We’ve Been Keeping a Secret… Until Now

Surprise! We’re thrilled to share some exciting news: The First Step, First Stop, and First War—the first three books in A Thousand Li—have been acquired for print publication by Ace, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

Here’s a message from Tao!

"I have big news to announce, which I’ve hinted at a little over the last few months. We have sold the print rights to A Thousand Li books 1–3 (that’s The First Step, First Stop, and First War) to Ace (a division of Penguin Random House). We are in the midst of taking down the print-on-demand copies of the old books, with The First Step's new hardcover releasing next year, March 2026.

You can read all the details on Reactor, including catching a glimpse of the new cover that Ace has created for us here.

I'm super excited about all this, as we'll get a chance to introduce even more people to the series, and I’ve written an exclusive short story just for the book. At the same time, I want to thank all of you, because without your support, none of this would have been possible.

That being said, I need to ask for your help again. Please tell your friends, your family, even your enemies about the new book! We need pre-orders—and a lot of them (preferably through indie bookstores and anyone not Amazon)—so that they'll do a nice big print run and really push the marketing.

On that note, if you (or your friends and family) do pre-order, make sure to keep your receipts. We’re still working out the exact pre-order campaign, but we’ll definitely be sending some goodies out to everyone.

If you have a local bookstore you’re pre-ordering from and they’re interested, do let us know! We’ll work with Ace to see what we can do to support them as best we can

-Tao