This is a list of all Hardy Boys books published, by series.
82-534: In 1979, the Hardy Boys books began to be published by Wanderer Books Simon & Schuster in paperback format. Though formatted differently from the original 58-volume series which continued under Grosset & Dunlap's control, these new books were published under the Hardy Boys Mystery Stories banner. These books feature increasingly contemporary cover illustrations and some books have multiple versions of
164-405: A character named Pete and his adventures: "I had a character named Pete and I usually had him encountering all these different adventures on an isolated island. But that night I was running out of things for Pete to do, so I just asked what they would do". His two daughters came up with different paths for the story to take and Packard thought up an ending for each of the paths: "What really struck me
246-410: A collection of reprinted material. Graphic novels may also be printed in trade paperback form. Publishers sometimes release popular collections first in a hardback form, followed by a trade paperback months later. Examples include Marvel Comics ' Secret War and DC Comics ' Watchmen . Japanese manga , when they are collected into volumes, are published in the tankōbon format, approximately
328-485: A different cover that used the current Hardy Boys Mystery Stories (Digest) cover of a file folder with modified art from Hardy Boys #152, exclusively for Borders Bookstores. The Canadian rights to the Casefiles and its spin-offs have been held by Paperjacks (April 1987-December 1989) and Distican, Inc./Simon & Schuster Canada (January 1990 – present; Simon & Schuster US bought out Distican in 2002 and just changed
410-410: A few years of publishing undistinguished novels, focused on the romance genre and became one of the world's largest publishers. At first, paperbacks consisted entirely of reprints, but in 1950, Fawcett Publications ' Gold Medal Books began publishing original fiction in mass–market paperback. It was revolutionary. The term paperback original applies to paperback original publications of fiction. It
492-471: A lengthy history of being aimed (in format and distribution) at mass audiences. Pocket Books were not available in book stores because they did not carry magazines. Pocket Books established the format for all subsequent paperback publishers in the 1940s. The books measured 6.5" by 4.25" (16.5 cm by 10.8 cm), had full-color covers, and cost 25 cents. Eventually in the 1950s the height increased by 0.5" (1.4 cm) to 7" (18 cm). The width remained
574-618: A line of Fawcett paperbacks, and he felt original works would not be a violation of the contract. To challenge the contract, Fawcett published two anthologies— The Best of True Magazine and What Today's Woman Should Know About Marriage and Sex —reprinting material from Fawcett magazines not previously published in books. After these books were successfully published, Fawcett announced in December 1949 that in February 1950 it would publish "original fiction including westerns and mysteries at 25 cents in
656-408: A medium-sized paperback of 129 mm × 198 mm ( 5 + 1 ⁄ 8 in × 7 + 3 ⁄ 4 in). This size has been used to distinguish literary novels from genre fiction . In the U.S., books of this size are thought of as smaller trade paperbacks (see below). A trade paperback (also called trade paper edition and trade ) is a higher-quality paperback book. If it
738-699: A new series, Hardy Boys Adventures , publishing four volumes in 2013. The reboot series publishes two to three new titles a year in paperback, hardcover book with dust jacket, and as eBooks. This series is written in the first person, with chapters alternating between Frank's and Joe's narration. The first four titles initially printed 25,000 copies in paperback and 2,500 copies in hardcover. Books 5 through 8 had an initial print run of 25,000 in paperback and 5,000 in hardcover. Books 9 and 10 had an initial print run of 10,000 in paperback and 5,000 in hardcover. Audio books were released starting in 2015 on CD and download, read by Tim Gregory. The first three titles were published as
820-448: A paperback copy of Four Tragedies of Shakespeare . "Sometimes one can find Shakespeare on these shelves among the many lurid novels of juvenile delinquents," he comments. In 1945, Bantam Books was formed by Walter B. Pitkin Jr. , Sidney B. Kramer, and husband and wife Ian and Betty Ballantine as a mass-market paperback publisher. The fifth major 1940s publisher of mass-market paperbacks
