Publisher: Aladdin (Simon & Schuster)
Genre: Children’s middle-grade fantasy
Formats: $18.99 hardcover | $10.99 ebook | $24.99 audiobook
Released: Oct. 1, 2024
Scott Reintgen is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of 15 science fiction and fantasy books. He began his career as an English and creative writing teacher in North Carolina.
In The Last Dragon on Mars, the first astronauts discovered that space was already occupied—not by little green men or flying saucers, but by dragons. One for every moon, every planet, every star. When humanity discovered that Earth’s dragon had sacrificed herself to make their home planet habitable, they set their sights on Mars. If one dead dragon could breathe life into a world, why not create another one? As the dragon died, he whispered a curse over Mars. It took three generations to figure out the truth: Mars was doomed.
Lunar knows all the old stories about dragons and space, but he focuses on scrapping valuable gear that storms uncover in the war zone. Until one day, a salvaging run goes wrong. Desperate to find shelter, Lunar goes underground in a restricted zone. What he finds there, buried in the Martian dust, might just be the only hope left for a dying planet.
When asked what contributed to the book landing on the bestseller lists, Reintgen said: “I previously hit the New York Times bestseller list with A Door in the Dark—a young adult book. For that book, one of the primary shifts I made was … to ask schools to meet a book minimum requirement [for visits],” Reintgen said. “When I started planning for Last Dragon, I knew I could execute a similar strategy, but with a much higher ceiling.”
As Reintgen noted in a recent Threads post about the launch, he started reaching out to schools to arrange pre-launch, launch week, and post-launch visits in February in preparation for the Oct. 1 release. He reached out to an estimated 500 schools and libraries in total, most of which were cold emails. While he focused on areas he had a connection to, he made sure to plan enough visits in an area to justify the travel expenses—at least three schools per day of the trip.
Reintgen also let past successes inform his craft and focused on accessible prose, fast-paced storytelling, big stakes, and cool worldbuilding. He also worked with the publisher for a cover design that would appeal to his target audience of middle-grade boys. The publisher did its own marketing push for the book’s release in addition to Reintgen’s efforts.
“We’re often told that if your publisher isn’t pushing your book in a big way, you just have no chance,” Reintgen said. “Two bestsellers later, I would beg to differ. Yes, there are numerous factors outside of your control. Yes, publishing in general is a very hard, uphill climb. But if you’re strategic about your approach to a book launch, there are tangible ways to impact your book’s success and your own future in this industry.”
Emily Wenstrom is a freelance writer and platforming expert and writes award-winning speculative fiction for teens and adults as E. J. Wenstrom.
E. J. Wenstrom believes in complicated heroes, horrifying monsters, purple hair dye and standing to the right on escalators so the left side can walk. She writes dark speculative fiction for adults and teens, including her new release, a young adult dystopian novel titled Departures (August 10, 2021). When she isn’t writing fiction, E. J. Wenstrom is a regular contributor to DIY MFA and BookRiot, and co-hosts the Fantasy+Girl Podcast. Learn more at her website.
