Publishers Weekly - Seeing Double for B*tween Productions ...

Seeing Double for B*tween Productions: Sales & Titles
by Judith Rosen, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 5/11/2006

Two years after B*tween Productions launched the first book in its Beacon Street Girls series, aimed at providing wholesome reading for 'tweens, the Lexington, Mass.-based company is about to launch a second series and anticipates a significant increase in sales.

"We have an aggressive growth plan," says CEO Addie Swartz, who is "more than pleased" with the privately held company's ability to hit its goal of doubling last year's sales, which were $1 million, according to Inc. magazine.

In part, that's because the B*tween Productions's title-base is also doubling, from five books in 2005 to 10 this year. Currently, there are seven books in the BSG series by Annie Bryant, featuring five friends in the Boston suburbs, with a combined in-print total of 280,000 copies. An eighth book, Lucky Charm, which weaves together the story of the girls' missing dog, found by a Red Sox player unwilling to part with his "lucky charm," and a horse-back riding stable in desperate need of cash, is due out later this month.

In addition to adding more BSG books this year than last, B*tween Productions is growing its list by spinning off a new adventure series, also by Bryant, featuring individual Beacon Street Girls. The series will launch in October with Charlotte in Paris.

"We're not only coming out with more books," says Schwartz. "But more and more girls are learning about us." She has received letters and e-mails from girls in 33 countries—including Ghana , the Netherlands and Nigeria—even though B*tween Productions books are distributed only in the U.S. and Canada and on the Web at www.beaconstreetgirls.com.