Boston Herald: Tween book series goin’ to NYC publisher

By Donna Goodison, Boston Herald
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Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing has picked up the rights to the Beacon Street Girls series in a deal that will expand the books’ reach worldwide and open the door for foreign translations.

Aladdin M!X - the New York publishing company’s tween imprint started last spring to target 9- to 13-year-old readers - will relaunch the series next May by reissuing repackaged versions of the existing 14 books and publishing the new “Katani’s Jamaican Holiday.”

B*tween Productions Inc., creator of the Beacon Street Girls, has published the books itself to date and distributes them through 3,000 retail outlets in North America. The new deal will allow the Lexington company to focus on building its Web site, expanding its product line and pursuing additional product licensing agreements.

The parent-friendly Beacon Street Girls series, whose fictitious characters live in Brookline, was designed to help preteen girls who are “between toys and boys” deal positively with adolescent issues through wholesome, friendship-focused contemporary fiction. More than 500,000 books have been sold since 2004. New books will still be published four times a year.

“Beacon Street Girls is a darn reputable series that’s pretty dynamic and very much on the rise,” said Rubin Pfeffer, senior vice president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. “By working out an arrangement with B*tween Productions, we built mass for our Aladdin M!X program very quickly.”

In addition to expanding distribution of Beacon Street Girls domestically, Simon & Schuster will market the brand overseas. The series will be introduced at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in March and April. Pfeffer anticipates that the Beacon Street Girls’ online fan base of girls from 112 countries will help with worldwide distribution in English-speaking countries and foreign translations.

“The books do celebrate diversity,” Pfeffer said. “The issues that the Beacon Street Girls face would be fairly universal in other countries.”

Simon & Schuster’s repackaging of the series will include re-illustrating the characters and book covers and putting some “steroids” in the color and design.

“We’re keeping the very same look and feel, but we’re perking it up quite a bit,” said Pfeffer, who happens to commute between Brookline and New York.

“The style of the illustration will be a lot snappier, but every bit of the integrity about their characters and personalities will be the same,” Pfeffer said.

Addie Swartz, chief executive of B*tween Productions, said that no longer having to handle the printing, packing, shipping, distribution and promotion of the books will give the private company more time to build the brand to one that rivals American Girl. That will include an aggressive push to relaunch the company’s Web site in May as an interactive place with role-playing features and a fully monitored chat feature where young girls can safely talk about adolescent issues.

“In the world today, where we see the likes of Barbie and Bratz (dolls), there aren’t many opportunities for girls to deal with issues that they’re grappling with right now,” Swartz said.

Swartz also has ideas for having the Beacon Street Girls enter high school, and launching a new series targeting younger girls and another targeting young boys.