902-471: A pocket-sized format" in a series called Gold Medal Books. Publishers Weekly reported in May 1950 that Fawcett books were "similar in appearance and cover allure to many of the paperback reprints, but the story material [was] original and not reprinted from regular editions." It also said the authors would be paid a $ 2,000 advance with a guaranteed first printing of 200,000 copies. That same month Fawcett released
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#1732856129845984-466: A publisher decides to release a book in a low-cost format. Lower-quality paper, glued (rather than stapled or sewn) bindings, and the lack of a hard cover may contribute to the lower cost of paperbacks. In the early days of modern paperbacks, the 1930s and 1940s, they were sold as a cheaper, less permanent, and more convenient alternative to traditional hardcover books, as the name of the first American paperback publisher, Pocket Books, indicates. In addition,
1066-409: A reprint and one original, with two covers and two title pages. In 1952, husband and wife publishers Ian and Betty Ballantine left Bantam Books and founded their own publishing house, Ballantine Books , to publish paperbacks simultaneously with their publication in hardcover by traditional publishers. Their first book, Cameron Hawley 's Executive Suite , published January 1, 1952 at 35 cents in
1148-494: A single volume in June 2016 using the cover art from the first book in the series. The Hardy Boys Adventure books were quietly canceled in 2023 by Simon and Schuster. No further titles are planned, and editors stated lack of resources and other projects were taking precedence over publishing new titles. The Hardy Boys Secret Files is a series begun in 2010 by the publisher Simon & Schuster under their Aladdin imprint. It features
1230-444: A wide readership of men and women serving in the military or employed as shift workers; paperbacks were cheap, readily available, and easily posted and carried. Furthermore, people found that restrictions on travel gave them time to read more paperbacks. Four-color printing (invented in 1906 ) and lamination (invented in 1936 ) developed for military maps made the paperback cover eye catching and kept ink from running as people handled
1312-407: Is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions and the plot's outcome. The series was based upon a concept created by Edward Packard and originally published by Constance Cappel's and R. A. Montgomery 's Vermont Crossroads Press as
1394-451: Is a series of paperback books which replaced the Digest paperbacks in early 2005. The Hardy Boys are now agents of A.T.A.C. (American Teens Against Crime) and are solving more realistic and/or violent crimes. This series is written in first-person narrative style with Frank and Joe alternating chapters. Spy Set - box set of volumes 1–4 (2005) The Nancy Drew and
1476-902: Is a short-lived Hardy Boys spin-off that joined boy inventor Tom Swift with the crime -solving Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe. Although the Franklin W. Dixon pseudonym was used, the series was more akin to the then-current Tom Swift IV series and listed in the Tom Swift books as part of that series. Published as mass-market paperback books under the Archway imprint of Simon & Schuster. Both books were written by Bill McKay. From 1998 to 1999, Simon & Schuster published three Hardy Boys Casefiles Collector's Editions that contained three previously published Casefiles stories (Vol. 1 #'s 38, 39 and 40; Vol. 2 #'s 48, 51 and 52; Vol. 3 #'s 55, 58 and 59). In 2005, Simon & Schuster reprinted Vol. 3 in hardcover with
1558-402: Is a softcover edition of a previous hardcover edition and is published by the same house as the hardcover, the text pages are normally identical with those of the hardcover edition, and the book is almost the same size as the hardcover edition. The pagination is the same, so that references to the text will be unchanged: this is particularly important for reviewers and scholars. The only difference
1640-523: Is an interactive series, as readers will get to write down their clues and predictions. A page before the final chapter has questions the reader can answer regarding suspects, clues, and solutions. The first book in the series references events in the last book of the Hardy Boys Secret Files series, making this a continuation of that series. Published by Dynamite Entertainment . Choose Your Own Adventure Choose Your Own Adventure
1722-434: Is not usually applied to original non–fiction publications, although paperback publishers also began issuing original non–fiction titles. Fawcett, an independent newsstand distributor, in 1945, negotiated a contract with New American Library to distribute its Mentor and Signet titles. That contract prohibited Fawcett from becoming a competitor by publishing its own paperback reprints. Roscoe Kent Fawcett wanted to establish
