver Wyman	Book 1: Tainted Cabal	Epic Fantasy	09/05/17
Children of the Fleet	Orson Scott Card	Stefan Rudnicki	N/A	Military Sci-Fi	10/10/17
Paradox Bound	Peter Clines	Ray Porter	N/A	Horror	09/26/17
The Core	Peter V. Brett	Pete Bradbury	Book 5: Demon Cycle	Epic Fantasy	10/03/17
Black Frost	John Conroe	James Patrick Cronin	Book 4.5: Demon Accords	Dark Fantasy	08/29/17
Phasma	Deliah S. Dawson	January LaVoy	The Last Jedi	Star Wars Sci-Fi	09/01/17
Monster Hunter Files	Multiple	TBA	Anthology	Anthology	10/03/17
From a Certain Point of View	Multiple	TBA	Anthology	Star Wars Sci-Fi	10/03/17
The Storm	Nicholas Sansbury Smith	TBA	N/A	Military Sci-Fi	10/03/17
Legends of Luke Skywalker	Ken Liu	TBA	The Last Jedi	Star Wars Sci-Fi	10/31/17
Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker	Gregory Maguire	Steven Crossley	N/A	Contemporary Fantasy	10/31/17
Initiation	N.K. Jemisin & Mac Walters	TBA	Book 3: Mass Effect	Contemporary Sci-Fi	11/07/17
Second Hand Curses	Drew Hayes	TBA	N/A	Epic Fantasy	11/21/17
Titan: Fortune of War	David Mack	TBA	Star Trek	Star Trek Sci-Fi	11/28/17
Leia, Princess of Alderaan	Claudia Gray	Saskia Maarleveld	The Last Jedi	Star Wars Sci-Fi	09/01/17
Resurrected Soldiers	Joshua P. Simon	Steven Brand	Book 3: Tyrus Chronicle	Epic Fantasy	08/29/17
Betrayer's Bane	Michael G. Manning	Alex Wynham	Book 3: Embers of Illeniel	Epic Fantasy	08/29/17

Writer's Digest Goodreads Seminar

I'm a huge fan of goodreads. Not only do I love the site as a reader...but it has also been hugely instrumental in my writing career. In fact, I'd say that apart from my books, themselves, goodreads is the single biggest reason I've been able to make a full-time living from my favorite pastime.

But goodreads is intimidating to many authors, and it's easy to see why. It's massive and complex, and it's a site that if you approach in the wrong way can hurt your reputation with readers rather than help it.

Having been at the site since October 2008, I've learned a few things, and seen a lot of changes. I'm also fortunate to have a wife that knows goodreads inside and out, and has helped me build a brand on the site that goes far beyond my writing credentials. In other words, I have a much larger footprint on goodreads than my book sales reflect. In short, I'm a solid mid-list author, but on Goodreads I'm ranked #39 in the US and #45 globally. That puts me side-by-side with the likes of Stephen King, James Patterson, and Margaret Atwood.

How is this possible? Well, it's because of what I've learned and howI approach the site. And Robin and I are going to be sharing our secrets in a on-line workshop for Writer's Digest University.  Here are the specifics:

When: Thursday August 24th at 1:00 PM EST
Where: Writer's Digest University
How: It's an online seminar, which will be recored such that if you aren't available on Thursday at 1:00 you can watch it at your own leisure and re-watch it for the next year
Cost: Yes, there is a fee, but it's quite reasonable $79.99 for a 90 minute seminar so less than a dollar a minute.

So, if you're a writer and want to learn more about how to use goodreads to help find and audience join Robin and I. Not only will we be presenting, but there will be plenty of time for Q & A.  Hope to see you there.

Keystone Media Live Podcast - Take two.

Well, we had a family emergency so we missed the live podcast with Josh, Scott, and Ralph. But, they were good enough to reschedule for tomorrow (Monday) August 14th. Same time: 12:00 noon. Here is the link if you want to tune in.

This will be the first interview I do from the "The Valley" (where Robin and I living now). For a long time, we couldn't consider such a thing because the Internet was so slow, but Robin was able to get us high speed which has changed EVERYTHING!

