Various excerpts have been published, including a Cersei chapter in the paperback edition of A Storm of Swords, a piece set in the Iron Islands called "The Arms of the Kraken" in Dragon magazine, and three Daenerys chapters published as a chapbook and given away at BookExpo 2005.

The book has been completed (as of May 2005) but it will contain only some of the viewpoint characters originally intended for the volume. Martin has explained that the book was becoming too long, and could not be published as a single volume. He decided to place the complete story arcs for only some of the characters in this book, and move the remaining plotlines to A Dance with Dragons, which is now half-completed.

As of August 2005, the publication date for this novel is October 17th, 2005 (U.K.) and November 8th, 2005 (U.S.). The author will make appearances in November to promote the release.