Today sees the release of J.W. Rinzler's The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. Rinzler also wrote The Making of Star Wars: The Definitive Story Behind the Original Film, which explored the creation of A New Hope. If you want to pick this new treasure trove of Empire history online, Amazon has it for $45.90 (almost half off the list price), which appears to be the best price out there.

While you're waiting for your copy to arrive, check out Vanity Fair's coverage of the book and the movie it covers. There's a gallery of rare behind-the-scenes photographs, plus interviews with author J.W. Rinzler and actor Jeremy Bulloch.

In addition, be sure to read io9's recap of J.W. Rinzler's New York Comic-Con panel about the book. Who knew that Lucas considered "putting a trained monkey in a Yoda costume, including a full Yoda face mask"?

UPDATE: Here are a few more stories about the book.

The Star Wars Aficionado blog has an interview with J.W. Rinzler which you can read here. (Thanks Scott!) And io9 revisited the subject with a list called "10 things you didn't know about The Empire Strikes Back." Check that out here and see if they're all revelations for you. (Thanks Tracy!)

UPDATE #2: Here's one more interview link as Pete Vilmur chats with J.W. Rinzler over at SW.com.