Another year of waiting for The Winds of Winter to blow is in store for fans of George RR Martin, as his publisher confirmed there are no plans for the much-anticipated latest volume from his A Song of Ice and Fire series to appear in 2015. Instead, readers will have to comfort themselves with an illustrated edition of three previously anthologised novellas set in the world of Westeros.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place nearly a century before the bloody events of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, when the Iron Throne was still held by the Targaryens. Out in October, it is a compilation of the first three official prequel novellas to the series, The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight, never before collected, and now set for release in a new illustrated edition.

Martin’s publisher Jane Johnson at HarperCollins promised that fans will pick up all sorts of clues from reading them.

“The novellas,” said Johnson, “are illustrated in black and white line drawings throughout by Gary Gianni in classic style. It will be a truly lovely book, and I adore these clever, funny stories.” They “give fascinating insights into the ongoing story, from the point of view of Ser Duncan the Tall, a hedge knight, and his squire Egg – who may be rather more than he first seems,” she said. “The short novels have been previously published in separate anthologies but never put together before, and this will be a particularly beautiful edition.”

However, Johnson confirmed that The Winds of Winter, the next novel in the series that has been filmed by HBO as A Game of Thrones, is not in this year’s schedule. “I have no information on likely delivery,” she said. “These are increasingly complex books and require immense amounts of concentration to write. Fans really ought to appreciate that the length of these monsters is equivalent to two or three novels by other writers.”

Readers have been waiting to get their hands on The Winds of Winter ever since Martin published the fifth book in his bestselling series, A Dance with Dragons, in 2011, with their appetite only whetted by the release of extracts online. The novelist was forced to damp down excitement in December, when a “12 days of Christmas” promotion for his books led them to speculate that its release was imminent.

“Somehow, from somewhere, the rumour arose that the ‘12 Days’ were actually a countdown ... not to Xmas, but to the publication of The Winds of Winter, or the announcement of its completion and/or pub date,” blogged the novelist.

“Sorry. Not true. Look, I’ve said before, and I will say again, I don’t play games with news about the books. I know how many people are waiting, how long they have been waiting, how anxious they are. I am still working on Winds. When it’s done, I will announce it here. There won’t be any clues to decipher, any codes or hidden meanings, the announcement will be straightforward and to the point. I won’t time it to coincide with Xmas or Valentine’s Day or Lincoln’s Birthday, the book will not rise from the dead with Jesus on Easter Sunday. When it is done, I will say that’s it is done [sic], on whatever day I happen to finish. I don’t know how I can make it any clearer.”

In the past, Martin’s fellow fantasy novelist Neil Gaiman has sprung to his defence in the wake of criticism from fans over his writing pace. “George RR Martin is not your bitch,” Gaiman blogged in 2009, as readers clamoured for A Dance with Dragons. “This is a useful thing to know, perhaps a useful thing to point out when you find yourself thinking that possibly George is, indeed, your bitch, and should be out there typing what you want to read right now. People are not machines. Writers and artists aren’t machines.”