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#17328561298451804-451: Is particularly true of first novels by new authors. The mass-market paperbacks sold in airport newsstands have given rise to the vaguely defined literary genre of the " airport novel ", bought by travelers to read while they sit and wait. Mass-market paperbacks also have offered collections of comic strips and magazine cartoon series, such as Ernie Bushmiller 's Nancy and Chon Day 's Brother Sebastian . The term B-format indicates
1886-472: Is the soft binding; the paper is usually of higher quality than that of a mass-market paperback, often being acid-free paper . In the United States, the term trade paperback also encompasses the medium-sized paperbacks described as B-format, above. British trade paperbacks are 135 mm × 216 mm ( 5 + 3 ⁄ 8 in × 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in). Trade paperbacks did not enter
1968-606: The Casefiles since the early 1990s in the UK and other British Commonwealth Nations (except Canada). In 2005/06 Simon & Schuster UK reissued four Casefiles under the Undercover Brothers label, with two other books being planned but cancelled before publication. Armada/Collins held the UK/British Commonwealth (except Canada) rights to the Casefiles from about 1988 till 1991, with reprint rights continuing throughout
2050-502: The "Adventures of You" series, starting with Packard's Sugarcane Island in 1976. Choose Your Own Adventure , as published by Bantam Books , was one of the most popular children's series during the 1980s and 1990s, selling more than 250 million copies between 1979 and 1998. The series has been translated into 40 languages. When Bantam, now owned by Random House , allowed the Choose Your Own Adventure trademark to lapse,
2132-457: The 1990s, allowing Armada to publish different 2-in-1 and 3-in-1 books of the first 10 Casefiles . The Clues Brothers books were aimed at younger readers, particularly in third and fourth grades. The series was introduced in 1997 and was cancelled in 2000 for lack of popularity. Starting in 2013 the series is available as ebooks. This series had some big differences from the other Hardy Boys books, such as: The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers
2214-453: The 1990s, the series faced competition from computer games and was in a decline. The series was discontinued in 1999, but was relaunched by a new company, Chooseco, in 2003. In June 2018, Z-Man Games issued a licensed co-operative board game called Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger inspired by R. A. Montgomery's book in the series. In January 2019, Chooseco initiated a trademark infringement legal challenge against Netflix for
2296-456: The 19th century in such forms as pamphlets , yellowbacks , dime novels , and airport novels . Modern paperbacks can be differentiated from one another by size. In the United States, there are "mass-market paperbacks" and larger, more durable "trade paperbacks". In the United Kingdom, there are A-format, B-format, and the largest C-format sizes. Paperback editions of books are issued when
2378-740: The 7" height simultaneously with Houghton Mifflin 's $ 3.00 hardcover edition, was a success for both publishers. Of their next nine novels, two were published simultaneously by Houghton Mifflin and one by Farrar, Straus & Young and six were stand-alone originals. In 1953, Dell announced its line of originals, Dell First Editions, and published its first novels by Walt Grove, Frederic Brown , and Charles Einstein . Genre categories began to emerge, and mass-market book covers reflected those categories. Mass-market paperbacks influenced slick and pulp magazines . The market for cheap magazines diminished when buyers began to buy cheap books instead. Authors also found themselves abandoning magazines and writing for
2460-465: The American market until around 1960. Unlike mass-market paperbacks they are distributed by their original hard-cover publishers directly to book stores, not through magazine distributors to other retailers. Trade paperbacks are often used to reprint several issues of a comic series in one volume, usually an important storyline or the entire series, and the name trade paperback has become synonymous with
2542-580: The Canadian mass-market book trade in the early 1960s, with its "Canadian best seller library" series, at a time when Canadian literary culture was beginning to be popularized, and a call for a Canadian author identity was discussed by the Canadian people. The mass-market paperback is a small, usually non-illustrated, inexpensive bookbinding format. This includes the A-format books of 110 mm × 178 mm ( 4 + 3 ⁄ 8 in × 7 in), in
