Project Aon

Kai Grand Sentinel

Cessation of the Lone Wolf Collector Editions by Mongoose Publishing Ltd.

As of Feb 27, 2013, Mongoose Publishing Ltd no longer has a license to produce any Lone Wolf books and games. All rights have now reverted to me.

Termination of Mongoose Publishing’s Lone Wolf gamebooks and RPG range has been actioned by mutual consent of the author and the publisher. Contractually, I am unable to publish or discuss the terms of my severance agreement.

All Mongoose Mega-deal customers who have queries about their existing deals, such as shop credit or refunds, should direct their enquires to Matthew Sprange, CEO of Mongoose Publishing, by email at msprange@mongoosepublishing.com.

If you have pre-paid for books that were out of print and awaiting a reprint, Mongoose Publishing have been given permission to reprint these books in small quantities in order that these pre-orders can be fulfilled. Mongoose Publishing have undertaken to dispatch these reprints to you before the end of March 2013.

I’m sure this news will come as a disappointment to many, but as one door closes, so others swing open. I am currently in discussion with publishers who are seeking to pick up the Collector Series, and the Multi-player Game Book series. I will post progress updates on this site, so be sure to check the Project Aon ‘What’s New’ page for news. Better still, subscribe to the Project Aon news announcements and these updates will be sent to you automatically.

I am committed in my desire to continue production of the Collector Series in the same style and format established in books 1-17. This is to ensure the continuity of the collection.

I am committed to completing the series in its entirety and to bringing the Lone Wolf saga to its exciting conclusion. I am deeply appreciative of the loyalty and support of my devoted readers, many of whom have grown up reading my adventures and continue to read and enjoy them today. Thank you all for your wonderful support and please be assured that the cessation of my business relationship with Mongoose Publishing does not mean an end to the series; it is the start of a new phase in the evolution of Lone Wolf.

For you, for me, for Sommerlund and the Kai!

Joe Dever

This entry was posted in Joe Dever, mongoose, What's New.
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20 Comments

  1. Mark
    Posted March 1, 2013 at 3:36 pm | Permalink

    Joe Dever: A gentleman and a scholar.
    Best news I’ve had today (better even than hearing Mongoose were offering pro-rata refunds on the Megadeal).
    Good luck with the project and I look forward to hearing more details. I for one will definitely be buying the books.

  2. Richard
    Posted March 1, 2013 at 4:07 pm | Permalink

    Great news Joe!

    … Even more so with regard to your desire to maintain the format of the books – my OCD would have real problems with a shift halfway through the Grandmaster series!

    I hope the same can be said for the RPG line – good luck with finding a publisher for that. Personally, I’d like to see Cubicle 7 at them helm. They’re a great UK RPG publisher with some stellar product lines (eg, The Laundry, Doctor Who, The One Ring, etc).

  3. Vincent
    Posted March 1, 2013 at 6:39 pm | Permalink

    Good Luck and I hope when you are able to secure publishing you will also be able to get the entire series from book 1 published.

    I’d been holding back on buying from Mongoose due to how long they were taking and the number of misprints in first printings.

    I had and still have every intention of buying every book in the series if and when it is actually available in a comprehensive format.

    May I suggest trying to raise funds through crowd funding such as Indiegogo (there are others as well). I for one wouldn’t mind donating towards the cause.

    I have at one point or another owned every book in the series, but life and time have scattered them over the years. I want the chance to own them all.

  4. Heath Farnden
    Posted March 1, 2013 at 7:35 pm | Permalink

    Hi all,
    Good to see that Joe is eager to have the best arrangement for not only himself and his books, but also taking the time to look after us, his fans and readers, and inform us of what is happening. I am sure that we will see the publishing of the rest of the series and newer books (gamebooks and other materials) in no time at all.
    Truly a gentleman!
    Heath

  5. Len B
    Posted March 1, 2013 at 8:39 pm | Permalink

    I’d throw down for a kickstarter crowdsource thing, and will def get them all, like Pokewolf.

    any chance of a complete collection to obtain in one fell swoop? much easier for me than snapping em up in trickles as they come out.

  6. Matthew
    Posted March 2, 2013 at 1:35 am | Permalink

    Thanks for the update! I was wondering if my order was ever going to come in! As a big fan, I look forward to reading the rest of the Collector’s Edition.

  7. Posted March 2, 2013 at 4:03 am | Permalink

    I’m grateful to Mr Dever for his passion, humility and sincerity, not only in personally explaining this recent change to us, but also for the many decades you have been so, Joe, since you first started Lone Wolf and other works, and I joined so many others growing up, always in love with your masterpieces.

    I’m also deeply grateful to Project Aon for rallying behind Mr Dever all these long years, to keep the flame going strong and widely available for all of us fans.

    Finally, I appreciate Mongoose Publishing for previously putting their resources into this collaborative effort, and really hope they also continue prosperously into the years ahead, another similar pioneer in also kindling and reviving my interest in other brands.

  8. Ronald
    Posted March 2, 2013 at 1:24 pm | Permalink

    Joe Dever, is by far my favorite author, he is the reason I write today, he is the reason I create stories for others. He made my childhood an amazing adventure for which I am eternally grateful. I hope the new Lone Wolf books come soon. I am extremely happy Mr Dever has not abandoned the project.
    Lone Wolf is awesome!!!!

