New and Improved Store

Hey all, Robin, here. I wanted to let you know that I've made some long overdue changes to our online store. Here are some of the changes:

• Added The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter: Previously you could only order this title from a "special site," but now you can get copies directly from our store. Due to a non-compete clause this book (in ebook and print) won't be in the retail chins until June 2018, but if you buy direct from our store you can get your copies now!

• Added the mass market paperback edition of Age of Swords: Yesterday was the release of Age of Swords in mass market paperback format which means (a) the price on the ebook has dropped and (b) your can now order either hardcovers or paperbacks directly from us. And of course you can get them signed and/or dedicated if you wish.

• Grouped the books by series: Previously we grouped the page by the "type" of book: ebook, mass market paperback, trade paperback, hardcover, or limited edition hardcover. That made it easy for creating the page, but it wasn't always intuitive for ordering the books.  We have now broken the page by each series and the books in those series. You'll notice that some books don't have the ability to purchase an ebook, that's because they are traditionally published and the right to sell the digital copy is reserved to the publisher. We can always sell print books for any edition that is in print.

• Age of War pre-orders: Are not currently in the store, but we will have a "secret page" that you can preorder from once we get closer to release. If you want to be notified when that page goes live, here is a link to the signup page. Once the secret page goes live, we'll email you.

Speaking of "books in print," the hardcover editions of The Death of Dulgath are now officially sold out, and there's less than 100 copies of the trade paperback edition.  There won't be a reprint for the hardcover so once they're gone, they're gone. We do have some copies here, and are selling them on a first come first serve basis. We also are dangerously low on the LIMITED EDITION versions of that book as well, so I expect those to go out of print soon. As for the paperback, we won't be doing another printing, but we will offer the book through print on demand.  This will make it a tad more expensive and the book will be slightly taller than all the other Riyria trade paperbacks.  I know a lot of people like their books in a series to line up perfectly, so if you're one of those people, I'd suggest ordering a copy of those from either our site or your local retailer. 

I hope you'll check out the new store, and if you see something you like go ahead and order a copy. We are through the shipping rush that included a ton of pre-orders and the Kickstarter books, so shipping is going much more smoothly now. And please let me know if you have any problems. I did extensive testing, but that doesn't mean I didn't miss something somewhere.

Get Age of Myth for less than a fin

Audible is having a sale where they are taking every Daily Deal from 2017 and re-running those great prices. As such, you can get Age of Myth for less than $5! And there are plenty of other great books on sale as well. The Hobbit is less than $4!  Here are the fantasy books that I found for sale. Oh, and you have to hurry, Sale ends January 28, 2018 at 11:59 PM PT.

Here's a bit about each title:

Title	Author	# of Ratings	Rating	Sale Price
The Emperor's Soul	Brandon Sanderson	4,966	4.5	$1.95
The Left Hand of Darkness	Ursula  K. Le Guin	1,070	3.9	$3.95
Age of Myth	Michael J. Sullivan	8,084	4.6	$4.95
Dungeon Born	Dakota Krout	4,668	4.5	$3.95
The Hobbit	J.R.R. Tolkien	27,790	4.7	$3.95
Daughter of Dragons	Jack Campbell	2,472	4.6	$3.95
Nice Dragons Finish Last	Rachel Aaron	5,053	4.4	$4.95
Fated	Benedict Jacka	4,776	4.2	$3.95
Anansi Boys	Neil Gaiman	11.404	4.5	$3.95
The Hike	Drew Magary	3,001	4.3	$2.95

Most Anticipated Fantasy of the Season

Audible made their picks for most-anticipated upcoming releases in fantasy and I'm thrilled that Age of War made the list!

Here's a bit about each title:

Title	Author	Narrator	Release Date
Age of War	Michel J. Sullivan	Tim Gerard Reynolds	04/17/18
Scourged	Kevin Hearne	TBD	04/03/18
Burn Bright	Patricia Briggs	Holter Graham	03/06/18
Destiny of Dragons	Jack Campbell	MacLeod Andrews	01/16/18
Shroud of Eternity	Terry Goodkind	Christina Traister	01/09/18
Lake Silence	Anne Bishop	Alexandra Harris	03/06/18
Cast in Deception	Michelle Sagara	Khristine Hvam	01/23/18
The Blood Debt	Duncan M. Hamilton	Simon Vance	01/16/18
Lost Legio IX	Marc Alan Edelheit	Alex Hyde-White	01/09/18
Infernal Battalion	Django Wexler	Richard Poe	01/09/18
High Voltage	Karen Marie Moning	Amanda Leigh Cobb & Jim Frangione	03/06/18
The Destroyer	Michael-Scott Earle	Xe Sands & Kevin T. Collins	01/24/18
Penric's Fox	Lois McMaster Bujold	Grover Gardner	02/01/18
Grey Sister	Mark Lawrence	TBD	04/03/18
Redemptor	Seth Skorkowsky	R. C. Bray	01/30/18
Prophecy's Daughter	Richard Phillips	Caitlin Davies	01/09/18
Senlin Ascends	Josiah Bancroft	John Banks	01/16/18
The Prisoner of Limnos	Lois McMaster Bujold	TBD	03/06/18
Child of a Mad God	R. A. Salvatore	Tim Gerard Reynolds	02/06/18
The Armored Saint	Myke Cole	Michi Barall	02/20/18
A Glimmer of Hope	Steve McHugh	Elizabeth Knowelden	04/01/18