Hope to have some people tune in then.

#1 Audiobook of July 28, 2017

Look what Robin stumbled over in the New York Times: Age of Swords is the #1 Best-selling audio book for the week of July 28th! Even though it's not THE New York Times Bestseller list, we'll take it!

Title	Author	Narrator	Genre	Release Date	Rating	# Ratings
Age of Swords	Michael J. Sullivan	Tim Gerard Reynolds	Fantasy	07/25/17	4.7	918
Ready Player One	Ernest Cline	Wil Wheaton	Sci-Fi	08/16/11	4.7	91,671
Replay	Ken Grimwood	William Dufris	Sci-Fi	12/05/08	4.3	2,833
Battlefront II: Inferno Squad	Christie Golden	Janina Gavankar	Sci-Fi	07/25/17	4.6	872
The Old Man	Thomas Perry	Peter Berkrot	Suspense	01/03/17	4.3	2,271
Dark Tower 1: The Gunslinger	Stephen King	George Guidall	Horror	01/01/16	4.3	13,195
Undercover	Danielle Steel	Alexander Cendese	Romance	09/01/15	4.2	1,059
A Game of Thrones	George R.R. Martin	Roy Dotrice	Fantasy	12/09/03	4.7	69,265
The Best Friend	Shalini Boland	Saskia Maarleveld	Thriller	01/03/17	4.0	675
Days Without End	Sebastian Barry	Aidan Kelly	Historical	01/24/17	4.2	373

Updated Best-selling Epic Fantasy Hardcovers of 2017

Recently I did a post which looked at the 15 Best-selling Epic Fantasy Hardcovers of 2017. This was 3 days prior to the release and I was pleased that Age of Swords came in at #6 and Age of War was showing up at a respectable 39. Now that we are 10 days post release, I thought I would look at the list again, and this time the results were even better.  Both lists were obtained the same way, by looking at Amazon and doing an advance search with the following criteria.

• Epic Fantasy Hardcovers
• Release date older than Jan 2017
• Sorted by best-selling

Once again, this is a momentary snapshot in time, and the same search will be much different many months from now but it was still fun to see the books performing nicely. Two books dropped off (Anthony Ryan's The Legion of Flame & Mark Lawrence's Red Sister) and the ones that came are are: The Book of Swords (an anthology) and ... wait for it... Age of War by some guy named Sullivan!

Title	Author	Series	Release Date
Oathbringer	Brandon Sanderson	Book 3:   Stormlight Archive	11/14/17
Beren and Lúthien	J.R.R. Tolkien	Middle-Earth Universe	06/01/17
Age of Swords	Michael J. Sullivan	Book 2: Legends of the First Empire	07/25/17
The Black Elfstone	Terry Brooks	Book 1: Fall of Shannara	06/13/17
Year One	Nora Roberts	Book 1: Chronicles of the One	12/05/17
Assassin's Price	L.E. Modesitt Jr.	Book 11: Imager Portfolio	07/25/17
The Book of Swords	Multiple Authors	N/A	10/10/17
Assassin's Fate	Robin Hobb	Book 3: Fitz and the Fool	05/09/17
Shroud of Eternity	Terry Goodkind	Book 1: Sister of Darkness	01/09/18
The Witchwood Crown	Tad Williams	Book 1: The Last King of Osten Ard	06/27/17
Edgedancer	Brandon Sanderson	Novella: Stormlight Archive	10/03/17
Besieged	Kevin Hearne	Short Stories: Iron Druid Chronicles	07/11/17
The Mystery Knight	George R.R. Martin	Graphic Novel	08/08/17
The Core	Peter V. Brett	Book 5: Demon Cycle	10/03/17
Age of War	Michael J. Sullivan	Book 3: Legends of the First Empire	04/17/18

Kinda cool to be swimming with the big fishes.

Amazon's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of August

I'm pleased to announce that Age of Swords hit another Editor's Pick List, this time from Amazon.

Here's the full list in case you want to check out some of the titles.

