ECLIPSE

Eclipse is the third book in the twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It continues the story of 18-year-old Bella Swan and her vampire love, Edward Cullen. Eclipse is preceded by New Moon and followed by Breaking Dawn. The book was released on August 7, 2007 with an initial print run of 1 million copies, and sold more than 150,000 copies in the first 24 hours alone.

Eclipse was the fourth bestselling book of 2008, only behind Twilight, New Moon, and Breaking Dawn, and was also ranked #1 on Publishers Weekly's list of "Bestselling Hardcover Backlist Children's Books" in 2008 with over 4.5 million copies sold.

The story opens with the revelation that Seattle, Washington is being plagued by a string of unsolved murders, which Edward suspects is caused by a new vampire that is unable to control its thirst for human blood. As Edward and Bella apply to colleges, Bella explains to Edward her desire to see her friend, Jacob Black, a werewolf. Although Edward fears for her safety, Bella insists that neither Jacob nor his wolf pack would ever harm her, and she begins visiting him occasionally. Meanwhile, Alice Cullen has a vision that Victoria, a vampire who is hunting Bella for revenge, has returned to Forks. A few days later, Edward proposes to Bella and, despite harboring an aversion to marriage, she accepts.

Bella and the Cullens soon realize that the Seattle murders are being committed by an "army" of newborn vampires, controlled by Victoria. The Cullens join forces with the wolf pack to combat this threat. As everyone else prepares for battle, Edward, Bella, and Jacob camp in the mountains, hidden during the battle, where they are later joined by Seth Clearwater, a young wolf pack member, to wait out the fight.

In the morning, Jacob becomes upset when he overhears Edward and Bella discussing their engagement and threatens to join the fight and get himself killed. To stop him, Bella kisses

Jacob and comes to realize that she is in love with him as well. During the battle, Victoria tracks Edward's scent to Bella's forest hiding place, and Edward is forced to fight. After Victoria and her army are successfully destroyed, Bella explains to Jacob that while she loves him, her love for Edward is greater. After receiving a wedding invitation from Edward, Jacob runs away in his wolf form to escape his pain, angry and heartbroken at Bella's decision to become a vampire.

A few months prior to the release of Eclipse, Meyer hosted an "Eclipse Prom" event at Arizona State University with the help of a local bookstore and ASU's English department. The tickets sold out in seven hours, resulting in Meyer holding a second prom on the same day for which tickets sold out within four hours. At the event, Meyer read the first chapter of Eclipse, which was released in the special edition of New Moon that same day. In addition, Meyer embarked on a 15-city tour to promote the book. She also released the first chapter on her website and posted a "quote of the day" from the novel on each of the 37 days leading up to its release.

Prior to the book's release, Meyer also made an appearance on Good Morning America.

The book jacket features a torn red ribbon. Although it was supposed to be disclosed to the public in May 2007 at the Eclipse Prom, Barnes & Noble and Stephenie Meyer's official website premiered the newly released cover in March 2007, along with a preview summary of the book's plot. The broken ribbon represents choice, as in the book Bella must choose between her love for the vampire Edward Cullen, and her friendship with the werewolf Jacob Black. Meyer also stated that the ribbon represents the idea that Bella is unable to completely break away from her human life.

On July 25, an incident similar to the early release of the seventh Harry Potter book occurred with shipments of Eclipse. Barnes & Noble Booksellers accidentally shipped advance copies of Eclipse to some of the customers who had pre-ordered. Barnes & Noble said that it was a computer error, as their entire online store is computerized.

To prevent any spoilers from popping up online, many fansite forums for the Twilight series were shut down, such as the Twilight Lexicon. Stephenie Meyer also locked her MySpace comments in an attempt to avoid spoilers. In an open letter to the fansite the Twilight Lexicon, Stephenie Meyer pleaded with these "lucky readers" to please keep the ending to themselves until the rest of the Twilight fans had the chance to read and enjoy Eclipse as well.

An early book release also occurred with Stephenie Meyer's release of the Eclipse special edition, which included the first chapter and cover art of the subsequent novel Breaking Dawn. The special edition was to hit store shelves on May 31, 2008, but multiple copies were released up to a whole week early. Meyer knew that some copies had been leaked, and released the following quote:

"There is a lot of speculation on the internet about possible covers, content and text of Breaking Dawn. I hope everybody knows that you shouldn't believe everything you see on the internet. The only way you will know what is real is when you have the book in your hands. Until then, people should really take everything they see with a grain of salt."