In case there was any doubt about my feelings toward Tim Gerard Reynolds

After so many years of singing the praises of Tim Gerard Reynolds (and dedicating one of my most recent books to him), I'm sure most people who know me are already aware that I'm in awe (and constant appreciation) for his talent.  So when Audible.com asked me to pick three books to highlight on their "Front Table," of course I was going to make Tim's narrations my unifying theme.

So, if you've only experience Tim's work through my books, maybe check out some of his other interpretations. I'm confident you'll be glad you did!

The Best of December: Audible's Listener Favorites

There certainly is a sense of pride when being an editor's pick, or hitting a Best-of or Most-anticipated list for a blog site. It shows that people "in the industry" appreciated your work and that you are putting out a quality product. But I must say that making one of the reader's favorites is even sweeter. After all, it's the readers who support the books, and it's the readers who will give a book it's wings (by telling all their friends and family that they MUST read it).

With that said, I'm thrilled that the recently released The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter, was a Listener Favorite for December.

Here are the other books that received this distinction:

And here's some further details about each one:

Title	Author	Narrator	# ratings	Rating
The Last Black Unicorn	Tiffany Haddish	Tiffany Haddish	5,654	4.8
Year One	Nora Roberts	Julia Whelan	2,487	4.6
Legends of Ahn	Kel Kade	Nick Podehl	2,937	4.6
Persepolis Rising	James S. A. Corey	Jefferson Mays	1,410	4.7
The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter	Michel J. Sullivan	Tim Gerard Reynolds	1,292	4.7
Killman Creek	Rachel Caine	Multiple	821	4.5
The Demon Crown	James Rollins	Christian Baskous	277	4.5
Canto Bight	Multiple	Multiple	428	4.3
Flame in the Dark	Faith Hunter	Khristine Hvam	700	4.8
Crusader One	Brian Andrews &  Jeffrey Wilson	Ray Porter	392	4.8
Natural Disaster	Ginger Zee	Ginger Zee	162	4.6
Convergence	Mark Tufo & John O'Brien	Sean Runnette	325	4.7
Roomies	Christina Lauren	K. C. Sheridan	261	4.4
Aveoth	Laurann Dohner	Savannah Richards	293	4.8
Far from the Tree	Robin Benway	Julia Whelan	130	4.6
Odysseus Awakening	Evan Currie	David deVries	217	4.5
Claiming Bailey	Susan Stoker	Erin Bennett	105	4.6
Sinful Empire	Meghan March	Grace Grant & Joe Arden	314	4.7
The V Card	Lili Valente & Lauren Blakely	Andi Arndt & Sebastian York	185	4.6
The Silver Music Box	Mina Baites	Jane Oppenheimer	46	4.3

Fantasy Book Critic - Ten Year Aniversary

Fantasy Book Critic has hit their 10-year anniversary. Oh how time flies! What started out as a hobby by Robert Thompson has become one of the biggest blogs for fantasy fans working tirelessly to introduce fantasy readers to great books by fantasy authors new and well-established. I've said many times that the early support of bloggers and Goodreads has been paramount in my career, and I'm thrilled that they posted a guest post by me to celebrate.  So far there are 5 posts in their anniversary celebration. Definitely worth checking them all out.

• Fantasy Book Critic Tenth Anniversary Announcement + Guest Blog by Michael J. Sullivan

• FBC's Tenth Anniversary Celebration Day 2 + Guest Blog by Rachel Aaron

• Fantasy Book Critic Tenth Anniversary Day 3 + Guest Post by Mark Lawrence & Jon Sprunk

• Fantasy Book Critic Tenth Anniversary Day 4 + Guest Posts by Teresa Frohock, Blake Charlton, Kate Elliot, & P. J. Hoover

• Fantasy Book Critic Tenth Anniversary Day 5 + Worldwide Giveaway

Of particular note is the last link in the celebration. There are 32 books (including one of mine) in the list being given away.  To enter, please send an email to "fbcgiveaway@gmail.com" with your Name, Mailing Address, and the subject: FBC 10. Giveaway will end on 1/5/18 and is open to participants WORLDWIDE! 

