Amazon Discounts Two “Game of Thrones” Graphic Novels!


The Hedge Knight - a Game of Thrones Graphic Novel       The Sworn Sword - a Game of Thrones graphic novel by George R R Martin


Amazon’s got a special discount for people who love “Game of Thrones”. They’re discounting two massive “Game of Thrones” graphic novels to just $2.99. The novels offer a new story written by George R. R. Martin, a “prequel” that’s set 100 years before the events in the popular series.

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“The Hedge Knight” involves a squire who rides into a jousting tournament seeking respect, according to Publisher’s Weekly, and discovers chivalrous heroes who “turn out to be simultaneously smaller and larger than he imagined.” Everyone “is more complicated than they seem,” according to the magazine, and an Amazon customer described this 184-page graphic novel as “an excellent display of chivalry and character… How the virtues of knighthood, of protecting the innocent and poor, combat with the corruption that grows among the nobility who make up this same order.”

And “The Sworn Sword” — the second graphic novel — also tells another new story with the same inspiring characters. This time they’re off on a journey to find a puppeteer named Tanselle — and also avoiding the schemes of a local nobleman, “while a darker, greater thread threatens to unravel long-held truths of the Battle of Redgrass Field…” The co-author of this series, Ben Avery, was personally selected by George R. R. Martin, and he delivers 178 pages with the same familiar and delightful depth. “In classic George R.R. Martin fashion, heroes and villains are never clear-cut,” reads the book’s description at Amazon, “and political alliances threaten to slice the deepest.”

I’m excited because there’s already been a TV adaptation of the popular series of books by George R. R. Martin. HBO premiered its 5th season this week, and promptly set a new record for traffic to their new HBO Now app. But it seems like graphic novels are the perfect “middle ground”, bringing text and images together to bring the magical knightly tale to life.

“The artwork is beatiful and true to story,” wrote another reviewer on Amazon, “and I didn’t feel that anything was left out…”


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tinyurl.com/GameOfThronesComic

Amazon Launches Special “Summer Reading” Page

Tony Stark, the Invincible Iron Man Marvel comic book cover

This is fun. Amazon’s created a special web page for “Summer Reading”, offering suggestions for over a thousand different books (and Kindle ebooks). Memorial Day was the “unofficial” first day of summer in the U.S. — a three-day weekend where the weather was finally nice. And if you’re looking forward to more fun times — whether it’s vacations, holidays, or just weekends in the sun — it’s nice to know that Amazon’s assembled a nice collection of Kindle ebooks to read!

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They’ve created categories like Beach Reads, Summer Blockbusters, and even Editor’s Picks for Summer Reading. (Plus special summer picks for teenagers, and for children.) Further down the page, Amazon’s also classified their summer reading choices by category, so you can browse for a particular kind of book. There’s fiction and literature, romance, science fiction and fantasy, and mystery/thriller/suspense books — plus books about entertainment, history, and of course, travel. There’s a category for “outdoors” books and books about sports, plus memoirs and biographies, books about business, and even some comic books. For example, Marvel’s famous “Wolverine” graphic novel by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller is available for any Kindle for just $5.94…

So what else is Amazon recommending as a summer read?


Guilty Wives – Free Preview: The First 23 Chapters
By James Patterson and David Ellis

That’s right, it’s free — 23 whole chapters from James Patterson’s 2012 novel Guilty Wives. (“No husbands allowed,” reads Amazon’s description of the book, as four friends embark on a luxurious vacation in Monte Carlo, leading inevitably to a complicated mystery around the question — what exactly happened last night?) Guilt Wives “is the ultimate indulgence,” Amazon writes, “the kind of nonstop joy-ride of excess, friendship, betrayal, and danger that only James Patterson can create.” The complete ebook is only $4.99 — but why not try the first 23 chapters for free?


Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls
By David Sedaris

Amazon named this collection of humorous essays as one of the best books of the month when it was released in April, gushing that Sedaris has “taken the snarky, sometimes crude, often hilarious, ultimately thought-provoking personal essay to the level of mastery.” You may remember Sedaris as the author of The SantaLand Diaries, or his other essay collections (which became New York Times best-sellers.) His collections of essays all have strange and ironic titles — like Me Talk Pretty One Day or When You Are Engulfed in Flames — and this book continues the tradition. “If you are a David Sedaris fan, any new book from the humorist is cause for celebration…” wrote USA Today, calling his newest book “quintessential Sedaris….There’s always a laugh-out-loud moment just around the corner!”


Invincible Iron Man
By Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca

For just $3.99, Amazon will deliver a 184-page collection of Iron Man comic books to any Kindle. (And you can even read the pages in color on your Kindle Fire tablet, or by using one of Amazon’s Kindle smartphone apps.) It’s a nice companion to Marvel’s summer blockbuster about billionaire Tony Stark and his flying suit of armor, and in print, this edition would cost $19.99. It collects seven full issues of the Invincible Iron Man comic book, and Amazon’s actually offering big discounts on seven different Iron Man collections!


A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five
By George R.R. Martin

I’ve actually read some of George R. R. Martin’s books, and they’re popular for a reason — they’re very well-written! They’ve also become a literary phenomenon, making Martin one of the first authors to sell over 1 million ebooks in the Kindle Store — and of course, Game of Thrones has now become a popular series on HBO. Amazon’s suggesting the books as the perfect summer read — and they’re a lot of fun, set in a medieval fantasy world with both royal political intrigue and the occasional dragon and ghost. Caution: the books are real page-turners, and once you start reading one of them, you’re very likely to continue on to read the rest of the series.

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Explaining the Popularity of George R. R. Martin

George R R Martin - Game of Thrones book cover

There’s a special place in Kindle History for George R. R. Martin. In 2011, the author of the Game of Thrones series became only the 11th author to sell over one million ebooks in Amazon’s Kindle Store. “Groucho Marx once said, ‘I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member,'” he joked when he heard the news, “but even Groucho might have made an exception for the Kindle Million Club.” And then he thanked his editor, his publisher, “and most of all, my readers.”

In fact, the print edition of A Dance with Dragons was Amazon’s fifth best-selling book for 2011. (Before it was even released it was already one of Amazon’s top 100 best-selling ebooks, just from pre-order sales.) At the end of the year, Time magazine even put Martin on their list of the 100 most influential people in the world. And this December, Martin will release yet another book based on his popular Game of Thrones series — this one titled “The Wit and Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister.”

I’ve been trying to explain just how intensely fans feel about George R. R. Martin — and I came across a fascinating statistic that Barnes and Noble shared with The Wall Street Journal last summer. Most people who started reading the ebook version of A Dance with Dragons (on a Nook) actually finished the book, spending an average of 20 hours reading the 1,040-page novel. “An elaborate series like this is great on Kindle,” Amazon’s vice president for Kindle content noted when Martin crossed sold his one millionth ebook in the Kindle Store, “because you can turn the last page of book three at 10:30 at night, then buy book four, and be on its first page at 10:31!

And some of my readers seem to be doing exactly that. (One proudly told me that the first book they’d ever bought on their Kindle was Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice, which is book one in the Game of Thrones series, and “Since then, I’ve bought the rest too!”) But the best testimonial I’ve seen actually came from my girlfriend, who wrote an enthusiastic explanation of just how easy it is to get hooked on George R. R. Martin’s series — especially if you own a Kindle! I wanted to publish it below, as either a book recommendation — or maybe a warning!

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Recently my cable company opened up On-Demand to show Game of Thrones to hook people so they would then pony up the money for HBO. I happened to be really sick that week and I watched two seasons of Game of Thrones in three days. Awesome! Engrossing! Fascinating characters, snappy dialog, plots thick with intrigue! Damn you, cable company, I got HOOKED!

I posted on Facebook, hoping to find someone with HBO who was also hooked so I could invite myself over to watch every week. I planned on offering my brownies as bribes (I’ll bring delicious brownies if you let me come watch…). But alas, no response. Did I cave? NO.

