Simon & Schuster Prepares for Last Book in Pendragon Series

By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 5/12/2009 7:28:00 AM

Simon & Schuster's children's division is gearing up for a multi-platform publicity and marketing campaign to coincide with the release of the 10th and final book in D.J. MacHale’s bestselling Pendragon series, The Soldiers of Halla, which goes on sale today.

MacHale is going on a 15-market tour starting today in New York City and will visit bookstores, schools and libraries, ending at the San Diego Comic Con later this summer. S&S’s marketing campaign includes nine original online games, each relating to a book and available as a widget. A 10th game, to coincide with the publication of Halla, will be unveiled later this month. The first book in the series is now being offered as a free download via Google Book Search or as a PDF file on the Simon & Schuster Web site through May 24.

The series as a whole has 4.2 million copies in print, according to publicity director Paul Crichton.