Quick Hits: Book sales, series anticipation, and house banners

Here is a round-up of some items from the past few (oh-so-eventful) days:

• This Variety article reports that the sales numbers of all the books in GRRM’s series, according to Bantam publishing house (i.e. the US editions), are approaching triple digit year-on-year growth. In lay words, the sales almost doubled from last year. The first volume reached the New York bestseller list for the first time a couple of months ago, and the newly announced fifth installment peaked at number two (and currently sits at three) on Amazon.com bestseller list – the trend is thus surely to continue.
• TV Guide magazine, the March 7-13 issue, features a “Spring preview” of new and returning shows, and among them is Game of Thrones, illustrated by the now failiar Ned with Ice photo (a smaller version of it even made it to the cover). Bean characterises Ned as honourable and loyal, but surrounded by backstabbers. The premise of the show is presented very decently and attractively, but there are two fun phrasings: Ned gets hired by King Robert, and from beyond the Wall apparently comes the threat of “a legendary clan of ancient beings”.
• Meanwhile, this weeks Entertainment Weekly had a short interview with George R. R. Martin about A Dance With Dragons. In it he was asked his thoughts on the HBO series to which he replied, “I haven’t seen it yet. There has been a mob with pitchforks and torches waiting outside for the next book.”
• The premiere airdates are dropping in from around the globe. The airings have been confirmed to follow right after the US premiere in many of the countries, possibly a unique situation, especially for a new show (check our page for all the known details). Speaking of international airings, the Finnish Canal+ Game of Thrones site kindly links to our blog, mentioning it as an example of an active fan community.
• Was going to highlight a couple fan trailers posted last week but never got the chance and after the events of the past week they might not be as exciting. Still these two are particularly good and you can never have enough Thrones trailers, right?
• A-Game-of-Thrones.net (aGoTnet for short) is a fan site started by a WiC reader that looks to do a good job of following the news and also having some interesting discussion topics. If you are like me and just can’t get enough Thrones talk, this place might be worth a bookmark. As we get closer to the series premiere, I expect more Thrones fan sites to pop up.
• After the recent additions of the house t-shirts to the HBO Store, many people expressed a desire to own a banner with the house sigil on it. Well, thanks to some digging by Ran over at Westeros, it looks like HBO recently applied for a trademark in precisely this area. So for those hoping to raise a Stark banner in their home, you might get the chance soon.
• At the latest Academy Awards gala, Robert Stromberg, who was visual effects supervisor working on the pilot of Game of Thrones, shared another art direction Oscar (after Avatar last year), this time for Alice in Wonderland. In further Oscar news, director Tom Hooper – while receiving the award for King’s Speech – thanked Nina Gold, casting director on both his film and Game of Thrones, declaring there should be an award for casting as well. I believe we fully agree on that one with Hooper.

• Published on 03/06/2011 at 12:54 PM CDT
• Last updated on 03/06/2011 at 1:41 PM CDT