List of Hardy Boys books - Misplaced Pages Continue
2624-717: The Hardy Boys Super Mystery books are a new series first published in June 2007 and are not to be confused with the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys SuperMystery series that was published between 1988 and 1998. Many fans, in order to avoid confusion with the earlier series, refer to this series as the Super Mystery'07 series. This is a spin-off series of the Nancy Drew: Girl Detective series and The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers series. Books are narrated in
2706-595: The Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe, as grade-school detectives. Three new titles are published yearly as paperback books and eBooks. This series rebooted in 2016 as the Hardy Boys Clue Book series. This is a re-boot of the Hardy Boys Secret Files series published by Aladdin Paperbacks in paperback, hardcover, and eBook editions written by Franklin W. Dixon with covers and internal illustrations by Matt David. Illustrations and cover art for book #7 by Santy Gutierrez. This
2788-493: The Pocket Books edition of Wuthering Heights , one of the first ten books it published in 1939, emphasized the impermanence of paperbacks by telling readers if you "enjoyed it so much you may wish to own it in a more permanent edition", they could return the 25 cent book to Pocket Books with an additional 70 cents and it would send them a copy of the 95 cent Modern Library edition "substantially bound in durable cloth." Since
2870-618: The U.S. was an edition of Pearl Buck 's The Good Earth , produced by Pocket Books as a proof-of-concept in late 1938, and sold in New York City. The first ten Pocket Book titles published in May 1939 with a print run of about 10,000 copies each were: This list includes seven novels, the most recent being six year old ( Lost Horizons , 1933), two classics (Shakespeare and Wuthering Heights , both out of copyright), one mystery novel, one book of poetry ( Enough Rope ), and one self-help book. The success of Pocket Books led to others entering
2952-605: The United Kingdom, and the "pocketbook" format books of a similar size, in the United States. Mass-market paperbacks usually are printed on cheap paper. They are commonly released after the hardback edition and often sold not only at bookstores, but also where books are not the main business, such as at airports , drugstores , and supermarkets. In 1982, romance novels accounted for at least 25% of all paperback sales. In 2013, 51% of paperback sales were romance. Many titles, especially in genre fiction, have their first editions in paperback and are never published in hardcover; this
3034-454: The United States, in every local grocery store, drug store, dime store , and bus and train station, displaying everything from best sellers and mysteries and westerns to classics and Shakespeare. In 1955, in William Inge 's Broadway play Bus Stop , it did not seem unbelievable that a long-distance bus traveller stranded by a snowstorm in an out-of-the-way cafe walks to a shelf and picks up
3116-578: The Water , was released. This series was published in mass-market, or rack-sized, paperbacks to widen the distribution of the books to supermarkets and other outlets. In September 1987 the Hardy Boys Digest series was revived and continued with #86 The Mystery of the Silver Star . Events from the Casefiles are not referenced in the Digest series, and Iola Morton is alive and connected with Joe Hardy as in
3198-557: The Werewolf was originally listed as the next book at the end of Sting of the Scorpion . Grosset & Dunlap continued to list this until they lost a court case against the Syndicate and Simon & Schuster in May 1980. The book was later revised to eliminate the next title and instead referenced the first book in the series, The Tower Treasure . They later published Night of the Werewolf and
3280-401: The book and it sold 8,000 copies, a large amount for a small local publishing house. The series was later marketed to Pocket Books , where it also sold well, but Montgomery believed that it would sell better if a bigger publisher could be found. After some discussion, Montgomery was able to make a contract for the series with Bantam Books . Packard and Montgomery were selected to write books for
3362-399: The book. A revolving metal rack (invented in 1906), designed to display a wide variety of paperbacks in a small space, found its way into drugstores , dimestores , and markets. During World War II, the U.S. military distributed some 122 million " Armed Services Editions " paperback novels to the troops. After the war, the former servicemembers' familiarity with paperbacks helped popularize
List of Hardy Boys books - Misplaced Pages Continue
