Scholastic's 'Animorphs' Series Has Legs
Sally Lodge -- 11/3/97
"I love your books and I think if you ever stop writing them I will have a meaningless life (I live to read good books!). So keep writing! Please!!!" This passionate plea, which recently appeared on an area of Scholastic's website that promotes its Animorphs series, is typical of the exclamation point-studded, 100-plus pieces of fan e-mail author K.A. Applegate receives via the site each day. And the popularity of this Internet address (scholastic.com/animorphs) seems to be an accurate barometer of the series' performance in stores, where Animorph titles are disappearing in almost as short a period of time as it takes the books' human characters to morph into animals.
According to the publisher, Animorphs, which debuted in June 1996 with much promotional fanfare, had a significantly stronger initial sell-in than did any other Scholastic series, including Goosebumps and the Baby-sitters Club. Now approaching the 10-million-copy in-print mark, Animorphs resides at the top of PW's children's paperback series bestseller list, where booksellers predict it will roost for the foreseeable future.
But just how did this hybrid animal/science fiction/intergalactic adventure saga get off the ground? According to Applegate, several key interests of hers contributed to the series' conception. First came the animals. "I grew up loving animals and lived with the usual suburban menagerie of dogs, cats and gerbils," explained the Minneapolis-based writer. "I really wanted to find a way to get kids into the heads of various species and decided that a science-fiction premise was the way to do this."
Then came her desire to write for middle-graders. The author of over 100 books, among them a pair of Harlequin romances, Disney pop-up books and short stories for young adults, Applegate wanted very much to write for middle-grade readers, an age group she labeled "the best readers on the planet. They are open-minded, imaginative and willing to embrace ideas."
Finally, the author also wanted to shape her middle-grade project into a series, which though hardly a new experience for her (she has penned several for the YA market and wrote 17 of the Sweet Valley Twins adventures), presented a welcome challenge. In her words, "A series writer has to develop plotting and pacing that become a well-oiled machine. You don't have the luxury of spending a year on a book and absolutely cannot indulge in writer's block. Yet I knew I had to write in perfect language and choose just the right images, to make sure that my middle readers fell in love with the characters and returned again and again."
Series Takes Shape
After putting together an elaborate series bible that included outlines for several novels, sample chapters and rough drawings ("And I emphasize 'rough,'" quipped Applegate), the author submitted her proposal to Scholastic-over the transom-along with a letter that stated, quite simply, "I think this is a cool idea." So did Jean Feiwel, senior v-p and publisher of the Scholastic Book Group, who recalled being impressed by Applegate's "lovely letter and well articulated, well thought-out presentation." From the beginning, Feiwel observed, there was an unusually high level of in-house excitement about this series, whose name morphed from Applegate's original "The Changelings" into its current form.
Scholastic channeled this enthusiasm into a marketing stratagem which, in Feiwel's words, "had an enormous amount of effort and money behind it. The content of Animorphs was fabulous, and we agonized over its packaging and getting the look and the tone of the series right going out. We knew we couldn't leave anything to chance -- we made sure that all the buttons were pressed 'on.' " Indeed, Scholastic switched blazing spotlights on its soon-to-launch series: ads ran on Nickelodeon TV as well as in Nickelodeon magazine, an array of giveaways and teaser booklets were shipped to bookstores, and promotional posters blanketed major metropolitan areas. And Animorphs took flight.
Scholastic's promotional blitz caught the eye of retailers and young consumers, but there's clearly something about Animorphs that has kept kids enthralled and continues to feed the swelling sales of the series' 13 installments to date. On the basis of readers' comments -- on the Internet as well as in the 200-plus letters Applegate receives each week through conventional mail -- the author has spun her fantastical thesis into a highly credible reading experience for kids, who evidently identify closely with the characters and with their rather unlikely escapades. Several fans urgently beg the author to make the morphed Tobias ("the best character") human again. One reader excitedly confided that he had seen "the ripple in the sky" described in The Encounter, insisting "it appeared right in front of my eyes!" Another described himself as "an Animorph freak" who "even tried to morph my cat."
