Pub Date Madness!

The day is finally here. It’s hard to believe after all this waiting, but Battle of the Labyrinth is published today. I hope you like it! I’m off to Austin, and I look forward to seeing many of you at the launch party. Keep your fingers crossed for clear skies, but don’t worry — BookPeople has a contingency plan if Zeus decides to dump thunder and lightning on us. I’ve heard about some of the planned activities for tonight, and it’s going to be a lot of fun!

Thanks to Mr. Champion from the Ensworth School in Nashville, who is pictured above with his third grade class. He was the first one to send pub date pictures. He says his kids were so stoked to get the new book that they took a class trip to their local bookstore and were the first ones in line when the store opened. They started reading on the bus back to school! Hope you like the book, young demigods.

In other news, rickriordan.com has just been renovated! Hope you enjoy the new look, and bear with us while we work out any small kinks in the site.

As amazing as it sounds, booksellers are already telling me that they are having trouble getting first editions because the publisher is sold out. Considering how huge the first printing was, that’s pretty incredible. If you’re a collector, I would start finding your copies now.

And on another note, I thought I’d mention some other upcoming books my sons and I are excited about. They’ve already devoured the newest Warriors book by Erin Hunter. Now we’re looking forward to Derek Landy’s second Skulduggery Pleasant book, Playing with Fire, which is out today. Michael Scott’s second Nicholas Flamel book, The Magician, comes out in June. It should be a great summer for reading!