3444-688: The company name). Aside from inserting an ad for their 'Books By Mail' program, their address on the copyright page, and a small Maple Leaf with "Printed In Canada" being put on the front covers, and distributing the books, Paperjacks was allowed no other editorial/layout changes to the books. Once Distican took over the rights in January 1990, the books were all published in the US and just distributed by Distican in Canada with no publishing occurring in Canada. Simon & Schuster UK have published many 2-in-1 and 3-in-1 books of
3526-431: The cover art. To collectors of Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books, books in the original series published at Simon & Schuster are called "Digests". This is due to the books resembling Digest-size paperbacks, differing from Grosset & Dunlap's hardcover books (one of the reasons Adams switched to Simon & Schuster was that Grosset & Dunlap did not like this move, while Simon & Schuster agreed to it). In 2005,
3608-539: The covers by genre. In 1935, British publisher Allen Lane , investing his own capital, initiated the paperback revolution in the English-language book market by releasing ten reprint titles to launch the Penguin Books imprint. They adopted many of Albatross's innovations, including a conspicuous logo, using only type on the cover, and color-coded covers for different genres. The first book on Penguin's 1935 list
3690-696: The film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch . Netflix settled the suit in November 2020. A Smithsonian article criticizes the style as "formulaic" and quotes a scholar stating that "in terms of literary quality, many of the multiple-storyline books are true skunks". Paperbacks A paperback ( softcover , softback ) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples . In contrast, hardback (hardcover) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, leather, paper, or plastic. Inexpensive books bound in paper have existed since at least
3772-567: The first eight volumes from Wanderer (#59-66) were republished by Grosset & Dunlap, alongside the first eight Nancy Drew volumes from Wanderer. These republications went out of print in 2013. The main plot, formula, and continuity of the books remained similar to the original Grosset & Dunlap books still being published at the time. After Harriet Adams died in 1982, the Syndicate continued with five of its partners (Adams' remaining three children, plus authors Nancy Axelrod and Lilo Wuenn), until its sale to Simon & Schuster in 1987. Night of
3854-506: The first four Gold Medal books, original novels by W. R. Burnett , Sax Rohmer , Richard Himmel, and John Flagg - one western and three mysteries/adventure novels. Fawcett's action led to immediate controversy, with an executive Vice president of Pocket Books attacking the whole idea, a literary agent reporting that one hardcover publisher threatened to boycott his agency if he dealt with mass market publishers, and Doubleday 's LeBaron R. Barker claiming that paperback originals could "undermine
3936-421: The first person with chapters alternating between Nancy's, Frank's, and Joe's view. Series was cancelled with Nancy Drew: Girl Detective and The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers in 2012. The Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers also appear in a series of graphic novels by Papercutz . (A new graphic novel series from Papercutz) In 2011, Simon & Schuster canceled the Undercover Brothers series and launched
4018-441: The format. Two new developments changed the nature of the mass-market paperback business. One was the decision by publishers to publish more recent best selling books than the older books originally published by Pocket Book. They sought reprint rights on new books and soon found themselves in competition for the biggest sellers, leading to bidding against each other for the rights and costing them more money. The second development
4100-532: The gamebook format, sometimes introducing unexpected twists such as endless page loops or trick endings. Examples include the "paradise planet" ending in Inside UFO 54-40 , which can only be reached by cheating or turning to the wrong page by accident. The only way out of this is to "reset", or close the book and start over from the first page. According to Packard, the core idea for the series emerged from bedtime stories that he told to his daughters, revolving around
4182-481: The introduction of steam-powered printing presses, pulp mills, automatic type setting, and a network of railways. These innovations enabled the likes of Simms and McIntyre of Belfast, Routledge & Sons (founded in 1836) and Ward & Lock (founded in 1854) to mass-produce cheap uniform yellowback or paperback editions of existing works, and distribute and sell them across the British Isles , principally via
