It isn’t exactly the New York Times bestseller list (yet!), but my publisher’s recent decision to push back the e-book release of Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse has been causing a lot of buzz this week. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report:

In an interview, Sourcebooks’ chief executive said it will delay by at least half a year the e-book version of “Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse,” a young-readers title in the vein of Harry Potter that goes on sale Sept. 9. While the book is a debut novel, the author, Kaleb Nation, has a following with his Twilightguy.com blog.

Sourcebooks is issuing 75,000 copies of “Bran Hambric,” a sizable print run in this economy, and has arranged a substantial marketing campaign and book tour for Mr. Nation. (read more…)

This turned into more than a dozen big blogs getting in on the discussion. Now this evening, an article in the New York Times reported it as well:

Sourcebooks, an independent publisher, is releasing “Bran Hambric: The Farfield Curse,” a novel aimed at children, in September in hardcover. It will hold back the e-book until six months later. (read more…)

For those of you not in the publishing biz, this basically means that Sourcebooks will not release an e-book or Kindle edition until about 6 months after the bookstores get it on 9/9/09 (only 56 days left!). At the same time, the hardcover goes for about $12 in most online stores, as opposed to the usual $20 or so for others, so all of you who have pre-ordered or who are waiting won’t notice the difference.

Thanks to the articles, there was a huge pre-order’s spike this morning for Bran Hambric. As if all that good stuff isn’t enough, Borders recently posted an interview they did with me at Book Expo America — this came the same day as the news that Borders is giving the book front-of-store placement (all you people waiting instead of pre-ordering, this means it’ll be VERY easy to find at Borders!). I talk about gnomes and writing and some creatures in the books (including winx, one of my own creations that you’ll find in The Farfield Curse). Click below to watch it:

And for anyone who didn’t catch it, the Wall Street Journal gave out a little bit of information that I haven’t mentioned before — that Sourcebooks is planning a book tour! I’ll have updates on that as soon as I know all the details 😀

For the comments: any suggestions of where I should go on that tour? (note: I don’t really get to pick, but it’ll be great to know where people are!).