Another Top 10 Bestseller!

As reported by the New York Times, The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter hit the Top 10 Bestselling Audiobooks. To be honest, I didn't think we'd make it this time around as there were a number of highly anticipated releases to come out on the same day, but we snuck on in the 8th spot. Since the release of The Death of Dulgath in December 2015, we've had the following books hit that prestigious list:

• #9 - The Death of Dulgath week ending December 18, 2015
• #1 - Age of Swords week ending July 28, 2017
• #8 - The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter week ending December 8, 2017

That's three for four! Age of Myth was the only one not to hit the list, but seeing as how it was a finalist for Best Fantasy Audiobook of the year (for both AudioFile Magazine and Audible.com) we'll still consider it a success ;-). So checkout the top 10 books, many of which are fantasy or sci-fi so a good crop of listens for people who enjoy speculative fiction.

Title	Author	Narrator	Genre	Release Date	Rating	# Ratings
Artemis	Andy Weir	Rosario Dawson	Sci-fi	11/14/17	4.4	16,315
Year One	Nora Roberts	Julia Whelan	Fantasy	12/05/17	4.6	877
Jacob T. Marley	William Bennett	Simon Vance	Historical Fiction	05/30/13	4.7	1,065
The Force	Don Winslow	Dion Graham	Suspense	06/20/17	4.4	2,722
Persepolis Rising	James S. Corey	Jefferson Mays	Sci-fi	12/05/17	4.7	451
King's Dark Tidings	Kel Kade	Nick Podehl	Fantasy	12/05/17	4.6	1,470
Origin	Dan Brown	Paul Michael	Suspense	10/03/17	4.4	17,503
The Disapperance of Winter's Daughter	Michael J. Sullivan	Tim Gerard Reynolds	Fantasy	12/05/17	4.8	556
The Hate U Give	Angie Thomas	Bahni Turpin	Teen Fiction	02/28/17	4.8	7,856
Oathbringer	Brandon Sanderson	Kate Reading & Michael Kramer	Fantasy	11/14/17	4.9	6,541

Audible's Editor's Select: Best New Releases of December

2017 has been an exceptional year for audiobook releases, and as the year winds down Audible's editors picked their final batch of best-of titles.

I'm honored to have The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter make the cut. I think this is the first time one of my books has been an editor's choice (although several titles have been awarded Listener's Favorites and Age of Myth was a finalist for Best Book of the Year in 2016). Here's what the editor had to say about the book.

I'm so glad to hear that Michael felt it could be enjoyed as a standalone. That was certainly one of the goals of this book, and it's always good when a bar you set for yourself is cleared.

Audible 50% off Sitewide Sale

Hey all, there is a great sale going on at Audible right now: 50% everything.  Of particular note is a number of titles that are under $5 including:

• Astrophysics for People in a Hurry By: Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Wonder by: R. J. Palacio
• The Great Gatsby By: F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Cosmo by: Carl Sagan
• A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry by: Charles Dickens

I'm thrilled that my latest release, The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter is also featured in the sale as an Editor's Pick:

Winter's Daughter is a standalone that can be read without any prior knowledge of the Riyria Chronicles but thanks to the 50% off sale, you could grab the first three for half the price.  Gotta move fast, though. Sale ends on the 14th.  Happy listening no matter what you pick up!

Winter's Daughter - A great first day!

Yesterday The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter was officially released!  Release days are so exciting. You are hoping for good results. You are hoping for people to like the book. You are hoping you won't have to crawl into a hole afterward.

The book hit #7 overall, which is pretty good considering it shared release day with two power hitters (Nora Roberts made her debut into the fantasy world with her book Year One, and Kel Kade's King's Dark Tiding also launched).  In addition, to the sales from Audible.com, a number of people 604 to be exact, have pre-ordered print and ebook copies directly from me.  The distribution of ebooks, is, unfortunately, manual at this point and Robin, myself, and Sarah worked long into the night to get them all sent out.  So, if you pre-ordered, look in your email for your books.

But what's even better than all the the enthusiastic sales is that people seem to be enjoying the new release. Here's what has come in so far.

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 They're Baaack...! 

What about Tim Gerard Reynolds and Michael J. Sullivan ’s performance did you like?

Tim Gerard Reynolds should be in Audible's Narrator Hall of Fame. Michael J. Sullivan takes us on another epic adventure with my favorite duo. Delving ever deeper into Ryiras history gap MJS spins gold and TGR brings it to life! Oh how I hope MJS keeps writing these I've had it on pre order for the past 5 months!!

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 4th book in the series and still great! 

I worried that this type of series could feel flat after a few entries but found no need to worry! Great book! my only complaint is I wanted more!

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This is in addition to the accolades that have been coming in from the Kickstarters. It's still early, but I'm cautiously optimistic that people are enjoying the new adventure.

Release Day - The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter

Today The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter is officially released!  Yes, many people have already received the book as part of the Kickstarter, but it's not available to the public at large.  Leading up to the release, we've been in the top 100 Bestselling Audio books for the last four days and I have hopes of climbing even higher than it's current position of 75. Oh, and if you are new to Riyria, no worries this book is a standalone and no prior knowledge of Riyria is needed to enjoy this to the it's fullest.

For those who are looking online for the print and ebook, you won't find them. This is an "audio first" release so for the first six months it'll only be the audio version available for sale in the retailers. But if you just can't wait that long, no worries you can get copies directly from me. The ebooks are a manual process and we'll check for orders a few times a day, so if you don't receive your copy right away, you should within a few hours.  As for the printed versions...they are still on the press and are due to ship 12/08. Allowing for a few days of shipping, we should have copies by the 12th and we'll start shipping the pre-orders then.

For people who would like to read a sample chapter...you can find one here!

Sandwiched between Tolkien and Sanderson - not a bad place to be ;-)

The Disapperanace of Winter's Daughter will be released in audio (and ebook when bought directly from me)  in just 2 days!!  So I was curious to see how the pre-orders were doing and ventured over to Audible's Epic Fantasy page. To be honest, I didn't expect to see it within the Best Seller listings, but there it was nicely sandwiched between Tolkien's master works and a soon to be released Brandon Sanderson tale. I'll take that!

Seriously, thank you everyone for pre-ordering the book, and I hope you are as excite as I am about it's release. Robin and I were in New York in the middle of October for it's recording, and I gotta say, Tim has done another fabulous job. I can't wait until you can hear it as well.

Congratulations Jonathan Davis

Because the Riyria novels and the new series, Legends of the First Empire are my more popular works, you probably already know about my love for Tim Gerard Reynolds, the narrator of my fantasy books. Heck, I even dedicated Age of Sword to him!

But did you know I have another narrator that I've used? His name is Jonathan Davis and he lends his incredible voice to Hollow World. Jonathan was a perfect choice for this novel because I needed someone with a very "mid-western" sound to his voice and he did a fabulous job characterizing: Warren, Pax, and Ellis Rogers. Well Jonathan's amazing talent was just recognized by Audible when he was inducted into their Narrator Hall of Fame. Great work Jonathan!

If you are interested in classic science fiction in the vein of Heinlen, Asimov, and Wells, then you probably would like Hollow World.  It explores many themes among them: what it means to be human, what it takes to love, and the cost of paradise. I hope you'll check it, or other books narrated by Jonathan out.