Title	Author	Series	Release Date
The Bedlam Stacks	Natasha Pulley	N/A	08/01/17
A Man of Shadows	Jeff Noon	Book 1: John Nyquist	08/01/17
Age of Swords	Michael J. Sullivan	Book 2: Legends of the First Empire	07/25/17
Secondborn	Amy A. Bartol	Book 1: Secondborn	07/11/17
The Punch Escrow	Tal M. Klein	N/A	07/25/17
The Fifth Doll	Charlie N. Holmberg	N/A	07/25/17
After On	Rob Reid	N/A	08/01/17
An Echo of Things to Come	James Islington	Book 2: Licanius Trilogy	08/22/17
The Five Daughters of the Moon	Leena Likitalo	Book 1: Waning Moon	07/25/17
Battlefront II: Inferno Squad	Christie Golden	Star Wars	07/25/17
Call of Fire	Beth Cato	Book 2: Breath of Earth	08/15/17
The Stone Sky	N.K. Jemisin	Book 3: Broken Earth	08/15/17

July's Highest-Rated Books on Audible

I'm pleased to announce that Age of Swords has hit Audible's Highest-Rated Books of July list.

If you're looking for some good audio to listen to while you're hanging out at the beach or by the pool you might want to check out some of these:

Title	Author	Narrator	Series	Release Date	Rating	# Ratings
Age of Swords	Michael J. Sullivan	Tim Gerard Reynolds	Book 2: Legends of the First Empire	07/25/17	4.8	443
Besieged	Kevin Hearne	Luke Daniels	Short Stories Iron Druid Chronicles	07/11/17	4.7	1,429
Hue 1968	Mark Bowden	Joe Barrett	N/A	07/11/17	4.6	81
Accidental Sire	Molly Harper	Amanda Ronconi	Book 6: Half-Moon Hollow	07/25/17	4.7	379
House of Spies	Daniel Silva	George Guidall	Book: 17 Gabriel Allon	07/11/17	4.7	784
Everything All At Once	Bill Nye	Bill Nye	N/A	07/11/17	4.6	59
A Beautiful, Terrible Thing	Jen Walte	Jen Walte	N/A	07/04/17	4.7	291
Trouble on Paradise	Craig Allison	R.C. Bray	Book 3.5 Expeditionary Force	07/04/17	4.7	2,017
Sufficiently Advanced Magic	Andrew Rowe	Nick Podehl	Book 1: Arcane Ascension	07/04/17	4.6	1,482
Battle Front II: Inferno Squad	Christie Golden	Janina Gavankar	Star Wars	07/25/17	4.6	513
The Light of Life	Edward W. Robertson	Tim Gerard Reynolds	Book 4: Cycle of Galand	07/11/17	4.8	1,312
Wired	Julie Garwood	Siskia Maarlevwled	Book 13: Nick Buchanan	07/04/17	4.3	428
The Late Show	Michael Connelly	Katherine Moennig	Book 1: Renée Ballard	07/18/17	4.4	1,293
Stillhouse Lake	Rachel Caine	Emily Sutton-Smith	N/A	07/01/17	4.5	1,242
Northanger Abbey	Jane Austen	Multiple	N/A	07/18/17	4.6	112
The Break Down	B.A. Paris	Georgia Maguire	N/A	07/18/17	4.2	460
Final Girls	Riley Sager	Erin Bennett	N/A	07/11/17	4.3	792
Hell Divers II: Ghosts	Nicholas  Sansbury Smith	R.C. Bray	Book 2: Hell Divers Trilogy	07/18/17	4.8	921

Livestreaming with Kestroke Medium on August 7th 12:00 noon (EDT)

Hey all, I'm going to be sitting down with authors Josh Hayes, Scott Moon, and Ralph Kern next Monday at 12:00 noon (11:00 central). If you want tune in and listen here is a link. This will be the first interview I do from the "The Valley" (where Robin and I living now. For a long time, we couldn't consider such a thing because the Internet was so slow, but Robin was able to get us high speed which has changed EVERYTHING!

Hope to have some people tune in then.

EDIT: We had a family emergency and as such we weren't able to make the KeyStroke Podcast. We've rescheduled and will be held on the 14th. Here's the link.