An Update on pre-order shipping of The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter

Hey all, Robin here. For those that don't know I'm Michael's wife and the "go to woman" for shipping Michael's books.  I'm getting swamped with emails about shipment of pre-ordered copies of The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter, so I thought I would take over Michael's blog and post and provide an update.

First, the easy things.  ebooks and audio versions went live on December 5th. You can get your audio version exclusively from Audible.com. Due to a non-compete clause in Michael's Del Rey contract you CANNOT get the audio book (or physical copies) in the retail chain...yet.  The books WILL be in retail sometime in June 2018.  Now, for those who don't want to wait that long, you can order the book directly from us and we have several formats for you to purchase: ebook, trade paperback, hardcover, and limited editions. I should also note that if you buy an ebook, it's not an automated process, and I email them a few times a day so you should get your copy within 24 hours of purchase.

Now some updates on shipping of the physical books. As some may know, we held a Kickstarter for this project to make hardcover editions possible (in three formats: rare, limited, and regular). It was a huge success (2nd most-backed and 4th highest funded fiction project of all time). The plan was to use a fulfillment house to process those Kickstarter orders (as well as any pre-orders that were "signed only').

Here's how that was supposed to work. When the books came off the press they would be shipped to a fulfillment house. While they were traveling, Michael and I would simultaneously be driving there and we'd "meet the books" where he would sign them, I'd add a bookmark, and the employees of the fulfillment house would ship them. Since all of the Kickstarter orders (and a large % of the pre-orders) were signed only this would take care of the bulk of the orders and all we would have to worry about was orders that had t-shirts, and books that needed to be dedicated.

Okay, so the books came off the press on December 7th, so I called the fulfillment house to make sure they were on the look out for them. That's when we got the bad news that they had some big orders come in and they are completely booked until the middle of January!  That wasn't going to work as I knew many people made their orders for Christmas gifts.  So time to think fast.

I arranged for the printer to ship the books directly to us in Virginia (yes, all 13,600 pounds of them), and I rented a storage locker.  We'd just have to ship them ourselves...and with the help of our daughter Sarah who has been helping me with some of the business stuff (and shipping) for some time.

After some trials and tribulations that I'll save for another day. The books arrived on the coldest night of the year in the dark of night (Tuesday December 12).  By midnight all the books had been moved out of the parking lot (where the delivery truck dropped them) to either the storage locker or the garage and there very cold and very tired people went to bed.

Signing table

Sarah and I started unboxing and stacking books on the dinning room table and when Michael got up he started signing...more than 1,700 copies!  Sarah and I organized and started the shipping. Now, I have to confess that we concentrated on the Kickstarter orders because after all those people's pledges made the printing possible in the first place. Our goal was to get all the Kickstarter orders done by Monday morning...and we almost made it. All the book orders went out but we still had a bunch of orders that involved both books and t-shirts. By this time Sarah was really showing signs of wear...with good reason. She generally stayed up until around 2:00 am packaging books and when I woke up around 6:00 am we'd start into it again. She fully expected to drop off all the orders on Monday and then be able to go back to her house in Fairfax.  The fact that we still around 300 orders to process after Sunday night was heart-breaking.

Still, Sarah was a trooper and by late afternoon Tuesday the 19th. All the Kickstarter orders were on their way and it looked like a good 95% of them would receive them by Christmas.  I didn't have the heart to tell Sarah that there were still another 233 pre-orders to go.  So, I had Michael drive her home Tuesday afternoon with the plan that I would finish up.

Garage turned into a shipping station

I spent most of the day on Wednesday organizing the orders and getting out critical packages for people who had written me that they needed their pre-orders by Christmas. And given that it is now Thursday...it is Thursday right--everything since last Tuesday night has been a blur. I'm going to cut off the "one-off" I must have it now orders since I can't get them out by Christmas anyway. This will allow me to do a more efficient shipping process - because those on-offs throw a wrench into everything.

So, with a last push I SHOULD be able to get the remaining 150 orders out today and Friday. Please don't email asking where your order is.  It takes time away from shipping. Just know that I'm working as hard as a broken-down 56-year-old woman can and getting the orders to you are my #1 priority.

Okay, I've already taken enough time away from shipping to write this post. Time to get back at it. Thanks all for your understanding. We are trying to get the books to you just as soon as we can.