At the start of the year, Titan Books announced that they would be publishing a novelization of the live-action Ghost in the Shell movie, written by me, for release on April 3rd. Unfortunately, issues with the licensor meant that we couldn’t deliver a book that accurately reflected the finished movie in time to hit stores alongside the film’s initial release.
Since April, I’ve been getting lots of questions about the fate of the book, and now I’m happy to say that rather than cancel it entirely, Titan decided to go forward with a later publication date to hit after the movie’s Blu-Ray release.
My work schedule meant that I couldn’t come back to work on the revisions for the major (no pun intended) edits for the final cut, and I have the hardworking and super-talented Abbie Bernstein to thank for taking over at the eleventh hour to see this novelization to the finish line.
As such, Ghost in the Shell: The Official Movie Novelization will be on sale in a trade paperback edition from September 26th, and is available for order Here. A French language edition will also be published by Pika Roman on January 3rd 2018.
I wanted to be a part of this project because I have been a fan of Masamune Shirow’s manga and anime work for a very long time, and I took on the job specifically because it’s a world I’ve always wanted to tell a story in. It will be great to be able to rack this book next to my copies of Masaki Yamada’s and Junichi Fujisaku’s tie-in novels to the original Ghost in the Shell and Stand Alone Complex anime…
It’s not uncommon for the wildly differing schedules and needs of book publishing and movie making to act at cross purposes to one another, and sometimes things don’t work out – but we got a second bite at the cyber-cherry here.
For everyone who pre-ordered a copy of Ghost in the Shell: The Official Movie Novelization, your orders should automatically be processed by your vendor, but if not, contact them directly.
Thanks to everyone out there for your support and patience with this, and much appreciation to Abbie, Becky Peacock and the editorial team at Titan Books.
