In anticipation of a October 2015 release, Candlewick is hosting a contest for readers of Stephan Pastis’s Timmy Failure series to vote on both the title and cover of the fourth installment.
Two alternative covers and titles will be up for voting when the polls open on January 15. To participate in the “Vote 4 Failure” campaign, readers can access the Timmy Failure site from January 15 to March 15 to cast their votes. The contest is a partnership with TeachingBooks.net, a website geared for K-12 teachers. Candlewick will promote the contest on social media platforms, including their Twitter, Vine, YouTube, Google +, and Facebook accounts. The publisher will also reach out to bloggers, schools, and librarians through e-newsletters and Internet ads. At ALA Midwinter, to be held January 30 to February 3 in Chicago, Candlewick will have iPads available in its booth for attendees to cast their votes. Voters will receive stickers that say “I Voted 4 Failure.”
Timmy Failure is the creation of Stephan Pastis, the author of the nationally syndicated Pearls Before Swine comic strip. Pastis was inspired to change up the routine of a daily comic strip in 2013 and developed Timmy Failure, an inept kid detective with a polar bear sidekick. The irreverent illustrated middle-grade series has sold 500,000 copies to date. Rights to the series have been sold in 33 countries, and it has been translated into 30 languages.
In book four, Timmy Failure takes his sleuthing skills on a cross-country road trip. “Who doesn’t remember being stuck in the back of the car on a family road trip? Staying in weird motels with strange-smelling bathrooms?” says Candlewick’s editorial director Liz Bicknell. “The fourth book in the series is laugh-out-loud funny... and yet, as always, Timmy’s vulnerable side makes his readers cheer for him.”
