See, after copying the Paizo product plan of releasing 32 page softcovers to escalate the bang for buck ratio to new depths, WotC moves once again to copy a Paizo product - the Game Novel TM. (See the forthcoming "Golarion" novels by Cunningham & co.).
"Now, now, WotC did D&D novels first, so what's your point?", you might say. And fair enough.
Except that WotC hasn't done D&D novels as such since the craptastic "T.H.Lain" series backfired for them badly sales-wise. They've since switched back to doing what they've always done - which is, pluck a "Forgotten Realms" logo on the book's front cover to raise sales. Because the D&D logo does not, inherently, have much marketing pull on book covers.
Well, apparently things have changed. The logo couldn't be large enough for the upcoming novels. And, that's the real excitement, they got the best man for the job. Why, Bill Slavicsek himself. Who's so busy to oversee R&D for an actual game that he can write a 320 page novel in no time!
![Image](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ebmO9qUBL._SS500_.jpg)
# Softcover: 320 pages
# Publisher: Wizards of the Coast (3. August 2010)
# Language: Englisch
# ISBN-10: 0786956224
Edit. On reflection, here are to ways to hedge this OP.
1. Chances are that the mock cover art is just that, and that Slavicsek's name is a filler here.
2. Chances are, that the mock cover gives the real name, and even when it does, that a ghostwriter will do a hack job for Bill to put his name on it so when the dreaded 'end of year firing season' sets in Bill can reassure the Hasbro suits that he was actually doing work and not sitting there idly as 4e-The-Game crashed.