Feiwel and Friends’ First Paperback Series Is a Go
By Sally Lodge, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 6/12/2008
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The summer 2008 collection |
Jean Feiwel, senior v-p and publisher of Feiwel and Friends and Square Fish, first heard about Go Girl! from Vancouver agent Sally Harding, who represents Hardie Grant Egmont. “She called to tell me about a series that was wildly popular in Australia,” says Feiwel. “That kind of description always makes me a bit skeptical, but at the same time I was starting to build an imprint and she was so enthusiastic on the phone that I decided to take a look. From the minute I saw the first four books, I loved them.”
The series’ focus on real-life issues sold Feiwel. “These books were not about the fairy thing or the princess thing,” she says. “Instead, they were very age-appropriate, slice-of-life stories about school, family, friends and sports. These are straightforward stories with messages in them, and not the kind of thing that is being widely published in the market today for the 7-up age group. With their flashy, anime covers these books look like Cocoa Puffs, but they’re really granola.”
The books in the Go Girl! series, which was conceived of by former Hardie Grant Egmont publisher Susannah MacFarlane, are written by various authors and have been Americanized for U.S.publication. Aside from eschewing fantasy elements, says Feiwel, the series is distinguished by its relatively low $3.99 price point and the stand-alone aspect of the novels, each of which focuses on a different girl not connected to the other heroines. “This makes it easy for readers to jump in at any place in the series,” she explains. “The point is that readers buy into the idea of girl power rather than the idea of getting attached to a character. It’s a concept that has worked well in Australia and seems to be working for us.”
Elizabeth Fithian, marketing director of Feiwel and Friends and Square Fish, notes that her own daughter, whose age is within the target audience, immediately related to the plot lines. “The books mirror specific worries that seven- or nine-year-old girls have,” she says, “like wearing the right leotard to dance class, which many adults don’t ever think about. These are issues that all girls—whether in Australia or in the U.S.—can relate to.”
To promote the series, Feiwel and Friends has established a Web site featuring information about the books, quizzes and other downloadable activities, as well as a link to the Australian publisher’s Go Girl! Web site. Feiwel and Friends plans to launch an on-line Go Girl! book club and will advertise the series on girl-oriented Web sites and in Girl’s Life and Discovery Girls magazines. The house has also created a floor display and is distributing bookmarks (featuring press-on tattoos) to teachers, librarians and booksellers, as well as through Scholastic’s school book fairs, which has sold the books.
This fall Feiwel and Friends will release four more Go Girl! titles, along with the first four books in its brother series, Zac Power. That series, also first launched by Hardie Grant Egmont, stars a young secret agent who is sent on a variety of tricky missions. Go Girls! creator McFarlane has a son named Zac, who complained to his mother after the launch of that series, according to Fithian. “He made it very clear that, since she had created a series for girls, it was only fair that she create a series for boys, too.”
