User blog comment:KaharZamet/Disney Announces 4 New Novels to Kick Off the "New EU"/@comment-4689032-20140427155537/@comment-4689032-20140428103025

its because the books were never considered as canonical as the movies and show. Star Wars has always been made by George Lucas. He has his own ideas for things that differ from how authors in the EU have written things. That is why he established different tiers of canon(G-level canon and such). Now they are deciding to move forward with new books that are official I guess and are actually canonical and fit within the movie and TV show universe in the way that they think they should.