Because, I READ. Yes, folks, before there was the HBO series, there were books, by the same author, with the same story line and the same characters. Imagine that! I was jonesing to find out what happened to Tyrion and Arya and Dany, so I pulled out my Kindle and, just like the ads on TV, had the book in my hand in 30 seconds. Oh joy!

I started with the third book (A Storm of Swords), which picked up where the second season left off and started racing through the chapters. The third book in the series introduces a few new characters, but is set mainly in the same places as the first two seasons, so I easily picked up the narrative thread and devoured the book. Still recovering from the illness, I dragged myself home from work, crawled into bed, and went off to Westeros.

From my recent Advanced Writing Workshop (shout out to Linda Watanabe McFerrin), I admired the way each chapter is it’s own short story, with an intriguing start (“The invitation seemed innocent enough, but every time Sansa read it her tummy tightened into a knot.” “He woke to the creak of old iron hinges.”) and bang-up finish. Then you jump to another character in another corner of the universe and the first line is so intriguing you get sucked in again. Great writing, great technique. Very hard to put down.

I must say, however, that I’m glad I started with the HBO series. There are a LOT of characters and having seen actors in the roles, it made it a lot easier to keep them straight. I finished the Storm of Swords in a week (I read freakishly fast. According to the Kindle, it’s print length is 1216 pages.) No problem! Back to the Kindle store and in another 30 seconds, A Feast for Crows is available for my reading pleasure.

I jumped in eagerly, but started getting bogged down. This book introduced a lot of new characters, and by introduced, I mean described them, explained where they were from and the entire history surrounding their tiny part of the world, sometimes going back centuries. And religions! Fire (“the night is dark and full of terrors”), Water (the drowned men), the Old Gods (trees), the New Gods (The Seven), then the holy place where Arya finds herself where all gods are One. Some of my favorite characters became minor actors while these new characters took center stage. We followed Brienne, the Maid of Tarth on her ill-fated search for Sansa Stark, which was by-and-large pretty boring. George (R. R. Martin) is really, really into details in this book. Or maybe it’s just the slew of new characters. The plot stops at the 91% mark, and the remaining 9% is list upon list of characters, separated by House, with info about the houses thoughtfully provided. Still, I slogged through and followed the plot lines, hoping that more Tyrion and Arya and Dany would appear. But no, just a lot of Brienne, Jon at the Wall, Bran being carried by Hordor, and Jamie Lannister, whose golden luster is wearing off.

Wanting to find out What Happens Next, I went back to the Kindle store and got A Dance with Dragons, thinking that Dany would finally get to riding her dragons, and THEN, boy, some interesting stuff was going to pop! But alas, a lot of this book was also full of boring details, and I found myself paging quickly through most of the book without reading. A whole NEW set of characters, three slaver cities, all with people and history, a long sea voyage for Tyrion (boring despite the storms), and Dany going about the boring task of ruling, when she should be out riding dragons. I sped through the book, skimming to get the gist of the plot line, and was disappointed that nothing was resolved at the end.

A trip to Google assured me that the sixth novel in the series will be out this summer. I’m hoping that there’s a lot fewer new characters (we have enough history already), a lot fewer descriptions of traveling (boring) and a lot more plot (pretty please). George has promised two battles, one North by the Wall and one South in the slaver cities.

Even with the overload, I’m anxious to find out what happens. These are really fascination books, well written and take me to a place I’ve never been. I feel the cold at the wall. I feel dirty and cold when the characters ride through the rain.

But what I really want for Dany to take her dragons to the Wall and waste all the Others with their fire. Alas, it looks like that is going to be a good 2,500 pages away.

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To browse Amazon’s collection of George R. R. Martin ebooks,
click here

A New Million-Selling Author!

George R R Martin - Game of Thrones book cover

Time magazine put him on their list of the 100 most influential people in the world. But yesterday, author George R. R. Martin joined an even more exclusive club. He became one of just 11 authors who’ve sold more than one million ebooks in Amazon’s Kindle store!

