Animorphs Relaunch covers and updates

[Kyle]

Just message Scholastic at their Facebook, twitter, and customer service to get the message out.

I think personally, that this relaunch was maybe a way for Scholastic to keep the rights of Animorphs since it would probably are up by next year. Usually rights are held for 5-10 years and it would make sense.

Who would the rights revert to? I doubt it would be K.A but I could be wrong. I don't see how Scholastic could loose it, it was always theirs wasn't it?

[QIfry]

Just message Scholastic at their Facebook, twitter, and customer service to get the message out.

I think personally, that this relaunch was maybe a way for Scholastic to keep the rights of Animorphs since it would probably are up by next year. Usually rights are held for 5-10 years and it would make sense.

Who would the rights revert to? I doubt it would be K.A but I could be wrong. I don't see how Scholastic could loose it, it was always theirs wasn't it?

Well from what I understand from tv & film rights, it is close to the same thing. Like if Sony didn't make this latest Spider-Man movie because of their licensing rights contract, Spider-Man would have went back to Marvel because of the time lapse.

Personally, I think Scholastic probably did this because of licensing reasons, K.A. and Michael have said that they have ZERO input about Animorphs, and I think it might because of licensing rights. That is why they can't shop it around Hollywood or anything.

But I think another thing hurting the series is that science fiction is not "in vogue" like it was when the series was out. Right now everything is supernatural. Mythological gods, vampires, werewolves, elfs, etc. That genre is overtaking the market like crazy and it pushes teen sci-fi books to a dark corner.

If Scholastic had ANY chance to bring this relaunch back in full force, take a page out of the marketing of James Patterson. He does teen sci-fi and fantasy and is always on the New York's Time Best Sellers list... If Animorphs had more meat (pages) in their books, it would probably help and probably put Animorphs in the Teen section instead of intermediate readers. Two, he does GRAPHIC NOVELS of his work. Maximum Ride and Witch & Wizard are in graphic novel form and have helped. And nowadays kids would rather pick up a graphic novel because of the illustrations also telling the story.

That would be one of the best things Scholastic could do to push Animorphs.

[yunyun]

Yeah, I agree about the more pages thing. Maybe they can combine a few books into one? (like what the relaunched sailor moon manga is doing)

[Underseen]

I would agree with yunyun, but who would read a book that changes narrations every 20 chapters? Unless they make them 3rd person, which would be nice, but worse than the originals. I also agree with QIfry. too many supernatural books for teens, I remember when it was all sci-fi, but now the supernatural suthors are getting their chance.

[SkyMorpher]

I work in a library and notice that very much. Most of the teen books are paranormal stuff.

[Kyle]

Unless they make them 3rd person, which would be nice.

That would suck, the only reason I ever got into animorphs was largely because I don't think I had ever seen a book written in first person before. Oddly enough Ive never liked reading third person books.

[Underseen]

I wouldn't like it either, but it would be the only way to release multiple books in one book. Unless they change narration every chapter, like Witch and Wizard.

[yunyun]

I wouldn't say changing every twenty chapters is that bad, it's just more of odd, since you've just finished the plot, but the book isn't over.

[QIfry]

Like the David Trilogy would be perfect as one big book.

[thesparkinside]

If scholastic loses the rights, can 21st Century Fox gain them and make a movie?

Animorphs might be different because it was written on commission (correct?). But usually, film rights are retained by the author/agent to be sold separately, in order to give the author a chance for a bit more money (writers make practically nothing).

Well from what I understand from tv & film rights, it is close to the same thing. Like if Sony didn't make this latest Spider-Man movie because of their licensing rights contract, Spider-Man would have went back to Marvel because of the time lapse.

Personally, I think Scholastic probably did this because of licensing reasons, K.A. and Michael have said that they have ZERO input about Animorphs, and I think it might because of licensing rights. That is why they can't shop it around Hollywood or anything.

But I think another thing hurting the series is that science fiction is not "in vogue" like it was when the series was out. Right now everything is supernatural. Mythological gods, vampires, werewolves, elfs, etc. That genre is overtaking the market like crazy and it pushes teen sci-fi books to a dark corner.

If Scholastic had ANY chance to bring this relaunch back in full force, take a page out of the marketing of James Patterson. He does teen sci-fi and fantasy and is always on the New York's Time Best Sellers list... If Animorphs had more meat (pages) in their books, it would probably help and probably put Animorphs in the Teen section instead of intermediate readers. Two, he does GRAPHIC NOVELS of his work. Maximum Ride and Witch & Wizard are in graphic novel form and have helped. And nowadays kids would rather pick up a graphic novel because of the illustrations also telling the story.

