Three Barks for Blue!
There's a new top dog in the world of TV-to-book licensing. Blue, the animated (and blue, of course) pup who stars in Blue's Clues, the enormously popular program for preschoolers seen daily on Nickelodeon, now graces the pages of a new line of books from Simon Spotlight. A combined total of 600,000 copies of the first eight Blue's titles were released in mid-June.

"We've had a phenomenal response to the books across the board," said Kristi DeLano, marketing manager for S&S's Simon Spotlight and Aladdin imprints. "It's been a challenge to keep them in stock." Approximately 40% of the books have been sold to mass market retailers. And as of October 1, there are 4.2 million Blue's Clues books in print.

But not every TV tie-in creates such a book-buying frenzy. What's Blue's secret? Well, timing and corporate synergy were key. June 14 was officially declared Blue's birthday, and the celebration included a primetime special on Nickelodeon and a blowout birthday event at FAO Schwarz in Manhattan, which prominently featured the books. "It was the biggest product launch in the store's 136-year history," Delano said of the event.

In a well-designed licensed product roll-out, Viacom-owned Nickelodeon and S&S teamed up to create several commercials that aired on Nick and Nick Jr. (the daily preschool programming block where Blue's Clues is seen). DeLano notes that S&S also worked together with other Blue's licensees including Humongous Entertainment (creator of Blue's Clues CD-ROMs) and Mott's, which sponsored a huge Blue's Big Birthday Sweepstakes promotion. Since June Blue's Clue's plush toys have also sold well.

Birthday events were also held at other retail locations, including Zany Brainy, Noodle Kidoodle and Viacom stores. Nickelodeon mailed 50,000 Blue's Clues outreach kits to preschools and daycare centers, and with Humongous, S&S created 1.25 million doorhangers.

If You Publish a Companion Book...
...people will want to buy it. So seems the case with If You Give a Pig a Pancake by Laura Numeroff, illustrated by Felicia Bond, released by HarperCollins in May, which has 306,495 copies in print to date after six printings. (Two more printings, due at the end of October, will increase the figure to 409,000.) This third playful, what-if picture book follows in the footsteps of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie (nearly 1.8 million in print, in various formats) and If You Give a Moose a Muffin (just over one million in print).

"The book did really well for us," said Sheilah Egan, manager of A Likely Story in Alexandria, Va. "It already had a built-in following because of the earlier books." Egan's store also held a storytime featuring the book and created a display near the front door. "I think the latest title rejuvenated sales for the previous two," she added.

Fast-Moving Fiction
Winning a major book award always gives a book a boost in sales. But Newbery Honor title Ella Enchanted, a first novel by Gail Carson Levine (HarperCollins, May 1997) seems to have generated a following that has reached beyond award recognition. The book currently has over 50,000 hardcover copies in print and the HarperTrophy paperback edition, released last month with a first printing of 100,000, is selling briskly.

According to HarperCollins director of publicity Virginia Anagnos, Ella received major marketing support. "The book was a huge in-house favorite from the start," she said. "When the book was first published we sent out a heartfelt letter saying 'Just read it.' That grabbed a lot of people's attention." And this past spring, Levine and fellow author Suzanne Fisher Staples (Shabanu) embarked on a national tour together. According to Anagnos, the most impressive thing about the tour was that "there were 200-700 people at each event. Little girls were clutching the book and coming up to Gail in awe. It was really amazing." In addition, Ella Enchanted was also part of a successful summer promotion called "Books You Can Sink Your Teeth Into," which included materials like shelf-talkers and bookmarks.

The hard-hitting YA novel Smack by Melvin Burgess, about teens' descent into heroin use, is also making a splash. The book won England's prestigious Carnegie Medal and Guardian Prize for fiction. YA novels have proven to be difficult to sell, and a book about heroin use is likely to be more difficult still. However, Smack is definitely finding an audience with teens as well as adults. Susan Barry, assistant marketing manager at Henry Holt, said the hardcover has sold 15,000 copies since its May release. "It's been more buzz than anything, that's helped this book," she said. "The controversial subject matter helped, too. But the early attention from review journals got the ball rolling and it snowballed from there."

As part of this snowball effect, Borders included the title in its Original Voices spotlight and Barnes &Noble placed the book in its Discover New Authors pamphlets and displays. YA titles are rarely seen in these programs, though have been featured before (Tenderness by Robert Cormier, The Long Patrol by Brian Jacques and Parrot in the Oven by Victor Martinez are a few past selections in the Borders program). Home shoppers could also find featured coverage of Smack at online bookseller amazon.com. For two weeks in June Amazon ran an excerpt of the book and an online interview with Burgess.