“Groucho Marx once said, ‘I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member,'” Martin joked when he heard the news, “but even Groucho might have made an exception for the Kindle Million Club.” In a press release from Amazon, Martin acknowledged that “It’s a real thrill to be inducted into this one. There are no dues, no meetings, and I’ll be in some wonderful and exclusive company.” He thanked his editors, his publishers, and Amazon.com, “and most of all, my readers.

“I owe this to everyone who ever read one of my books and recommended it to a friend. Thanks… and keep reading.”

Like many of the Kindle’s other 10 best-selling authors, Martin has written a series of popular books — the “Song of Fire and Ice” series. And the sales for that series are still going strong. (Amazon reported that “A Dance with Dragons,” the series’ fifth book, debuted at #2 on the Kindle best-seller list when it was released in July — and counting its pre-order sales, it’s already racked up more than 100 days in the top 50!) “An elaborate series like this is great on Kindle,” announced Amazon’s vice president for Kindle content, “because you can turn the last page of book three at 10:30 at night, then buy book four, and be on its first page at 10:31!”

It’s a big milestone when an author sells their millionth ebook, but if it feels like happening more often — you’re right. 14 months, only one author had ever sold one million ebooks — Stieg Larssen — but since then Amazon’s presumably sold a lot more Kindles. My guess is that popular authors are finding that their ebook sales are increasing at a faster rate in Amazon’s Kindle store. Here’s a list of the other 10 authors — along with the month when they joined Amazon’s “Kindle Million” club.

10. Kathryn Stockett (August)
 9. Suzanne Collins (June)
 8. Janet Evanovich (August)
 7. John Locke (June)
 6. Michael Connelly (June)
 5. Lee Child (June)
 4. Charlaine Harris (May)
 3. Nora Roberts (January)
 2. James Patterson (October of 2010)
 1. Stieg Larsson (July of 2010)

I tried to dream up a good way to visualize the progression — and I came up with the two grids below. Imagine twelve squares on a calendar (where each square represents a year). Every time there’s a new million-selling author, I put their number in the middle of that month. (Steig Larssen, the first million-selling author, is represented by a big, black 1.) Following that pattern, here’s how the last six months of 2010 would look.


Just two authors joined the Kindle million-sellers club in the last six months of 2010. But then here’s the first nine months of 2011.

At this rate, there’ll be 20 million-selling authors by next spring!

But I have to admit that I have a special affection for this story – and for a strange reason. Just last month, I included a picture of George R. R. Martin in a blog post about the future of bookstores. Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show had done a mock interview on the subject with their correspondent John Hodgman. (You may know Hodgman as the balding man who plays the PC in Apple’s “I’m a Mac” commercials…) In the segment, the correspondent was suggesting ways to help bookstores survive in an ebook-dominated future — and right in the middle of the skit, Martin himself had turned up in a very funny fake picture!

“…instead of hosting readings, why not host exciting live writings? Bring the author in, tie him to a desk, and make him write a novel to order. Customers can shout out their own ideas while pelting the writer with $4.00 scones. It’ll be fun!

George R. R. Martin not finishing that new “Game of Thrones” book fast enough for you? Well maybe some hot chai latte down his neck will speed him up.

Coffee dumped on George R R Martin at a bookstore (Daily Show)

But while researching this story, I discovered that the Daily Show comic is actually a big real-life fan of the author. In fact, when Time magazine selected Martin for their “100 most influential” list, it was Daily Show correspondent Hodgman who wrote Martin’s blurb. In a poignant finish, Hodgman wrote honestly that Martin didn’t need any endorsement from him, but “I’ll still feel compelled, like all those fans of The Wire, to pull you aside and tell you that Tyrion Lannister is the best character in fiction since Stringer Bell and that if you have not read these books, you should be ashamed of yourself.”

It’s always nice to see an author who really connects with his audience, and draws an intense loyalty and a passionate following. And sometimes it feels like the author himself is very aware of the special trust
he’s been given — like he’s trying to live up to it. At the end of Martin’s statement about his millionth-ebook sale, he made a point of telling his loyal audience that “The best is yet to come.”