u/Expensive-Country801

Skyrim was officially revealed on December 11, 2010 That gave it roughly an 11 month marketing runway, and it was more than enough to build hype.

RDR2, a game with a comparable amount of anticipation had a 2 year runway

With the long wait for TESVI, a proper trailer showing

• The setting

• The title

• A musical theme

• A vague hint at the central conflict or hook

• Brief cinematic shots and early gameplay

…would be more than enough to generate sustained hype over an 18 month window, and let the fandom imagination roam wild.

Prior to Game of Thrones airing, ASOIAF had about ~12M sales. After the show, that number jumped to around 100M. Most readers wouldn’t have picked up the books without the show pulling them in.

The same dynamic applies elsewhere. Far more people have seen A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, than will ever read Dunk & Egg, and far more will watch HotD than read Fire and Blood

Obviously, this translated into massive financial success. GRRM went from a successful author, similar to Robin Hobb and Steven Erikson to similar to Tolkien or JK Rowling as a result of the show. He talked about he was able to buy a second house as a result of his partnership with HBO and do a lot of things he wanted like buying a railway in Santa Fe to restore.

Fire and Blood was only released with HotD in mind. If HBO hadn't had shown interest in spin offs in 2017 it's quite likely we'd never get this book.

> “When it became clear [in 2016 or 17] that we were going to do the Dance of the Dragons show, we wanted a book to go with that,” Martin told Durham. “And I already had the seeds of the book from material that was in The World of Ice and Fire. And from the novellas I’d written for my friend Gardner Dozois, Princess and the Queen and the Rogue Prince and so forth.”

> "So I actually asked – we’re in the Random House offices here, and I’m about to get them in terrible trouble – but I asked them, do you want me to just ignore the new show that’s coming down the pike, or should I finish that book so you can get it out and then go back to [The Winds of Winter]. And they said, yeah, give us the new book that’s closer to being done instead of two more books (The Winds of Winter and the purported final Song of Ice and Fire book A Dream of Spring). So I put [The] Winds of Winter aside for a while, and I concentrated on finishing Fire and Blood."

You can see this pattern elsewhere

• A Dance with Dragons was rushed out in 2011 to coincide with season 1 of Game of Thrones

• The biggest push to finish The Winds of Winter was tied to giving the show more material around Season 5/6 in 2016. This was when GRRM spoke about it most candidly

• His current renewed focus on Dunk & Egg is about giving Ira Parker more content to adapt for AKotSK. Again, he speaks about not wanting to repeat the same situation as GoT where the show passes him. The main pressure is the show. Not about giving readers a new book they've been waiting for since 2010.

Which leads to a possibility people don’t bring up enough. In GRRM’s mind, ASOIAF might already feel 'done' because it has a completed adaptation out there.

I’ve been thinking about this and ASOIAF might be in a genuinely unique situation.

We have a bunch of major endgame level plot points that are basically known at this point, but not actually revealed in the books.

• R+L=J

• King Bran

• Shireen burning

• Hold the Door

Likely others I’m forgetting that is close to confirmed

Is there any precedent for this in other major series? Where whether through leaks or another adaptation the source material was spoiled with multiple books to go?