Final Day!

It's been a fun 17 days but we are down to our last few hours on the Age of Empyre Kickstarter (will end today at 7:00 EDT).  While several days shorter than the others, it has been the most successful to date. Some details:

• More than 3,500 backers
• More than $132,000 raised
• 3rd most-backed and 4th most-funded fiction Kickstarter of all time
• Fully funded in just 48 minutes
• 3 stretch goals met

People who pre-order through the Kickstarter will receive the following:

• Receive the ebook in March rather than May
• Signed (and discounted) hardcovers
• Name added to the acknowledgments (in print and ebook)
• DRM-free ebooks for multi-device reading
• Screensavers of Marc Simonetti's Artwork
• Matching signed bookmark for all physical orders
• Discounted overseas shipping
• 12 bonus short stories
• A behind-the-scenes ebook about the series as a whole
• Add-on tote bag (2 different designs: Montemorcey and Sullifan Crest

If you miss the Kickstarter, there will be a "back door" to be added, but that may mean you'll miss the window for certain rewards.  The good news is if you back the project in the next 9 hours and 30 minutes you'll get all the perks!

Non-US Book Sale

As most of you are probably already aware of, we are currently running a Kickstarter for the print edition of Age of Emypre (the last book in the Legends of the First Empire series). It's been doing really well (fully funded in just 48 minutes and currently the 3rd most-backed and 7th most-funded Fiction Kickstarter of all time). It is poised to surpass my previous all-time-best Kickstarter if it can raise just $69 in the next four days. If you are interested in learning more, you can click the following button: Visit the Kickstarter But my reason for today's post isn't about the Kickstarter (except tangentially). One of the benefits of doing a project through crowdfunding is we'll have a large number of orders all at once. This allows us to ship pallets of books to fulfillment partners in Canada and the UK and have them handle the local shipping. Doing this is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than mailing books through the USPS, and we want to pass on those savings to the readers. Having a sale for non-US customers means we'll be able to get signed physical copies to parts of the world that we can't do when orders come in in dribs and drabs. Not only will readers save 10% - 50% off the book's cover price, but the shipping can be as little as $7 (for one book) and $16 for five books (in most countries). Of course, the shipping for your part of the world will vary based on the weight of the package and where it's going, but we can calculate a price for you before you decide. We hope you'll take advantage of this opportunity if you are outside the US and have been wanting to receive signed copies. Full details may be found by clicking the button below.

Shop the Sale

Age of Death Bestseller List

I'm thrilled to find that Age of Death made the Top 10 Bestselling US Audiobook list for the week of February 7th.  And what's even nicer is it's the only fantasy title to do so. Thanks to all my audio readers who pre-ordered or bought the book in the first week!

Age of Empyre's Kickstarter clears six-figures

Well, it's official. The latest Kickstarter joins the group of 7 fiction projects that raised more than $100,000. And it did so in just 6 days!

When it comes to book-related projects, Age of Empyre broke that barrier faster than all the others .

• 6 days - Age of Empyre
• 10 days - Change is Good
• 15 days - Age of Death
• 19 days - Frozen Hell
• 20 days - Age of Legend

We still have 10 days to go. Will it surpass my other Kickstarters?  We'll see! We've now hit the first stretch goal so everyone who backs the project will receive 12 of my short stories.  Plus the next stretch goal has been set.

Age of Empyre's Fresh and Taking Off!

I'm not sure if this happened for any of my other Kickstarters, but I was thrilled to learn that the latest project is being featured in Kickstarter's Fresh Favorites area.

It's also in the Taking off Section. My thanks go to Superbacker Sylvia for letting me know about the project being featured.

We aren't even at the 48-hour mark and a number of other milestones have been reached:

• Picked as a "Project we Love" by the Kickstarter staff
• Surpassed two of my other projects in both total money raised and number of backers
• Currently #5 most-backed Fiction Kickstarters of all time
• Currently #8 most-funded Fiction Kickstarters of all time
• More than $84,000 raised from more than 2,300 backers 

Now, this Kickstarter is much shorter than some of my others (we are already at the 2-week until it's over milestone), but it just might be our biggest Kickstarter to date...something I didn't think would be possible with such a short run.

Oh well, time will tell, and even if it doesn't reach that goal, we've already achieved a great deal together. So thank you for your support, and please help to spread the word.

King for a Day

Ya gotta love book release days. A combination of pre-order sales and people jumping in on day one can really propel an author's visibility. My release of Age of Legend moved me from #81 to #14 in the "Most Popular Authors in Fantasy Books" list on Amazon. Yesterday's launch of Age of Death took me higher (from 46 to 11).  But the best thing seeing my name alongside Tolkien's. He not only gave me a love of reading but made me want to write as well.

The inevitable decline has already started (slipped down to #13), but it was fun to bask in the sunshine, even for that brief moment.

Tomorrow will be a very "Big Day"

Tomorrow is February 4th, and that will be a very big day in the Sullivan household. Why? Well, first off it's the official retail release day for Age of Death, the 5th (and next to last) book in the Legends of the First Empire series.

This means anyone who has pre-ordered the ebook or the audio version will have the files magically appear on their phones, Kindles, Nooks, Kobo readers, and in their iBooks libraries. As for the print copies, there was a small kerfluffle related to the dust jackets, and that meant the release date for the hardcover was pushed back by a week. By now I'm sure the books have been moving from warehouse to warehouse and from warehouse to stores, so if you don't see them on the shelves now, you will be soon.

Now in some ways, the availability of Age of Death is "old news" because thousands of people (more than 3,700) have been reading the book since October of last year (because they pre-ordered directly from my store or participated in the Kickstarter). Still, if past performance can be counted on, thousands more will start getting their hands on the book starting tomorrow, and that's pretty exciting!

That alone would be enough to make tomorrow a "big day" but that's not the only happening we have going on.  You see, we will also be launching the Kickstarter for Age of Empyre, the LAST book in the series. You can check out a preview of the project is now available from this link, and it will magically morph into a live project tomorrow at noon (EDT). 

People who pre-order this book through the Kickstarter will benefit from the following:

• 20% off for a limited number of early-bird backers
• Receive the story in March rather than waiting until May.
• Receive signed hardcovers and matching signed bookmarks.
• Have their names included in the book (both print and ebook).
• Receive discounts on all hardcovers purchased.
• Receive deeply discounted shipping for overseas orders.
• Will ensure a much higher % of your hard-earned cash goes to the story creator rather than middlemen.
• Provide job-security for rural Virginians who will be doing the shipping

I can't tell you how exciting it is to be close to having this series out to you all. For the past 7 years, only Robin and I knew the full tale, but now everyone can see how it all plays out. We are thrilled that you all will know what we do, and at last, we can start talking to people about the series without walking on eggshells so we wouldn't give something important away.