The "Goosebumps Series" consists of 137 novels
The first book in the Goosebumps series was published in 1991.
The Goosebumps series was released in 1992 It has entered the national children's bestseller list.
In 1994, Goosebumps books accounted for 8 of the top 10 best-selling children's books in the United States.
In 1995, the Goosebumps book series was transformed into a television series, breaking all records for children's dramas in North America and becoming the most-watched children's television series.
In 1999, the Goosebumps series was translated into 27 (31 languages ??after the Chinese copyright was jointly produced by Jielie Publishing House and American Golden Peach Publishing Company in 2001), with annual sales of 30 million copies. , with global sales of 220 million copies, and was rated by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest-selling children's book series in history. Robert Laurence Stine, the author of the "Goosebumps" series, was born in Ohio, USA, in 1943. He began his writing career at the age of 9. At that time, the content was mainly short stories and humorous stories. While studying at Ohio State University, he was also the editor of the university's humor magazine. After graduation, he came to New York to work as an editor for a magazine affiliated with Scholar Press, and later served as the editor-in-chief of a children's humor magazine "Banana Man" for 10 years. During the same period, he wrote several children's humor books. The best-selling author who wrote his first thriller "Blind Date" in 1986 and quickly became famous, also made the author realize the huge market potential of this kind of thriller among teenagers.
It was precisely because of his love for writing since childhood and the fact that he found a way to write thriller novels that in 1989, Stan cooperated with "Parachute Publishing Company" for the first time to publish the first thriller series "Fear Street" (Only one sub-series of this set of books has been published in mainland China: "Ghost Street"). After the success, Stan cooperated with Scholar Press and published the "Goosebumps" series in 1992. It is precisely because of the creation of the "Goosebumps" series that the author Stan was named the best-selling author by USA Today for three consecutive years from 1994 to 1996, even Stephen King was ranked second.
The author Stan's explanation for the success of "Goosebumps" is: "Like adults, children generally like adventure, suspense, excitement and a certain degree of terror." In addition to the content of the books, the "Goosebumps" series In addition to satisfying readers' desire for safe adventures, another attractive feature is that the book's cover designer Tim Jacobus has created covers and illustrations with different styles, full of mystery, and excitement for the book. Interestingly, Jacob, who was commissioned by Scholar Press to design the cover, and the author Stan met for the first time after four years of collaboration and became good friends.
To date, 137 books in the "Goosebumps" series have been published, including 62 books in the "Goosebumps Original Series", 25 books in the "Goosebumps: Thrilling New Century Series", and "Goosebumps: A Variety of Adventures" "Adventure" has 50 copies, suitable for reading ages 8 to 12. It has been translated into 31 languages ??and sold to countries all over the world. The single paperback price is only US$3.99. The total sales volume has reached 350 million copies, with an average annual sales of 3,000 Thousands of copies. Stan himself therefore deservedly became the best-selling children's book author according to Guinness Records in 2000 and 2001. Due to the prevailing trend of mergers and reorganizations among American publishing houses in the 1990s, many publishing houses had to lay off employees to cut costs and focus on topic planning and marketing. Therefore, a large number of design and packaging personnel went to packaging companies. Such companies have strong book production and packaging capabilities and are good at using new technologies. However, publishing houses are limited by funds and manpower and are willing to take over everything from book production and packaging (including cover, layout design and printing) to even topic selection. Development is left to the packaging company, and I am fully responsible for marketing. As the business continues to mature and its functions expand, the role of the packager has been expanded, from just providing cover design of finished books to participating in early author selection, topic planning and publishing, and even distribution and marketing. It can be said that the packager More like publishers. When packagers choose to cooperate with publishers, they mainly value the publisher's strength in distribution. With the help of packagers, book sales can be doubled. For example, Kenny Book Company repackaged "Deadly Chocolate" and sales increased by 250,000 copies. Shige Book Packaging Company repackaged "New York Public Library Reference Reference Book" "After four years of re-editing and packaging, it was published and sold 750,000 copies in just three months, recovering the cost.