That would be one of the best things Scholastic could do to push Animorphs.

Rights are always retained by the holder, they're just leased out. For books, it's usually stated in the contract that after X years of the book being out of print, the rights revert back to the author, who can then attempt to sell the rights again. As I understand it, Spider-Man is owned by Marvel. Sony paid royalties for the right to use the material. They didn't "own" the rights at any point (they really didn't "lease" the rights in the same way as a book publisher would from an author, either, because movies are distributed very different, obviously).

In this case, if I understand the situation, KA was commissioned to write the books and the rights belong to Scholastic as the "originator", not with the author. So, they aren't "lending" the rights, they own the rights themselves. The rights therefore couldn't revert to KA. Movierights and pretty much all other subsidiary rights are held by Scholastic in that case. I may be wrong about this since it's an unusual arrangement. But the bottom line is that it appears that it's all up to Scholastic and there's not much KA and Michael can really do.

[QIfry]

Yes I know Spider-Man belongs to Marvel but because of the filming rights contracts, Marvel-Disney can not in no way do their own Spider-Man because of Sony owning them right now. So that is also why we're getting a new Fantastic Four and I think Daredevil. From the same thing. The people don't want to loose the film-rights due to the time lapse.

I listen to a lot of podcasts by Kevin Smith and since he's a HUGE comic guy plus director, he talked about this kind of stuff all the time and that is how I've learnt of it.

Well it could be in whatever rights were written into the Scholastic with K.A. and Michael. I mean, JK Rowling still has all of her rights to Harry Potter even though it is being published by multiple publishers. In the films she had 100% influence of the casting, script writing, etc. So an author CAN retain their copyright to their published works. So like I said in whatever is written in the fine print between Scholastic, K.A., and Michael... The authors got screwed.

[MoppingBear]

Yes I know Spider-Man belongs to Marvel but because of the filming rights contracts, Marvel-Disney can not in no way do their own Spider-Man because of Sony owning them right now. So that is also why we're getting a new Fantastic Four and I think Daredevil. From the same thing. The people don't want to loose the film-rights due to the time lapse.

I listen to a lot of podcasts by Kevin Smith and since he's a HUGE comic guy plus director, he talked about this kind of stuff all the time and that is how I've learnt of it.

Well it could be in whatever rights were written into the Scholastic with K.A. and Michael. I mean, JK Rowling still has all of her rights to Harry Potter even though it is being published by multiple publishers. In the films she had 100% influence of the casting, script writing, etc. So an author CAN retain their copyright to their published works. So like I said in whatever is written in the fine print between Scholastic, K.A., and Michael... The authors got screwed.

Not screwed per-se.  It's common for scholastic.  I don't know how it is now, but back when the books were coming out, being a Scholastic publication was a major advantage.  We'd get the little mailers in class and were encouraged to buy books from them.  Most kids didn't go to book stores to buy, but looking through a colorful flyer instead of paying attention in class, and it being so easy to order definitely helped.  I probably wouldn't have gotten into Animorphs without it.

[QIfry]

Not screwed per-se.  It's common for scholastic.  I don't know how it is now, but back when the books were coming out, being a Scholastic publication was a major advantage.  We'd get the little mailers in class and were encouraged to buy books from them.  Most kids didn't go to book stores to buy, but looking through a colorful flyer instead of paying attention in class, and it being so easy to order definitely helped.  I probably wouldn't have gotten into Animorphs without it.

I miss those school days. They always came into my language arts class. Always took them to my Mom and she always threw down money for books. She has glad I was into books more than dolls. I wouldn't have started my awesome reading words per minute if it hadn't started with Animorphs.

[jiminy]

Has anybody actually seen #8 yet?  It's supposed to be out but I've not seen it.  My Barnes and Noble has gotten each of the relaunch books 2 weeks before its release date, and they don't even have it yet.  Amazon doesn't have it in stock either so I'm starting to wonder if something is going on...

[Bladeh Mercury]

I haven't. Interesting to see I'm not the only one with the problem.

Neither the Barnes and Noble I went to in Minnesota (before the release date) and the one nearby me (after the release date) had them. I was a little depressed. I was really looking forward to reading this one above all of the relaunch books since I am a fan of Ax. Anyone finding similar situations at different bookstores?