Simon & Schuster Signs Further DORK DIARIES Books

Related: DORK DIARIES, Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster Children's Books, alongside Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing in the US, today announced the acquisition of further titles for the bestselling Dork Diaries brand, as they celebrate the launch of the fifth title in the series.

In the new deal, Jane Griffiths, Commissioning Editor at S&S UK, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights for three new titles in the series from Angharad Kowal at Writers House UK. The deal comprises two novels continuing the series, and one spin?off journal.
First published in February 2010, the Dork Diaries series now boasts 8 million English?language copies in print worldwide, including 1.3 million copies of UK editions. The series has shown huge growth, with UK sales in 2012 up 46% on 2011 and sales in the Australian market up 77% on 2011 YTD.

For the most recent title, Dear Dork (11th October 2012), S&S UK pulled out all the stops on a marketing & PR campaign which included:

Voucher promotion with The Sun over two?week period, featuring a WHSmith voucher for a 99p edition of Dork Diaries, with more than 4k redemptions in the first week alone.
Collaboration with Girl Talk magazine, one of the leading tween/teen magazines. 50k copies of Dear Dork were stickered with a competition to 'win a day at your favourite magazine'. Competition was featured in Girl Talk magazine and on cover flash, with follow?up article to come, as well as online promotion/coverage on Girl Talk and Simon & Schuster websites.

Three week TV advertising campaign during October in primetime viewing slots on Sky channel Pop Girl (estimated monthly reach of 500k viewers). Coupled with online promotion and competition on Pop Girl website with MPU and Leaderboard advertising, as well as a bespoke Dear Dork page on the site.

UK online presence launched in June 2012, at www.dorkdiaries.co.uk continues to grow, with unique visitors in October 2012 almost double that of the previous month.
S&S continue the partnership with Girl Talk magazine; www.girltalkmagazine.com exclusively revealed the cover for the sixth book in the series, Dork Diaries: Holiday Heartbreak, today. Holiday Heartbreak, already acquired and scheduled for June 2013, will be the first to launch in hardback, with a paperback edition to follow. In the book, the biggest dance of the year is coming up and everybody's favourite dork, Nikki Maxwell, is hoping that her crush, Brandon, will ask her to go with him. But will it be a holiday romance..?

The first of the three books under the new deal will launch in autumn 2013, with the subsequent books taking the publishing programme right through to 2015. The two novels will be published first in hardback, with paperback editions to follow.

Jane Griffiths at S&S said: "Dork Diaries is now one of Simon & Schuster's most successful children's fiction brands and I'm delighted to have signed up more books from Rachel, taking our publishing programme through to 2015. Nikki's hilarious diaries about her not?so?perfect life have millions of fans worldwide and we're really excited to have more books to look forward to."

Rachel Renée Russell also commented, "I'm overjoyed to know that there is going to be a Book 7 and a Book 8 to continue the drama of Nikki Maxwell's dorkalicious life. With each new book, Nikki Maxwell and I still break into our Snoopy Happy Dance! Working on Dork Diaries and meeting my fans from all over the world is a dream come true! Always remember that dorks rule!"

About Simon and Schuster UK

Simon & Schuster UK Children's Publishing was founded in 1998. Since then it has published numerous popular and bestselling titles and series, including The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi & Holly Black, work by multi?award winning author Sophie McKenzie, The Great Hamster Massacre by Katie Davies (winner of The Waterstone's Children's Book Prize 2010), Andy Mulligan's Ribblestrop series (winner of the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2011), the Thirteen Treasures sequence by Michelle Harrison, bestselling paranormal romance Hush Hush and its sequels by Becca Fitzpatrick, and works by LJ Smith. Stars on the picture book and licensed character list include Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort, Olivia by Ian Falconer, pre?school sensations Mike the Knight and The Octonauts, Sue Hendra's Barry the Fish with Fingers, and Anna Kemp and Sara Ogilvie's award?winning Dogs Don't do Ballet. New additions to the children's list for 2012 include international bestselling author Philippa Gregory with her YA series Order of Darkness, and Darren Shan, with his 12 book series Zom