This fall, almost a decade after the release of the last of the three books in renowned artist James Gurney's popular Dinotopia series, Kansas City, Mo., publisher Andrews McMeel is betting that the public will embrace dinosaurs in much the same way they did when the first titles hit stores in 1992.
Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara, written and illustrated by Gurney, will be released in hardcover in October, with an initial print run of 100,000 copies.
The 160-page book includes 150 illustrations featuring creatures based on recent paleontological discoveries in China, such as small feathered dinosaurs the size of chickens or turkeys.
Dinotopia: A Land Apart from Time was first released by Turner Publishing in 1992. Dinotopia: The World Beneath was published in 1995. After Turner Publishing stopped doing books in 1997, HC obtained the rights from Gurney, reissued the old titles and released Dinotopia: First Flight, the last of the original series, in 1999. In addition to Gurney's three novels, 16 chapter books by various authors were published by Random House between 1995 and 2002, and a television miniseries based on the books aired on ABC in 2002. All books are currently out of print, although a DVD of the TV program is available.
According to Gurney's agent, Michael Stone, president and CEO of the Beanstalk Group, who has negotiated Dinotopia publishing and licensing rights for the past 15 years, A Land Apart from Time sold one million copies in the U.S. and another million worldwide. Stone added that the two subsequent books in the series sold “hundreds of thousands of copies,” though he could not provide exact sales figures to PW.
Gurney said that he first approached Andrews McMeel three years ago to publish Journey to Chandara, a project that has taken him five years to complete. “They understand that a visual book needs visual effects,” he said, explaining that Andrews McMeel had been the distributor for Turner in the early '90s, when A Land Apart from Time was released. “They seemed the best match for the new book, which is well suited to a boutique publisher,” he said.
Kirsty Melville, publisher of Andrews McMeel, called Journey to Chandara a “huge get” for the press, describing its potential market as large and diverse, including college students, who were introduced to the first three Dinotopia books as children; science fiction aficionados; and, of course, a new audience of young readers, ages 10—18, for whom the book is officially intended.
“When Jim approached us, we were, 'Really?' ” Melville recalled, “We have experience this time, and knew what we could do with it.” Children's, sci-fi, illustrated books—it's what we do best.” Melville said Andrews McMeel has not yet decided if it will negotiate with Gurney to obtain the rights to the backlist titles. “We believe in this book so much. We are focusing on it,” Melville declared. “We don't want to diffuse the market.”
Stone describes himself as open to transferring the rights to Andrews McMeel. “It depends on how the new book does,” he said.
