The first edition of The Wicker Man novel was printed in the US by Crown Publishers in May 1978 with Hamlyn following with the UK edition in October 1979. These hardback editions were printed at the time the film was seeing a revival of the newly restored version of the Director's cut of The Wicker Man which was being released in the US.

Penned by Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer, the novel delves deeper and gives us a much clearer insight to the whole story and ambience of The Wicker Man and reads more like this is how the film was meant to have been. We learn a lot more about Sgt Howie and Lord Summerisle and are introduced to many characters which were either briefly hinted at or cut out altogether from all versions of the film (Mary Bannock, Sgt Howie's fiance is one of these characters.) We are also treated to several scenes which were cut from the film and some which were obviously written in as an after thought.