  9. Claudio
    Posted March 2, 2013 at 2:10 pm | Permalink

    I hope you find soon another editor and resume the Lone Book saga publishing.
    Keep up the good job Joe!

  10. David
    Posted March 2, 2013 at 5:45 pm | Permalink

    Here’s to the future!

    I’d also wholeheartedly support a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter or wherever to help get material out. I think what Le Grimoire is doing with their rights to the French material is fantastic. I think the upcoming Flight from the Dark project from forge reply looks promising. The books _should_ have a future on tablets and smartphones, etc. It seems Tin Man has had success with FF books and their own original material – no reason LW can’t be just as successful or more so.

    Gary Chalk’s upcoming game through Greywood Publishing looks great, too.

    I think the only thing I will be missing at this time is more of the Magnamumd source books for the RPG. While I felt they could have been a little nicer, the content was good. And I guess one more thing: Oh, how I would love to see August Hahn and Richard Ford’s finished trilogies that they started under Mongoose…

    Regardless, I look forward to the new developments!

  11. Posted March 3, 2013 at 12:37 am | Permalink

    Well, yeah, that’s a thing. Little idea what’s going on, so I’ll just blurt out that I love the Lone Wolf books and hope to see hard copies avaliable in the UK soon because I must have the entire collection.

  12. Martin A
    Posted March 4, 2013 at 8:09 am | Permalink

    While I am annoyed that I have been waiting for the Mongoose paperbacks in vain, I am very excited by this new development and I wish Joe Dever good luck in finding a new publisher and finishing the series — soon, please! 😉

    I’ve been a fan of the series since I was 8 or so. We used to have readings of the books on the bus to and from school, with me reading and my friends deciding which way to go.

  13. John Bryntze
    Posted March 4, 2013 at 10:54 am | Permalink

    The best books ever written to me. Would be great with a strong company behind these excellent books that makes the film, print the books, do the needed.
    thanks Joe Dever for all your great work.

    We might now be able to get the 2 last books from August Hahn with a new publisher 🙂

  14. Martin A
    Posted March 4, 2013 at 12:58 pm | Permalink

    PS I hope there will be paperbacks as well!

  15. elizzar
    Posted March 4, 2013 at 4:02 pm | Permalink

    Hello all. Whilst I concur with the general attitude regarding Mr Dever, and his desire to finish the series in Collectors Editions and other formats, I would caution against those calling for a kickstarter – as a Megadeal customer with Mongoose, just under 6 years ago this is effectively what I and others did. We stumped up £300 each for the entire LW series in hardback, with claims of a book a month or so (which should, maths fans, have meant the series complete around 2 years ago?). Obviously this didn’t quite work out! I’d much rather see if Mr Dever can sort out a deal with another company and have a proper schedule of commercial releases, including those fabled books 29-32 … !
    Cheers.

  16. Doug
    Posted March 12, 2013 at 12:17 am | Permalink

    I too agree wholeheartedly with a crowdfunding kickstarter type deal.

    I am rather upset that this has happened. I was one of the earliest megadeal subscribers, plonking down a hefty sum of money (which at the time meant I was paying ~2-2.5AUD to the pound…).

    But I really would love to see this finished, it was too great a work of fantasy to be left hanging.

  17. TriOmegaZero
    Posted March 17, 2013 at 9:16 pm | Permalink

    As another early Megadeal subscriber, I still wish to see the rest of the books published. I’m also hungry for any further information about what I need to do to receive said books, wether my Megadeal subscription will be honored or if I will need to put forth further money. Keeping my ear to the ground.

  18. Sommerswerd
    Posted March 18, 2013 at 8:27 pm | Permalink

    As far as I understand it we Megadeal-ers will get a refund from Mongoose. Unfortunately I have not received an answer (hopefully… “yet”) when I asked for it….

    Manticore now offers a pre-order for book 18 but I wonder if there will be a sort of megadeal for book 18-32 from them?

  19. Glyn
    Posted March 19, 2013 at 5:34 am | Permalink

    I sure with they plan on republishing 1-17, third party sellers are selling some of these books for up to $1,100 US dollars on amazon.com now. Any idea when they might republish 1-17 or is this a lost cause and we’re out of luck?

  20. Corey Stinson
    Posted March 26, 2013 at 1:14 pm | Permalink

    Let me explain what happened here, in case anyone is entertaining the fantasy that Mongoose Publishing are anything other than inept douchebags and thieves. Mongoose Publishing took your mega-deal money, invested in in other products of dubious profitability, then did not have the funds to continue publishing the Lone Wolf books on scheduled and as agreed. You loaned them for their other projects money at 0% interest and with no collateral. I’m surprised Dever put up with this B.S. as long as he did, to be quite honest.

    We won’t even get into poor handling of the property itself, the mistakes, the lack of proper editing with some books actually unplayable as published, etc. etc. etc.

    I’m very glad that I never bought into the Mega Deal foolishness, knowing that the odds of them getting all of the books published, after seeing the train-wreck of problems on the first few books, was slim to none. I was only ripped off to the tune of US$38 for book #18 that I pre-ordered.

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