"Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing seeks fearless, nimble, and ferocious Goblin-Mischief Manager for their New York office. Must have experience with these toad-like, foul-smelling creatures, whose hobbies include eating house pets and roaming through S&S’s offices scaring off visiting authors, illustrators, and book buyers. Knowledge of goblin escape and defense tactics a must."
So reads a recent classified ad in PW, part of a campaign to sell the Spiderwick Chronicles, a series launching in May with The Field Guide and The Seeing Stone, each with a 50,000-copy first printing. Foreign rights have been sold in 14 countries, with at least one other country under negotiation, and a film version is currently in development by Nickelodeon/Paramount.
The first book of the five-part serial, conceived, written and illustrated by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, introduces Mallory, Jared and Simon Grace, who find a mysterious old book in a trunk in their attic and witness mischievous mayhem soon after moving into the Victorian home owned by their elderly great-aunt.
Each volume of the series opens with a "reproduction" of a letter to the authors, signed by the Grace siblings, explaining that the book they have uncovered "tells people how to identify faeries and how to protect themselves." The letter implores DiTerlizzi and Black to show the guide to their publisher, ominously noting that they "just want people to know about this. The stuff that has happened to us could happen to anyone."
When asked about the genesis of their series, the poker-faced authors stayed in character, insisting that a bookstore clerk handed them the letter while they were doing a book signing several years ago. "We were intrigued by the letter and thought at the very least it was quite funny that someone was purporting to have evidence of faeries," Black said. "Tony and I have both been long interested in faeries and when we contacted the kids and visited their home we were amazed that they actually had this field guide, compiled by their great-uncle, of faeries, trolls and other creatures that he had encountered."
DiTerlizzi and Black brought their field guide to Kevin Lewis, executive editor at S&S Books for Young Readers, who has edited books by both authors. Lewis liked the authors’ initial proposal to "re-do" the field guide compiling faerie facts and illustrations. "I commented that, though the guide was fascinating, the story behind it was really as interesting and would be fun for kids to read," he said.
The authors went on to craft the five installments relaying the Grace children’s experiences with both the guide and the beings it describes. After the three subsequent novels appear, S&S will issue the guide itself, Arthur Spiderwick’s Field Guide to the Fantastic World Around Us, in fall 2004 as the culmination of the series.
DiTerlizzi and Black, who have been friends for many years, are no strangers to the realm of faeries and fantasy. Black’s first novel, Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale, was released by S&S last fall. DiTerlizzi, who won a Caldecott Honor in January for his version of Mary Howitt’s The Spider and the Fly (also S&S) has also illustrated the work of Tolkien, Peter S. Beagle and Anne McCaffrey.
To collaborate on the Spiderwick Chronicles, Black explained that he and DiTerlizzi thoroughly discussed the story of the Grace kids and talked about "how we could work it into a five-part story. I wrote the novels and then sent them to Tony and he told me how he thought I could make things better." DiTerlizzi added, "It was up to us to design it into a story so that we could convince young skeptics as well."
DiTerlizzi also faced the challenge of creating drawings for the chapter books that would balance the tale’s Victorian sensibility and setting with its contemporary time frame. "I wanted to give the books the feel of a faerie tale and of a classic story that rings true," he said.
As part of a $150,000 campaign for the series, the publisher has created a 12-copy floor display, which holds one giveaway per book: a "Seeing Stone," a monocle-like object that enables humans to see otherwise invisible creatures. And DiTerlizzi and Black will take to the road in May. While visiting bookstores along the East Coast, they will bring with them a trunk containing a unicorn horn, tiny clothing, a pair of children’s shoes, "troll teeth," and other props that refer to the series, which are purported to have been found in the Grace home.
"We’ll pass around these things and let the kids draw their own conclusions," DiTerlizzi said. And since some adults fell for a similar promotion for the film The Blair Witch Project, and since Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events (in which the author insists he is merely the "true" author’s emissary), has proved so popular, this inventive selling strategy may well succeed with its young targets.
