Matthew Sampson asked Michael J. Sullivan:

Good day, I am wondering if you would share the story of how you got paired up with Tim Gerard Reynolds as your narrator? Is that something that was simply blind luck with what the publisher decided for you or is there some other connection there? Narrators obviously have an enormous impact on the success of a book and I don’t think you could have anyone better than him reading your work! He is fantastic!

Michael J. Sullivan Hey, thanks for asking. We all have Andy Paris (who works at Recorded Books) to thank for pairing my books with Tim Gerard Reynolds. You know, it's funny, but Tim wasn't a "big name" when we started working with him. Theft of Swords was his 5th book released and to both of our joy it was an Audie Award Nomination. Recorded books invited both of us to the awards ceremony and that's where I first met Tim in person. We spent all the "pre-award" time chatting together and when the awards were finally starting, we had to be pulled away to go to them. We really had just a great time chatting. At the time he was picked we didn't have any say over narrator, but you can bet that for all future contracts we do - and it's always written in them that Tim must do the narration. I'm pleased to say that he's very popular now, and in fact we book him well in advance for certain titles. Nowadays we go up to New York for the recordings (and to take Tim out for a meal or two). We love sitting in studio with him. We're hoping to have him and his wife come out to our cabin for a visit - if we could just get him to set some time aside! Recording for Age of War starts February 19th, and because we will be returning from a trip to St. John's on the 18th we won't be in New York, but we'll still sit in remotely for the recording so we'll get to "see him" vita the phone.

And yeah narrators do have an enormous impact on a book's success and I'm so glad that Tim can now narrate full time. I can't think of anyone better to read the book, either. I'm so very fortunate to have him. I even dedicated my latest book to him!

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