Offering her views on the series' winning elements, Feiwel credited Applegate's ability to bring to life a concept that "is absolutely unbelievable but utterly possible. The notion of kids' morphing is also close to adolescent body changes in some ways. It is out of their control but becomes something quite fabulous -- which is what you like to think happens in the process of growing up." Feiwel also observed that the author employs a wry sense of humor to balance the outlandish with the real: though the young characters "may go off to defend the earth against aliens, at the end of the day they still have math homework to do."
Signs of Success
Buyers for chains as well as for independent bookstores agreed that middle-graders -- especially but not exclusively boys -- are snatching up Animorphs novels with a zeal they haven't noticed in young customers since the Goosebumps heyday. What, from their perspective, has made the series rise to the top?
The kid-pleasing ingredients of Applegate's plots and the quality of her writing received high marks from booksellers, including Barnes and Noble children's buyer Camilla Corcoran, who described the author's writing style as "staccato -- which is particularly appealing to kids at this age."
Noting that "Scholastic certainly did their homework on this one," Corcoran also praised the attention-grabbing die-cut covers on the Animorphs books as well as the prelaunch publicity which, in her words, "got the buzz going early. I remember stopping to look at posters announcing the series on buildings as I walked to work. The publisher really got people talking and kids excited about the series even before anyone saw the books."
Booksellers also cite Scholastic's highly successful school book club and book fair businesses as a unique advantage in spreading word of this (and other) series. According to Anne Ginkel, co-owner of Hobbit Hall in Roswell, Ga., the company "is able to create a frenzy for their products by grabbing kids through the school market. They can, to some degree, corner the market with their strong presence in both schools and stores. This, and the fact that they do a great job of developing new ideas at just the right time, can make it hard for other series to compete."
In what some viewed as a typically savvy cross-marketing move, since September Scholastic has been offering, on three sequential monthly school-book-club order forms, a trio of titles by Applegate that comprise a new series, called The Andalite Chronicles. It is a prequel exploring the background of the alien race that provided the Animorphs with their power. According to Feiwel, this is a way to "seed" this work in the book clubs before releasing it to the trade in November, when the three tales will be combined in a 300-page-plus volume with a gatefold cover.
Changes in the Air?
Retailers were split on the question of just how high Animorphs will fly -- and for how long. Shelley Troili, manager of Mother Goose Bookstore in Santa Maria, Calif., hasn't seen a significant increase in sales as subsequent volumes have appeared. Though she acknowledged that youngsters constantly ask when the next installment will be arriving, she predicted that "the publisher isn't likely to be bringing out number 65 in this series. Although it is very well written and I'm quick to recommend Animorphs, somehow I can't see it lasting as long as Goosebumps has."
On the other hand, Dana Dragani, book buyer for Noodle Kidoodle, has watched sales of each Animorphs title peak at a higher level than the previous one, and likened this momentum to that which she observed with sales of the initial Goosebumps books. Yet she noted that, though they have not (yet anyway) benefited from the widespread licensing that made Stine's series such a multi-market phenomenon, the Animorphs books do have an advantage that may give them staying power. "Since this series falls into the category of science fiction rather than horror, there is far less resistance on the part of parents," she noted. "Rather than featuring fangs and dripping blood on the covers, these books have more of a save-the-planet kind of look. And the series has tapped into kids' interest in high-tech and science fiction, which is very big right now."
Dragani expressed the hope that Animorphs will inspire young readers to further explore the science-fiction and fantasy genres and perhaps lead new readers to authors like C.S. Lewis, Lloyd Alexander and Madeleine L'Engle. Yet for those who want more Animorphs, Scholastic has plans that will keep fans flipping pages for some time to come. At this point, the author is signed up to write 30 volumes and is at work finishing the second Megamorphs release, a "super edition" that will offer a time-travel tale involving dinosaurs. Feiwel anticipated that the company will add additional "layers" to the series with more spinoffs along the lines of The Andalite Chronicles. And currently in development is a live-action TV series based on the books' adventures, scheduled to debut on Nickelodeon next fall.
The signs indicate that Animorphs is a high-flying venture that is not likely to touch ground anytime soon. It's a safe guess that, as booksellers make room on their shelves for upcoming Animorphs adventures, even more young readers will agree with the ardent fan whose recent e-mail issued the ultimate compliment: "The Animorph series rules!!!"
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