Tuesday, April 25, 2017

The big 1,000,000!



One of the nice (and terrible) things about writing is the fact that there is always a new goal to reach, a new milestone that lies just out of reach. It keeps me striving for that next level and each time one is achieved it acts as a benchmark of success to bolster my spirits on the bad days when a harsh review or frustrating day's writing can make me doubt whether I should be doing "this gig" at all.

One of the goals I've had for a long, long time was to hit that allusive 1,000,000 copies sold benchmark. Technically speaking, I've been what most would consider a "best-seller" for a long time now, but for me it's that seven digit number that has always been the mark where I felt I could say legitimately use that title.

Yesterday, Robin tallied the numbers and according to her estimates I've sold 1,032,220 books. There are many ways to count so let me be specific about what this means:

  • This ONLY includes full-length English-language novels sold, it doesn't include sales for any of the anthologies I'm in or the short stories I've written.
  • This DOES NOT include any of my foreign language sales (because we just don't have good data from those sources).
  • THIS DOES NOT include any "freebies" so, for instance when I give away an ebook to a purchaser of a print or audio copy I'm counting only 1 sale.
  • THIS DOES include all major formats of my book: hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audio.
  • THIS DOES include my self-publishing sales as well as books sold by Hachette, Penguin Random House, Tachyon, Recored Books and Audible Studios.

So, thank you everyone for making yet another dream come true. Your support is most appreciated and just so you know I'm nearing the conclusion of The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter and the release date remains at December 5th with a recoding date of October 16th.  And of course it's exactly three months until the release of Age of Swords!

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Two Legends of the First Empire Giveaways


Hey all, tax day is over, July is on it's way, and I feel the excitement growing for the Age of Swords release. So let's giveaway some books, shall we?


Robin just launched two Goodreads Giveaways (and opened them up to people from all countries). You can find them here:


Even if you've already read the first book, go ahead and enter (you can always give a copy to a friend).  For those that are champing at the bit to read Age of Swords, the ARC will get into the winner's hands three months before the release date!

Oh, and I should mention that if you've already pre-ordered Age of Swords, there are a bunch of goodies you can get.  What kind of stuff?  Well, things like:

  • First 5 chapters of Age of Swords to read early
  • Online high-resolution map for the series
  • Screen savers featuring Marc Simonetti's Artwork for Age of Myth 
  • Online (searchable) Age of Myth glossary
  • Online (searchable) Age of Swords glossary
  • Recap of Age of Myth to refresh your memory
  • Bonus ebook: Inside Age of Myth - a behind the scenes look at Legends of the First Empire
  • Bonus ebook: Making of Age of Swords
  • Bonus Legends short story: Little Wren and the Big Forest
  • Bonus Riyria short story: Professional Integrity

To get the freebies, it doesn't matter where you buy the books from or what format they are in (ebook, hardcover, and audio are all eligible).  Just email me a copy of your receipt (please have Age of Sword Pre-order as the subject line so I can see them easily, and we'll get the bonus stuff to you. 

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Amazon's First ARC Review of Age of Swords


I'm starting to see ARC's (Advanced Reading Copies) in the wild (sent from Del Rey). John Scalzi had a whole stack of early copies and Age of Swords was in it, and I know Amazon Vine reviewers are getting their copies as the first review has come in.

The review starts with:
Wow! And I thought Book One was good. I just turned the last page on this second book of the “Legends of the First Empire” series and feel blown away! It’s the best feeling I’ve had when finishing an epic fantasy novel in quite some time.

And ends thusly:
The ending of this book was emotional and extremely satisfying and certainly sets a high mark for the following novels in the series still to come. Highest recommendation! 

I know that by posting I'm almost guaranteeing the fickle finger of fate will make the second review a bad one, but I couldn't contain my excitement. So far only the beta readers, my agent, my publisher, and my editors have seen the book that I wrote in 2013, so as you might imagine, I'm anxious to see what people think.

Very excited! July will be here before we know it.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Audible's 5-star favorites for March 2016

It's always great to find an amazing audio book, and even better when Audible.com chooses one of my titles to feature in their "5-star favorites for Sci-fi and Fantasy" I've been so busy that I didn't have a chance to post about the earlier. If you are looking for a good audio listen, You might want to try one of these:



Title
Author
Narrator
Book #
Release Date
 Rating 
# Ratings
1
08/06/13
4.70 
7,438
N/A
03/28/08
4.10
2,847
1
09/02/14
4.30
4,313
  Carol Berg    
1
08/05/14
4.40
172
1
03/09/10
4.20
571
1
01/28/14
4.40
5,152
N/A
10/11/06
4.40
5,452
N/A
06/15/12
4.10
640
1
09/28/10
4.10
1,330
2
08/07/12
4.50
1,251