Books on the Web
This story originally appeared in Children's Bookshelf on Dec. 15, 2005 Sign up now!
by Judith Rosen, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 12/15/2005
 A scene from the publisher's Web book The Diary of a Wimpy Kid. |
When Brallier was at Planet Dexter, he tried to incorporate what he called "stealth learning" into the books he published. The Grossology series, for example, combined solid science with stuff that appeals to kids, such as poop and vomit. He sees Web books, which are meant to be read on line and have episodes, not chapters, as the next generation of stealth texts for kids.
One of Brallier's Web sites, Funbrain.com, is a children's-oriented site for kids between the ages of nine and 12. "My whole challenge with Funbrain," says Brallier, "is how to deliver content that is learning-based. There's no puke on the site, but the market pressures are the same. Here we have kids who can go to any Web site they want. How do we get them to come here?"
Last year Brallier "published" his first Web book: The Diary of a Wimpy Kid by FEN colleague Jeff Kinney. In the intervening year and a half, it has had seven million visits. Currently there are no plans to turn The Diary into a print book. Since it has an episode for each day of the school year, it could easily run to more than 1,000 pages in a traditional print format.
"I'm keeping my eyes open to publish another original work," says Brallier, who predicts that the current publishing model will flip and books will come out as Web editions before going into print. In the meantime, FunBrain has begun experimenting with creating Web editions that are published simultaneously with print books. Last April, FunBrain.com posted a Web book that combined Natalie's Secret and Jenna's Dilemma, two books in Melissa J. Morgan's Camp Confidential series from Penguin. In May, it published Elizabeth Doyle Carey's Summer Begins, the first book in the Callahan Cousins series from Little, Brown. Both received their one millionth reader in the past few weeks.
Now Brallier is testing the market for graphic novels. Earlier this month FunBrain.com added its first comic strip, On the Rocks. As for royalties, since FunBrain's own revenue is based on advertising, it is using a similar model to determine publisher payments.
