blogs_blog_26

Awesome! I can't wait for the bigger chapter books, thanks Greg .

Sounds interesting. When you say that the level # readers will be in stores that the chappies aren't you mean stores like Wal*Mart and Target? Also, will the second chapterbook be kind of like a movie novelization?

 

Can't wait to hear from you how the sets, movie, and books will intertwine next year since that part is confusing me. I don't know the set release schedule for next year so I really can't guess Lego's plan.

 

~SB~

Hi Shadowbolt --

 

We have not decided if one of the chapter books will be a strict movie novelization or not -- regardless, my guess is I would focus both books on second half story, rather than first half, but we'll see.

 

The readers, as they are this year, will be side stories that aren't essential to following the main story, since I don't expect BZP's 15 year olds to troop to the store to buy books written for 6 year olds.

 

Greg

Oh, good. I'd be pretty embaressed. :blush:

 

How long will these two books be? If there are only two, they have to convey ALOT of story.

 

-S82-

I don't know yet -- right now, they are 128 pages, could go up to 160 pages if we feel there is enough story to warrant it. That's up to Scholastic to decide.

 

Greg

So 2009 might be going to be like 2005? Where we know most if not all of the characters in the winter for the whole year?

 

I know it may seem odd, but I am going to buy the Level 3 readers. Mostly for the story that is in it (I know not to expect much) and the artwork. Will there be the artist doing them next year too?

 

I think that's all for now.

 

Thanks for the info,

~SB~

The chapter books will still be aimed at the current main age group, correct?

We can not really expect more detailed and complex storyline and writing, can we?

Oh I wish you could do books like you did with Time Trap - tell the story you want and not be tied to "advertise" the sets.... You know: You have to write about all Phantoka, you have to mention the Midak skybalster and what it does, the tools, the masks....

 

 

Yes, I sometimes think it a shame that the story has to bso directly intertwined with the sets.

Oh well. Guess that's what happens when you write stories about a toy line

 

Nice to hear some news.

TK - The two chapter books would be, yes. The readers are, of course, aimed younger.

 

I can't really speak to the complexity of the writing this early, it's too soon to know. The original plan for the chapter books next year was to do 10,000 word books rather than 20,000 and make them simpler, so I am actually kind of glad we are with the larger book idea rather than doing more and shorter ones. What we will have to see with the readers is whether there is a younger audience for BIONICLE out there, and if so, can we transition them up to the chapter books or not?

 

Greg

Saddening that there will be less chapter books as those are my favorite story medium, but sales are sales. Hopefully they will rise again and we'll be able to have a good number of books again.

 

Just curious, but you mentioned that you might also be doing some non-BIONICLE writing. What kind of writing do you like to do that's non-BIONICLE?

 

VK

Very interesting.

 

Quick question, are there any plans in motion to include a novelization of the movie, and if so would that be one of the books in question, or just seperate from the series altogether? -Swert

So if these younger reader books will probably be short stories instead of main story, will the web stories be the first-half main story?

 

~S~

So will we get any story in the first half of 2009?

So will we get any story in the first half of 2009?

 

Probably comics, but not sure.

Greg? Will we get comics next year?

Of course we'll get comics, they're always popular.

 

Anyways, my personal preference would be that neither of the books are full novelizations. If there's no alternate way of getting the content in the movie, it could generate more demand. Plus it might be difficult to write out the entire non-movie story in one book... If you do have one of them as a novelization, though, it might make room for more web content, such as canon animations or an online game like the MNOLG... Which I'd recommend strongly as well.

 

(Especially if they're by Templar.)

I remember the good old days when there were 7 books (2004, the most book-filled year, with three books that weren't even in the comics, one based on a movie).

 

2 books will....unbearable. But hey, at least we'll have a movie.

Great! Normally I would consider only two chapter books for the whole year to be WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too few, but seeng as they will probably be longer and there will be a movie, it will be accepteble... if the price doesn't get raised.

LewaLew

I don't know yet -- right now, they are 128 pages, could go up to 160 pages if we feel there is enough story to warrant it. That's up to Scholastic to decide.

 

Greg

I'd hope we still get plenty of story info in the books. (rather than not having tangible write-ups on Bionicle.com)

Either that or the comics start to really get involved directly into the story again, like back in the good ol' days. (Instead of just showing some characters moving around, getting some story in there. At the least, I'll say I'm missing seeing full character bios in the centerfold.)

 

Hope you have fun doing some writing of your own. What kind of genre? How long? Will it appeal to a lot of BZPers? I can't wait!

 

-CF

Well, well. So there will be possibly larger books, and three younger ones?

 

Interesting.

I really hope there will be some sort of new ways to provide more story for the first half.

I actually wrote to the franchise manager, the US brand team, and the web producer this morning, to discuss the fact that the comics and the web are going to need to carry more of the story ball in 2009, especially first half. (So if we do less than six issues of the comic again, I recommended we not drop the Jan. issue again, for example.)

 

Basically, the readers have an upside and a downside -- the upside is they will get into stores the chapter books don't, and they are a good recruiting tool. The downside is they can't tell main story and I don't know if, short term, they help set sales much since their target audience is not the kids who are buying BIONICLE sets.

 

As far as the movie novelization goes, that is kind of up in the air -- movie story is the second half story, so kind of hard to avoid it, but I would not want the book out before the movie comes out -- my editor kind of left it open whether we want to deal with full movie story or only part of it in the books.

 

Greg

I know it seems like a lot of details are still up in the air, but frankly, do you think that next year we're just going to have to make due with noticably less story than this year (not counting the movie itself)?

Remember that 2001 didn't have too much complex story. It's entirely possible we may be returning to more web-based story as we had then. Here's hoping for something MNOLG-quality.

 

Anyway, as long as the quality of the books remains good, I may not mind there being fewer.

That's impossible for me to say, JB. But we are talking two chapter books in 2009, down one from what we had this year. We will still have comics, still have BIONICLEstory.com, and have a movie on top of it, so we may actually have more ways to make story available than we have now. At the same time, given that it is a new universe, we will be more focused on introducing that universe rather than having to interconnect to past years' story as we have to now.

 

Greg

I can't wait, I want to skip summer and go to January!