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#17328561298454264-666: The kind of boy-meets-girl story that can be illustrated by a ripe cheesecake jacket [cover]". The next year Dell Publishing , which was founded in 1921 by George T. Delacorte Jr. to publish pulp magazines , joined with Western Publishing to publish Dell Books . Like Avon, Dell followed the basic format established by Pocket Books. But within that format, "Dell achieved more variety than any of its early competitors [with its] . . . instantly identifiable format of vibrant airbrushed covers for its predominantly genre fiction", specialized logos and special features like maps and lists of characters. World War II brought both new technology and
4346-454: The market - Lion Books and Pyramid Books (both 1949), Fawcett Gold Medal Books (1950), Ace Books and Ballantine Books (both 1952), and Berkley Books (1955). U.S. paperbacks quickly entered the Canadian market. Canadian mass-market paperback initiatives in the 1940s included White Circle Books, a subsidiary of Collins (UK.); it was fairly successful but was soon outstripped by the success of Harlequin which began in 1949 and, after
4428-532: The market. In 1941, American News Company , a magazine distributor, bought a dime novel publisher partially owned by brother and sister Joseph Meyers and Edna Meyers Williams and hired them to organize a new company called "Avon Publications". Avon copied the basic format established by Pocket Books but differentiated itself by emphasizing, as a book on collecting paperbacks says, "popular appeal rather than loftier concepts of literary merit." In 1953, Time magazine summarized its books as "westerns, whodunits, and
4510-406: The mass market paperbound Universal-Bibliothek series from 10 November 1867. The German publisher Albatross Books revised the 20th-century mass-market paperback format in 1931, but the approach of World War II cut the experiment short. Albatross's innovations included a standardized size, use of new sans-serif fonts, use of logo and type on the cover without an illustration, and color-coding
4592-415: The mid-20th century, paperbacks can also be the preferred medium when a book is not expected to be a major seller and the publisher wishes to release the book without a large investment. Examples include many novels and newer editions or reprintings of older books. Because paperbacks tend to have smaller profit margins , many publishers try to balance the profit to be made by selling fewer hardcovers against
4674-601: The name "Penguin" became closely associated with the word "paperback" in Great Britain. In the United States, Robert de Graaf created the Pocket Books label in 1939, partnering with Simon & Schuster to issue a similar line of reprints. Because at first Pocket Books was the only publisher of paperbacks, the term "pocket book" became synonymous with paperback in English-speaking North America. (In France,
4756-522: The next seven titles in 2005, with the permission and collaboration of Simon & Schuster. These last eight titles were discontinued once the license ran out. After volume 85, the series took a two-and-a-half-year hiatus due to the sale of the Stratemeyer Syndicate to Simon & Schuster. At this point, book packager Mega-Books took over the series, and hired different ghostwriters for the job (many of whom are still unknown). Mega-Books worked on
4838-515: The overall mystery. This series is based in the Nancy Drew Files and Hardy Boys Casefiles continuity, so murder, romance, and flirtation between the series regulars are common. Nancy Drew and Frank Hardy share an attraction in this series, though after a brief kiss in The Last Resort this attraction is not acted on. Subsequent books focus on the respect and friendship that developed between
4920-415: The paperback market. The leading paperback publishers often hired experienced pulp magazine cover artists, including Rudolph Belarski and Earle K. Bergey , who helped create the look and feel of paperbacks and set an appealing visual standard that continues to this day. Scores of well-known authors were published in paperback, including Arthur Miller and John Steinbeck . McClelland and Stewart entered
5002-449: The potential profit to be made by selling more paperbacks with a smaller profit per unit. First editions of many modern books, especially genre fiction , are issued in paperback. Best-selling books, on the other hand, may maintain sales in hardcover for an extended period to reap the greater profits that the hardcovers provide. The early 19th century saw numerous improvements in the printing, publishing and book-distribution processes, with
