Sue Rostoni, Executive Editor, Fiction & Comic Editor at Lucas Licensing and frequent contributor to the StarWars.com Message Boards' VIP Thread had extensive interactions on the board today, giving an updated publishing calendar and fielding some publishing calendar related questions.
Sue's Up To Date Publishing Calendar:
Here's the 2011 calendar as it now stands, beginning with KNIGHT ERRANT that just came out.
January 15 - KNIGHT ERRANT (John Jackson Miller)
February 22 - BACKLASH reprint (Aaron Allston)
March 22 - DECEIVED (Paul Kemp)
March 29 - SW Craft book (Bonnie Burton)
April 26 - ALLIES reprint (Christie Golden)
May 24 - CONVICTION (Aaron Allston)
May 24 FATAL ALLIANCE reprint (Sean Williams)
June 21 - HEIR TO THE EMPIRE ANNIVERSARY EDITION (Timothy Zahn)
July 19 - CHOICES OF ONE (Timothy Zahn)
August 16 ASCENSION (Christie Golden)
August 30 - THE FORCE UNLEASHED II reprint (Sean Williams)
September 27 - RIPTIDE (Paul Kemp)
October 18 - Something that hasn't been announced yet, I don't think.
October 18 - THE COMPLETE VADER (Ryder Windham and Pete Vilmur)
November 29 - SHADOW GAMES (Michael Reaves and Maya Bohnhoff)
For 2012, I have titles in months, without actual on sale dates... and I'll list only the new fiction releases that are somewhat set for the moment, but only for the moment...
January - DARTH PLAGUEIS (working title) (James Luceno)
April - APOCALYPSE (Troy Denning)
May - Untitled (Jeff Grubb)
July - Untitled Wraith Squadron (Aaron Allston)
August - Lost Tribe of the Sith anthology (John Jackson Miller)
September - Untitled Nomi Sunrider (Alex Irvine)
November - Book 1 of a duology.
I hope I got the dates right.....
Okay -- here are the reprint dates for 2012 -- keep in mind that these are the easiest to move...
Red Harvest - 2/28/12
Vortex - 3/17/12
Deceived - 5/29/12
Choices of One - 6/26/12
Conviction - 8/28/12
TOR 3 - 10/31/12
Ascension - 11/27/12
And I see the the Essential Guide to Warfare (Jason Fry) is on for 3/20/12 (not one of mine, though).
Sue's Interaction and Answers to Follow up Questions:
Q: I wonder if the novel in October is Drew Karpyshyn's The Old Republic novel that was announced during Celebration V...
A: Yes, that's the one. I don't edit the Video game related books, so wasn't on top of what's been announced and what hasn't.
Q: I was wondering about the Jedi Dawn novel that was slated for November 2012...
A: Right now, that one is in August 2013.
Q: Is the Complete Vader that's mentioned a reprint of the one that was published in 2009
A: Yes, it's the same one. There was a problem with pages sticking together in the first edition, so Random House pulled a bunch back and have done another printing.
Q: Sue, can you give any reason why Apocalypse keep getting pushed back?
A: Editorially, it's been too stressful to have them any closer together. The time crunches to make production deadlines have been unwieldy. It's better for us to have a little more room between them.
Q: Just out of curiosity Sue, is this US reprint(Complete Vader) technically a second edition ?
A: I honestly don't know. It's not my project, and I doubt that the new front matter/copyright information is in yet.
Q: Will the anniversary edition of Heir to the Empire be released in paperback, or is the hardback the only way to get the new material?
A: Hardcover only.
Q: Is there a reason the Nomi Sunrider novel keeps getting pushed back?
A: Only because the schedule often needs shuffling -- no inside reasoning....
Q: Also, is the first of the duology one of the duo by Paul S. Kemp?
A: Yes -- again, I didn't have time to check to see if it had already been announced.
Q: Also, any chance you could say when the Wraith Squadron novel, Jeff Grubb novel, or Paul Kemp's duology is set? Any chance any of them are after Fate of the Jedi?
A: I don't know the exact setting yet, but I believe they're all before the Fate of the Jedi series. We don't have anything planned right now (as of this minute) that will be set after the end of the FotJ series.
Q: I assume "TOR 3" reprint is the Old Republic novel by Drew Karpyshyn? If so, that implies the further assumption that the initial release will be hardcover...
A: Yes, that's my understanding.
Sue can be followed on her SW.com Blog or on the VIP Thread
