All week we have been tweeting that there would be a total of SIX major announcements related to The Wheel of Time this week.

The first of these news items was the article we posted about Brandon and Harriet’s U.S. book tour. Be sure to check that out if you would like to come meet them in person.

Now here are the remaining FIVE announcements as announced at DragonCon this evening. We will post more details about each over the next few days and/or weeks.

1. CHAPTER ONE of The Gathering Storm is NOW AVAILABLE for FREE on Tor.com. On September 4th at 9:30 PM (EST, GMT -5), you can go to Tor.com to get it. You will need to register with their site, but it is free to do so. Don’t miss this opportunity to start reading the book TONIGHT. (And you thought you had plans on Friday night, huh?) Chapter 1 will remain on Tor.com through the end of October. An audio version is also available via the same link.

2. The PROLOGUE to The Gathering Storm will be available as an eBook purchase beginning on September 17th. The price will be $2.99 and will be available from Amazon.com, BN.com, Tor.com, as well as other online vendors.

3. Tor will be releasing the ENTIRE Wheel of Time series in various eBook formats beginning with the release of The Eye of the World beginning on October 27th. Each book will be released in series order on a monthly basis after that. The text of the books has been optimized for the ebook reading experience, and retain all illustrations and maps from the physical books. Pricing is not yet available

4. And that’s not all — Each of the WoT eBooks mentioned above (not the TGS prologue) will include new “cover art” by different professional artists. Tor is commissioning a different artist for each book, so you’ll see brand new art for each one of the books in the series. Here are the details for the artists of the first four books:

THE EYE OF THE WORLD
David Grove
http://www.stock-illustration-portfolios.com/artistPage/Grove_David.html
Illustrators Hall of Fame.
Known for work in National Geographic, advertising, and movie posters including Something Wicked This Way Comes and The Outsiders.

THE GREAT HUNT
Kekai Kotaki
Spectrum award winner.
Lead Concept Artist for ArenaNet on Guild Wars 2.
http://www.kekaiart.com/
http://kekai.blogspot.com/

THE DRAGON REBORN
Donato Giancola
http://www.donatoart.com/
bio: http://www.tor.com/bios/artists/donato
Multiple Spectrum and Hugo Award Winner, and Hamilton King award winner.

THE SHADOW RISING
Sam Weber
Society of Illustrators and Spectrum award winner.
http://www.sampaints.com/

5. Dragonmount is proud to announce a very special opportunity for WoT fans. We are working closely with the gang at Tor to put together a team of Storm Leaders for each city that Brandon visits on The Gathering Storm tour. These Storm Leaders will be fans (like you!) who will get to meet Brandon and/or Harriet before the bookstore event begins (food and drinks to be provided). This will be a small, intimate gathering, only about 4-5 people per city, where you can also get your books signed. Because in return, during the actual event, you’ll help us photograph and blog about the event, so that other fans can read about it on DM and other sites. There will also be other responsibilities outside of that, details of which to come next week. Storm Leaders will also receive a limited edition TGS Storm Leader Tour t-shirt™ and bragging rights to all your friends.

Dragonmount will be accepting applications for Storm Leaders beginning sometime next week. It’s free to participate and sign up. We’ll post a lot more information next week about how you sign up, what’s required,and what we’re looking for from candidates.

You may be wondering why Tor is releasing Chapter 1 before the prologue? Yes, technically that’s out of order. The prologue is about 20,000 words, while Chapter 1 is only a few thousand (ie, much shorter). Be forewarned: Although you will have no problems whatsoever following along, chapter 1 does begin after a short scene takes place in the prologue.

Regarding the book covers: this new art will be exclusive to the eBooks for now. There are no plans to print new editions of the books themselves with the new art. Darryl K Sweet (who has illustrated the other books in the series) will most likely be asked to paint the covers for books 13 and book 14. Tor remains committed to exploring the idea of doing all new art for the series after the final book is published.

Finally, Brandon reported on twitter today that the new title of book 13 has been approved by Harriet and is now going to Tor for approval as well. (Tor needs to make sure the title doesn’t conflict with other recently published books, and that it doesn’t bother the booksellers. Yes, book sellers have a lot of say on book titles believe it or not)

So… what do you think? Not too bad, eh?
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Cool stuff, eh? BS isn't touring near me, and I've always refused to pay money for the prologue when I know I'm going to buy the book very soon... but the e-book stuff is really neat.

I'm especially excited about the new covers! Check out the galleries they list, there's some beautiful stuff.