Media push

For the September 9 laydown, the series is set to roar out of the gate with a one million-copy worldwide (500,000 copies in the U.S.) first printing of the novel The Maze of Bones by bestselling author Rick Riordan.

Innovation came into play on the marketing front, as well. “One of our biggest challenges was in conveying what The 39 Clues is,” said Suzanne Murphy, publisher of Scholastic Trade. “A lot of education was going on internally, about what is involved in a two-and-a-half year program like this.” Armed with a pitch that Murphy’s team tried to make “as clear and simple as possible,” Scholastic did road shows for accounts demonstrating how the cards and game would work, and a push-out to the industry featuring 39 Clues backpacks and a limited number of “inheritance kits” containing an ARC and other materials.

Murphy stressed that a multi-pronged strategy meant keeping in mind that “kids will be coming to it in different ways—online, through the books or cards.” A new property with that kind of reach had to be branded very quickly. “We needed to get the name and the number 39 out there,” said Murphy. A viral online marketing campaign is helping to fill the bill. Visitors to www.thenumber39.com (launched August 1, 39 days before the series launch) will find fictional bloggers posting about sightings of the number 39. In turn, postings about the number 39 site appear on MySpace, YouTube, Yahoo and other sites. Online advertising, 30-second television spots airing in major markets nationwide and a media blitz that includes an appearance by Riordan on The Today Show September 8 are other pieces of the marketing pie.
Ellen Wartella, distinguished professor of psychology at U.C. Riverside and an expert on the role of media in children’s development, believes that this full-court press by Scholastic makes sense. Tweens these days, she said, are using all kinds of media, including mobile media, more than ever before. “This is a new example of a content creator trying to capture children’s attention in a multiplicity of ways, wherever they may be.”
Levithan and his colleagues know that a lot is riding on their venture, especially as it arrives in the very large shadow of Harry Potter. “We don’t think of The 39 Clues in terms of anything else we’ve done,” he said. “Of course we want it to be hugely successful, but on its own terms.”
And in terms of producing a multi-platform program on this scale, “We are the bellwether,” Levithan said. “It’s an amazing, exciting thing, and it’s also a nervous thing. If it is successful, it’s going to change publishing. If not, we’ll find something else what will be successful.” Murphy has a similar outlook. “We hope to learn from any bumps in the road we experience with The 39 Clues,” she said. “The wave has already started for us; everyone in the trade division is looking for innovation.” Whatever happens with The 39 Clues, she notes, “will affect things that are already in the hopper and will affect how we market our trade books in the future.”
Looking ahead, the multi-platform “hopper” at Scholastic is indeed hopping. Next February will see the debut of the Skeleton Creek series by Patrick Carman, which Levithan describes as a “novel/web-video hybrid,” about two kids in a small town where strange, ghostly things happen. Other multimedia projects are also in development.

Nathanson to pen movie

Jeff Nathanson is adapting the first book of Rick Riordan's kids' series, The Maze of Bones (part of The 39 Clues), for DreamWorks. Steven Spielberg added The 39 Clues post-Indy IV projects a couple of months ago. Nathanson and Spielberg have developed a pretty solid working relationship of late, with the former working on the scripts for The Terminal, Catch Me If You Can and Indy IV (which was attributed solely to David Koepp, but Nathanson was credited with the story, along with George Lucas). Scholastic Media prexy Deborah Forte is producing. DreamWorks co-chair and CEO Stacey Snider praised Nathanson's "great sense of adventure touched with humor and suspense." She added that he provides "just the right recipe for our family film." Nathanson's credits also include the screenplays for "Rush Hour 2" and "Rush Hour 3"; "The Last Shot" which he also directed; and "New York, I Love You," which is scheduled for release next year.

Prizes!

