This is unconfirmed, but there is a very strong possibility that there will not be any Animorphs Relaunch releases in the near future. With the release of #8 in little over a week, there has been no official renewal of any further releases for the rest of the year, or the next.
Amazon and several retailers list #8 as the only upcoming book, with nothing planned ahead. Scholastic has been quiet on the subject, and has not publicly released the rights or covers for any future books, which are usually available months before even being listed. The only response I did receive was from a customer service representative saying:
“I researched our system and it shows that we do not have information about other Animorphs books being released. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this has caused.”
As I mentioned at the start of the relaunch, Scholastic has been using these reprints as way to gauge the interest in the series to start a potential Animorphs 2.0. So for the fans who were looking forward to that, a cancellation or hiatus of the Relaunch series is obviously not very promising.
So the question comes: Where do we go from here? What can fans do to show their continued support? The first is, obviously, to buy the books! ($$$)
Scholastic will not financially support something that is not good for business! If you have been skipping on these releases to only buy the books that are missing in your collection, then you may not get the chance to do that anymore, as the releases of those future books depends highly upon the sales figures of the ones that are currently out now. Buying the books is the most direct way of letting Scholastic know that you are interested in more!
If you have already bought the books, then the next step is to let Scholastic know we are still interested. Customer Care, Twitter, and Facebook are all a good place to start. Email campaigns wouldn’t be a bad idea either, if someone was willing to co-ordinate it. (Skip petitions though — they are a waste of time.) If anyone knows of any direct channels or representatives to send all this to, then please let me know and I’ll post it up on this blog to help spread the word.
The ball is in your court, fans.