A Song of Ice and Fire publisher responds to Winds of Winter release date rumors

It’s been a hectic couple of days for The Winds of Winter rumors. The internet was sent into a tizzy recently when Amazon France created a placeholder page for the long-awaited sixth book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. The page even came with a release date: March 9, 2017. It’s not uncommon for Amazon to make dummy pages for upcoming releases, but fans could be forgiven for getting excited, particularly when that release date lined up with predictions.

Now, Martin’s American publisher, Random House, has issued a statement to Entertainment Weekly about the matter. Read it and weep:

"As his publisher, we support George RR Martin as he works hard to finish The Winds of Winter. Any on-sale dates currently listed online for the novel are incorrect. Once we have a publication date for The Winds of Winter, the world will know."

“Any on-sale dates currently listed online for the novel are incorrect.” So the news is that there’s no news. Kindly return to your business.

EW also notes that another outlet got a quote from HarperCollins, Martin’s UK publisher, on this topic. “[N]othing has been finalized regarding the publication or the date.” See above, re: reading and weeping.

So we’re still not sure when The Winds of Winter will be released into bookstores, although early 2017 would track with the pace at which Martin wrote the last two books in the series. Until then, it may pay to keep your eyes on Martin’s Not a Blog. The author has said that, when he’s finished writing the book, he’ll announce it there.

h/t The Independent