Rebelscum has discovered… somehow… what they say is a Fate of the Jedi eBook tie-in: Lost Tribe of the Sith 1: Precipice by Knights of the Old Republic’s John Jackson Miller. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and I doubt they made it up out of whole cloth. Hopefully this means we’ll get official info very soon.
So how did Star Wars books sell in ’08?
Andrew Wheeler has made a habit of rounding up genre bestsellers from Publishers Weekly’s list, and if you separate out the Star Wars stuff, an interesting trend emerges:
In Adult Hardcovers:
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Sean Williams, 103,232
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars by Karen Traviss, 101,146
- Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Invincible, Troy Denning, 101,034
And in New Children’s paperback:
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Tracey West, 190,700
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Battle at Teth, Kirsten Mayer, 186,282
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: The New Padawan, Eric Stevens, 152,661
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Intergalactic Adventure: Activity Book, no author listed, 119,621
- Star Wars Fandex, Christopher Cerasi, 103,191
In short, The Clone Wars kids books sold significantly more copies than the adult books. Behold, the power of a theatrical release…
Interesting, if rather sad factoid: Stephenie Meyer outsells everyone. No, seriously. But then, in a year where Dean Koontz outsells Stephen King, can we really be surprised?
Out this week: Legacy, Adventures, KOTOR
Lots of booty for comic fans Wednesday with Legacy #35, Star Wars Adventures: Han Solo and the Hollow Moon of Khorya, and the sixth Knights of the Old Republic collection, Vindication.
And don’t forget that this Saturday is Free Comic Book Day, and you’ll be able to pick up a Clone Wars story, among others. Also, Henry Gilroy, John Jackson Miller, Ramón Pérez, and Matt and Shawn Fillbach are among the Dark Horse folks doing signings.
EUbits: Charity windfall, FOTJ, Bohnhoff, TOR
Good news, everyone! Several of the initial auctions in the Australian bushfire charity effort wrapped up this week, with the character name rights both netting impressive takes – $1,725 for Karen Miller and $1,028.75 for Sean Williams.
- The blogside: People Are Talking is the seventh entry in Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff’s Padawan’s Journal.
- Fate of the Jedi: The release date for book 3, Denning’s Abyss, has been moved up a week to August 18th, according to Sue Rostoni. Our book release schedule has been updated accordingly.
- The Old Republic: Part 5 of the Threat of Peace webcomic is up, while the game’s developer blog takes a look at Ord Mantell.
Out this week: Dark Times, KOTOR
Comic fans will have two issues waiting for them on Wednesday: Dark Times #13 and Knights of the Old Republic #40.
EUbits: Adventures, Kemp, Bohnhoff, TCW, Invasion, Threat of Peace
- Preview: Take a peek at the first issue of the new Star Wars Adventures digest. Apparently some have found it in the UK, but there’s been no sign of it on Diamond so I wouldn’t go looking just yet.
- The Blogside: Paul S. Kemp has thoughts on writing Crosscurrent, while Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff has two updates in her Padawan’s Journal series: Protocol Droids and Velveteen Bunnies and Mistakes Were Made.
- The Clone Wars: Don’t expect to see a paperback of Karen Traviss’ Clone Wars novel anytime soon – There are no plans to release one, says Sue Rostoni. If you absolutely must have a paperback, look to the UK version.
- Comics: DarkHorse.com has a new From the Editor, about Invasion. (Nothing we don’t already know, but we can expect an announcement in a week or so.)
- Webcomics: Third and fourth updates in The Old Republic‘s Threat of Peace.
Star Wars fans and personalities unite to help victims of Australian bushfires
The bushfires that raged in the Australian state of Victoria earlier this year killed more than 200 and left over 7000 homeless. The fires may be snuffed, but the victims are still hurting, and Star Wars fans have banded together to help them.
Though there are plenty of items up on Ebay now, including signed photographs from David Prowse, Kenny Baker, Jeremy Bulloch and Bonnie Piesse. But of particularly of interest to EU fans is a chance to get a namesake (tuckerized) character in the fifth Clone Wars novel by Karen Miller or a yet-unannounced Star Wars book (!) from Sean Williams. And Kevin J. Anderson and Rebecca Moesta are offering an original manuscript from one of the Young Jedi Knights novels.
Out this week: The Clone Wars #5
You can expect just one comic on Wednesday – The Clone Wars #5.
Disturbing Expanded Universe quote du jour
From the original Essential Guide to Characters, way back in 1995:
Ackbar and the white-haired beauty would enjoy each others’ company a lot over the coming years, both in their tasks for building the New Republic, and in private.
Ahh, 90’s EU. When the human/fish romance roamed wild and free. (Thanks to the miscreants of #eu.)
More on Free Comic Book Day’s Star Wars offering
As announced last December, Dark Horse Comics is releasing Star Wars comics as part of their annual freebie book for Free Comic Book Day, which is on Saturday, May 2, 2009. A preview of the book is up – and it contains a Kit Fisto story, ‘The Gauntlet of Death‘. The free 28 page comic will also contain stories of Emily the Strange, Usagi Yojimbo and other Dark Horse properties suitable for all ages, and has a flip cover. Dark Horse also had a second freebie book for 2009, with a flip cover, helping to relaunch their Aliens and Predator comic tie-in series – check out the preview.