So, Scholastic has released information about the prizes with listings for each participating country. Looks like some good stuff is up for grabs! It looks as if the $10,ooo grand prize the publisher is offering only applies in the U.S. and Canada. It's $5,000 in New Zealand and Australia, £5,000 in the U.K. To be the Grand Prize winner, kids collect all 39 Clues and must remain in the top 39 point scorers in the online game.
All areas with the exception of Australia are offering Book Prizes as well. After reading each book, children add the included trading cards to their online collection to see if they won up to $500!
The site will host Missions for the kids to do too. Playing along with a Clue Mission gets you in the running for as much as $250.
Let's not forget the Episode Prizes, an episode is a book, a Clue Mission, trading cards and other activities on the web site with more chances for cash. In Australia, kids compete for gaming consoles for Episode Prizes.

UNITED STATES
GRAND PRIZE: Collect all 39 Clues and be one of the top 39 point scorers, and you can compete for the $10,000 grand prize.
BOOK PRIZES: Read a Book, add the cards to your online collection, and you have the chance to win $500.
MISSION PRIZES: Start an online Clue Mission, and you have the chance to win $250.
EPISODE PRIZES: The top point scorer for a 39 Clues Episode (that's one Book, one Mission, card combos, and other online activities) wins $1,000.


CANADA
GRAND PRIZE: Collect all 39 Clues and be one of the top 39 point scorers, and you can compete for the $10,000 grand prize.
BOOK PRIZES: Read a Book, add the cards to your online collection, and you have the chance to win $500.
MISSION PRIZES: Start an online Clue Mission, and you have the chance to win $250.
EPISODE PRIZES: The top point scorer for a 39 Clues Episode (that's one Book, one Mission, card combos, and other online activities) wins $1,000.

UNITED KINGDOM
GRAND PRIZE: Collect all 39 Clues and you have the chance to win the £5,000 grand prize.
BOOK PRIZES: Read a Book, add the cards to your online collection, and you have the chance to win £250.
MISSION PRIZES: Start an online Clue Mission, and you have the chance to win £125.


NEW ZEALAND
GRAND PRIZE: Collect all 39 Clues and you have the chance to win the $5,000 grand prize.
BOOK PRIZES: Read a Book, add the cards to your online collection, and you have the chance to win $500.
MISSION PRIZES: Start an online Clue Mission, and you have the chance to win $250.

AUSTRALIA
GRAND PRIZE: Collect all 39 Clues and be one of the top 39 point scorers, and you can compete for a home entertainment center valued at $5,000.
EPISODE PRIZES: The top point scorer for a 39 Clues Episode -- that's one Book, one Mission and other online activities -- wins a gaming console.

With all of these great prizes and lots of cash just waiting to be claimed, this will be a fun and exciting adventure for all kids!

More story background from Scholastic...

This is the information provided about the story line of "The 39 Clues" book series:

Minutes before she died Grace Cahill changed her will, leaving her decendants an impossible decision: "You have a choice - one million dollars or a clue."

Grace is the last matriarch of the Cahills, the world's most powerful family. Everyone from Napoleon to Houdini is related to the Cahills, yet the source of the family power is lost. 39 clues hidden around the world will reveal the family's secret, but no one has assembled them. Now young Amy and Dan must decide what's important: hunting clues or uncovering what happened to their parents.

The books will set the scene, telling the basic story while the cards, website and game allow kids to participate. Kids visit the website and discover they are lost members of the Cahill family. They set up online accounts where they compete against other kids and Cahill characters to find all the clues. Through the site, kids can track points and clues, manage card collections, dig through the Cahill archives and "travel" to collect artifacts, interview characters and search for clues. Collecting cards helps: Each card is a piece of evidence containing information on a Cahill, a clue or a family secret. Prizes will be given away through the books, website and cards, including a grand prize of $10,000.

Steven Spielberg on board!

Now that DreamWorks Studios has announced it has bought rights to "The 39 Clues" book series word has quickly followed that Steven Spielberg is set to direct. The first in the 10-book series will be released by Scholastic in September, the same publisher to offer the "Harry Potter" series. The new series, written by Rick Riordan, will include card and Internet games to help kids play along solving the mystery. The audience will piece together "The 39 Clues" to uncover the source of power for the Cahills hoping to be the grand prize winner.