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#17328561298455084-514: The previous 85 titles. The Casefiles universe also merges with the Nancy Drew Files and Tom Swift worlds in titles published as A Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys SuperMystery and A Hardy Boys and Tom Swift UltraThriller . Several spin-off series were cancelled by Simon & Schuster at the end of 1997, including The Hardy Boys Casefiles . In addition, there were three unpublished titles, only two of them known: Book #128, titled Explosive Force ,
5166-407: The protagonist is an adult. The stories are formatted so that, after a few pages of reading, the protagonist faces two or three options, each of which leads to further pages and further options, and so on until they arrive at one of the many story endings. The number of endings varies from as many as 44 in the early titles to as few as 7 in later adventures. Likewise, there is no clear pattern among
5248-584: The reboot of Nancy Drew into Girl Detective , coupled with declining sales, Simon & Schuster ended the original series in April 2005. In these books the reader controls the outcome of the story by choosing different options of advancing the plot, similar to the Choose Your Own Adventure books. The Hardy Boys Casefiles are aimed at early-to-mid teen readers and have more mature themes, including espionage, murder, and slight romance. The new direction
5330-410: The same because wire display racks used in many locations could not hold wider books. With the larger size came a higher price, first 35 cents and then 50 cents. Because of its number-one position in what became a very long list of pocket editions, James Hilton 's Lost Horizon is often cited as the first American paperback book. However, the first mass-market, pocket-sized, paperback book printed in
5412-434: The series allow readers choice of whom to take the role of, for example, in an adventure book, readers may be prompted to choose between a climber, a hiker, or a traveler. Stories are generally gender- and race-neutral, though in some cases, particularly in illustrations, there is the presumption of a male reader (the target demographic group). In some stories, the protagonist is implied to be a child, whereas in other stories,
5494-477: The series until #153 Eye On Crime in 1998. Starting with #154 The Caribbean Cruise Caper , Simon & Schuster handled all books internally. The ghostwriters who are known are ones who have either been discovered through other resources, or have publicly revealed themselves as a ghostwriter for the series. With the new millennium, the series changed publishers to the Aladdin subdivision of Simon & Schuster. With
5576-403: The series was relaunched by Chooseco . Chooseco does not reissue titles by Packard, who has started his own imprint, U-Ventures. Originally created for 7- to 14-year-olds, the books are written in the second person . The protagonist —that is, the reader—takes on a role relevant to the adventure, such as a private investigator, mountain climber, race car driver, doctor, or spy. Certain books in
5658-426: The series would take was set in the first volume, Dead On Target , as a bomb planted in the Hardy Boys' car blows up Joe's longtime girlfriend, Iola Morton , in the first chapter. Book packager Mega-Books and Simon & Schuster released the first two Casefiles under the Archway imprint in April 1987 and continued to release a new title monthly until November 1997. In January 1998 the last Casefile , #127 Dead in
5740-511: The series, including the contracting out of titles to additional authors. The phrase Choose Your Own Adventure was adapted for the next title with the tag line, The Third Planet from Altair: Choose your own adventure in outer space . The series was highly successful after it began printing with Bantam Books. A 1981 article in The New York Times , followed by an interview with Packard on The Today Show , provided free publicity. By
5822-502: The term livre de poche , which translates as "pocket book", was used and is still in use today.) De Graaf, like Lane, negotiated paperback rights from other publishers, and produced many runs. His practices contrasted with those of Lane by his adoption of illustrated covers aimed at the North American market. To reach an even broader market than Lane, he used distributors of newspapers and magazines to distribute his books because they had
5904-471: The traveling public 1,277 unique titles. The Continental market also supported examples of cheap paper-bound books: Bernhard Tauchnitz started the Collection of British and American Authors in 1841. These inexpensive, paperbound editions, a direct precursor to mass-market paperbacks, eventually ran to over 5,000 volumes. Reclam published Shakespeare in this format from October 1857 and went on to pioneer
