From: Garfeimao

I just got home from New York and the Book Expo there last night, and have some little tidbits of info for you.

I talked with just about every Tolkien related booth I could and got some release dates on TTT items. It seems that most of all the licensees will be releasing the next slate of promo items on November 6. This includes Cedco with the daily calendars, Antioch with those lovely bookmarks with the rings attached (one set for release to Barnes and Noble bookstores only, and another set for general release), Del Rey/Ballantine with the paperbacks (Hobbit cover will remain the same, while the Trilogy will now have new covers in the box set), and Houghton Mifflin with a new set of the visual companion book, kids companion, and official movie guide, along with new covers for the hardcover books and the large trade paperbacks. All of these will have new TTT covers.

The new cover for Two Towers actually is of Sam and Frodo looking out over their road to Mordor, the final scene from FOTR. They said this is how they intend to promote the next installment, and get away from all that Two Towers being related to the WTC terrorist issue. I also got to see the new Art of LOTR book, which looks fabulous. It is now shipping to bookstores and should be on shelves in the next 2-3 weeks. Oh, and a re-issue of The Hobbit will have a bit of FOTR in it, as a lead in to the trilogy. Now, I know the new companion books will be out in November, but the new trilogy books, I’m not sure of the release of the new covers, sorry about that. It didn’t occur to me until after I talked with everyone several times that I should probably be writing all this stuff down. Everyone at all the booths were so friendly and helpful, so I just want to say thanks to everyone at Cedco, Del Rey/Ballantine, Antioch and especially Houghton Mifflin, where I got to watch the Two Towers trailer as often as I wanted, which was often. Oh, and I got another LOTR book bag, woohoo.