It was previously reported that "The Winds of Winter" was originally planned to be released prior to the premiere of "Game of Thrones" season 6 but the book failed to hit this deadline. According to a report from Newsweek, the publisher has since stepped forward to defend the book's delay. 

"All I do know is that George is working very hard. And as soon as we possibly can after he delivers, we'll publish the book," explained author George R.R. Martin's publisher, Harper Collins. "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."

Newsweek continued to explain that each entry in the franchise has gotten longer and more complex than the last.

According to the report, "A Game of Thrones" originally published back in 1996 with 704 pages while the latest entry in the series, "A Dance with Dragons," has published 1,040 pages. With this logic it is speculated that "Winds of Winter" will be the longest entry in the series, which might explain the length of time Martin is taking to write and edit the book.

Although it has been several years since the launch of "A Dance with Dragons," the report does point out that the gap since then is still shorter than the time fans had to wait between the release of "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance with Dragons," which was a total of six years.

Fans speculate that the book may release by early 2017, roughly before the premiere of "Game of Thrones" season 7. The book is expected to tell the story that had been slightly spoiled by "Game of Thrones" season 6 and the plot of season 7. Once the book is out, Martin will be working on the final book in the series, "A Dream of Spring."