'Winds of Winter': No more sample chapters, George Martin hints

Answering some fan questions on his new blog, George Martin shared some details about “Winds of Winter.” The book will not be out this year, and the author has hinted at no more sample chapters being released. There are many chapters that are already circulating on the web, and Martin fears that any more material being released would make the book feel old when it is actually released.

When Martin announced on his blog that the next book in “A Song of Ice and Fire” series will not be releasing in 2018, many if the fans had questions and suggestions for the author. One of the fans suggested the release of a few more sample chapters. Martin hinted that he may not release any more material from the book.

Martin explained that he may have already released more than a hundred pages of content, but he can’t be sure because he hasn’t kept track. Apart from the officially released chapters on his website, the chapters he read at Cons also made its way to the internet.

Releasing more sample chapters is something that Martin would be prepared to do, but there is problem with this approach. The author had done something similar with the “Book of Swords” anthology, but the approach worked against him as he read reviews that slammed his work as “old, retread” material. The author doesn’t want “Winds of Winter” to meet the same fate, and for this reason he is unwilling to release the chapters that he has read at events, even though the summaries of these chapters are already available on the internet.

With no new material to read, the wait for the “Winds of Winter” release is difficult for the fans. The publishers too are keen on getting the book out as early as possible, and some of them have suggested the author to split the book into two. Martin, however, said that he is resisting this idea.