'Winds of Winter' release date news, rumors: UK publisher 'knows nothing' about book's status, defends delay

Fans have been waiting for "Winds of Winter" for years now, and the worst part is that there are no concrete updates accessible on when the book will be out.

It turns out that fans are not the only ones clueless about when "Winds of Winter" will be released. Publishers also have no idea on the status of the book.

This is what Jane Johnson, the editor of author George R.R. Martin in United Kingdom at Harper Collins revealed to Newsweek. "I'm like Jon Snow: I know nothing," she said.

However, they assured that the bestselling author is doing his best and "working very hard" to push out "Winds of Winter." Johnson said that they are ready to publish the book as soon as Martin completes it.

"It's worth saying he's written the best part of two million words of this series in the past 20 years. So given the average length of a novel is around 100,000 words, that's 20 novels in most writers' worlds," the editor continued.

Indeed, as pointed out by Independent, the length of all five novels from the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series is three times than the three books in J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" saga.

"Winds of Winter" is expected to be another big, lengthy book, which could be the reason why it is taking so long for Martin to finish it.

Newsweek says that based on the length of the previous books, the sixth novel in the saga could be a mammoth of a book, possibly the longest one in "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.

For now, it appears that fans are in for a long update-less wait for the novel. Fans can ease the agony by checking out the special illustrated edition of the first book "A Game of Thrones" releasing this October.

According to Winter is Coming, "Winds of Winter" should be ready by March 2017. If it is not, the site says that "we can start to panic."