Parachute Publishing L. L. C., the packager of the "Goosebumps" series of books, is such a packaging company whose functions are more similar to those of a publishing house. Since Parachute Publishing began publishing the Goosebumps series in 1992 in partnership with Scholar Press, the company has continued to expand and has become a full-service publishing company (Stan's wife is one of the company's shareholders).
Parachute Publishing Company is affiliated to the Parachute multinational company of the same name. Its business scope includes children's book publishing, entertainment and derivative products; it can provide publishers with different services from manuscripts to finished books, and also produce books based on movies, TV and audio-visual image products. The authorized publishing program is also evolving. A marketing development department has been established within the company to make its functions more diversified. A set of "Goosebumps" also transformed a little-known packaging company. In addition, Parachute Publishing Company attaches great importance to the development of book titles. From 1999 to 2001, it jointly published "The Nightmare Room Series" (The Nightmare Room Series) and other books written by Stan from 1999 to 2001. A thriller similar to Goosebumps. Scholar Press is a big winner thanks to its Goosebumps series. Sales of Goosebumps spin-offs have made a fortune for Scratstick Publishing, which owns the rights. Let's look at an example: An eight-year-old boy, Tom, saved up the three dollars of pocket money his parents gave him every week to buy "Goosebumps"; there were many episodes, and he used pillowcases, sheets, schoolbags, flashlights and T-shirts. The shirts also feature the Goosebumps trademark. He also regularly visits the Goosebumps website and watches weekly TV shows. Undoubtedly, there are many children like Tom in the United States and even elsewhere. The revenue from these derivative products can reach more than 1 billion US dollars.
Magaret Loesch, CEO of Fox Kids Network in the United States, saw the huge commercial benefits and impact of "Goosebumps" on children. (His six-year-old child was also fascinated by it) After that, the "Goosebumps" series began to be broadcast in November 1995. Once the program was aired, it became the highest-rated television program in the history of American children's television programs for four consecutive years. At the same time, the product forms such as toys, daily necessities, and TV movies derived from this kind of books have even changed the original standard model of judging the success of children's books based solely on sales volume. More and more publishers are beginning to consider adapting books into scripts for television, and they are also recognizing the importance of brand development. Under this prairie fire situation, from 1992 to 1996, 12 new "Goosebumps" books were published every year, with 4 million copies sold every month, and as many as 44 kinds of by-products, including the Hasbro board game (Hasbro Board Games), Hallmark party supplies and video games, etc. In addition, on Halloween in 1996, Scholar Press collaborated with Pepsi, Hershey, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell Mexican fast food restaurants to launch the $30 million Goosebumps book. Promotions. Many related CD and VCD products produced by DreamWorks and other companies have even achieved platinum status. In addition, a theme park was created based on the "Goosebumps" book, located at MGM-Disneyland, which became a landscape that attracted children to visit.
Stan's books combine humor and thrills, and are very magical for both boys and girls. Scholar Press asked brand designer Sharon Lisman to create a shape with a large white G letter on a green background, embedded with a skull holding a baseball glove and hat, and marked "Reading" Just a scream” slogan. to gain parental approval. This branding is featured on all by-products and advertising. However, this image never appears in the book. However, people who see this logo immediately know that it has something to do with "Goosebumps". In March 2000, Scholar Press sued Parachute Publishing Company and the author Stein, accusing them of violating the principle stipulated in the contract that the author must independently complete all creations and allowing other authors to write the book instead. In the end, the lawsuit ended with Scholar Press losing due to lack of evidence. This spelled the end of the partnership, and packagers and authors began to choose publishers as partners again. If it is true to ask someone to write for you, then anyone who has read the novel will know that the content and scenes of each episode of Stan's novel are different, and they are independent chapters, which is very difficult. It is no wonder that he needs to borrow his brain from others. Written. Regardless, the lawsuit brought more attention to "Goosebumps" and led to Stan's collaboration with Harper-Collins.