Or rather, a reminder. The other day Roqoo Depot discovered a listing on British Amazon for Star Wars: Big Trilogy no 1 (Hardcover) written by Alex Irvine. Today, someone took that news to the Star Wars Books Facebook (without attribution or any of RQ’s context, sigh) and posted as if it was a fact – only to be struck down in a comment from editor David Pomerico:
We’re not sure why Amazon.co.uk is listing a Star Wars trilogy from Alex, but it’s simply not the case. He does have a book coming out with us, scheduled for Fall 2012, but it’s a stand-alone adventure.
This isn’t the first time that Amazon.co.uk has been wrong about something like this: I myself took a jump on something similar (‘Star Wars 7 book series no 1′) back in December. It turned out to be the U.K. edition of Choices of One. (See the comments from Ewan for a possible explanation.)
There’s little doubt in my mind that ‘Star Wars: Big Trilogy no 1’ will turn out to be Irvine’s already-scheduled book, Mandorla.
Listings that appear on Amazon are fed from the publishers – and some are more specific than others. The Star Wars U.K. publisher, Century, is responsible for both the incidents related above. Their titles are probably meant for internal use only. (See today’s comment from Ewan for more detail. I bow to his expertise.)
We have discovered news from (U.S.) Amazon before: The first inklings of The Clone Wars novels from Karen Traviss and Karen Miller back in ’08. But such incidents are very rare – and we soon found the same listings on Random House’s own catalog, which tends to be more trustworthy.
I know the various fansites and regular news gatherers don’t need this reminder, but everyone else: Please exercise caution when dealing with early listings on Amazon, particularly the U.K. version – it’s highly unlikely to see a listing for a brand-new book appear in the U.K. before we’re clued in by the powers that be – particularly now, with folks from Del Rey in direct contact with fans.