5986-406: The two and their continued feelings for Ned Nickerson and Callie Shaw. Several spin-off series were cancelled by Simon & Schuster at the end of 1997, including the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys SuperMystery series. Starting in 2007, in order to differentiate between the new Super Mystery series, many fans started referring to this series as SuperMystery'88 . The two-volume Ultra-Thriller series
6068-430: The ubiquitous W. H. Smith & Sons newsagent found at most urban British railway stations. These paper bound volumes were offered for sale at a fraction of the historical cost of a book, and were of a smaller format, 110 mm × 178 mm ( 4 + 3 ⁄ 8 in × 7 in), aimed at the railway traveller. The Routledge's Railway Library series of paperbacks remained in print until 1898, and offered
6150-413: The various titles regarding the number of pages per ending, the ratio of good to bad endings, or the reader's progression backwards and forwards through the pages of the book. This allows for a realistic sense of unpredictability, and leads to the possibility of repeat readings, which is one of the distinguishing features of the books. As the series progressed, both Packard and Montgomery experimented with
6232-460: The whole structure of publishing." Sales soared, prompting Gold Medal editorial director Ralph Daigh to comment later, "In the past six months we have produced 9,020,645 books, and people seem to like them very well." In 1950 Gold Medal published 35 titles, in 1952, 66. Other paperback publishers saw Gold Medal's success and began to emulate it. Publishers Weekly reported in May 1952 that Avon had included three originals in its April releases and
6314-500: Was André Maurois ' Ariel . Lane intended to produce inexpensive books. He purchased paperback rights from publishers, ordered large print runs (such as 20,000 copies—large for the time) to keep unit prices low, and looked to non-traditional book-selling retail locations. Booksellers were initially reluctant to buy his books, but when Woolworths placed a large order, the books sold extremely well. After that initial success, booksellers showed more willingness to stock paperbacks, and
6396-626: Was New American Library . Originally Penguin USA, it became a separate publisher in 1948 as the New American Library of World Literature when it separated from Penguin and Victor Weybright and Kurt Enoch took over. Its original focus was classics and scholarly works as well as popular and pulp fiction. Eventually it shortened its name to New American Library and published books in the Mentor and Signet lines. New paperback publishers continued to enter
6478-456: Was seeking more. It added that Dell was " 'thinking about' some systematic programs of original publishing," Lion Books had "a definite original publishing program in the works", and that Graphic had begun publishing originals about a year earlier. Bantam, Pocket Books, and New American Library said they were not going to publish originals. Also in 1952, Ace began publishing Ace Double Novel Books, two books printed in one volume for 35 cents, one
6560-475: Was the spinner rack , a metal pole with a four-sided wire frame designed to vertically hold rows of racks of paperback books. Retail store owners no longer had to devote feet of valuable counter space to low-profit paperbacks. Dozens of paperbacks could be displayed vertically in five or six square feet of floor space. (Similar racks were available for magazines and comic books.) By the late 1940s, paperback spinner racks were ubiquitous in large and small towns across
6642-424: Was the natural enthusiasm they had for the idea. And I thought: 'Could I write this down?'" Packard soon developed this basic premise into a manuscript titled The Adventures of You on Sugar Cane Island . He set out in 1970 to find a publisher but was rejected by nine publishing companies, causing him to shelve the idea. In 1975, he was able to convince Ray Montgomery, co-owner of Vermont Crossroads Press, to publish
6724-427: Was written by Jerry Novick, and a complete manuscript exists; Book #130, titled The Crisscross Crime , was rewritten for the original series, and released as #150. The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew teamed up in this 36-volume series of paperbacks . This series follows the formula of the main characters and their friends typically involved in separate mysteries that end up being connected. The sleuths join forces to solve
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