My Smiley Life novel picks up a swathe of new publishers

The Smiley Company - December 2017
 

The YA novel series from SmileyWorld, “My Smiley Life” is a collection of books written in the style of a young boy’s illustrated diaries. Following the daily misadventures of 11-year-old Max, the books focus on exploring his emotional journeys and how he grows up, builds confidence and confronts all his daily problems with humour and positivity – the Smiley way! Launched in France by long-term SmileyWorld publisher Les Livres d Dragon d’Or in 2016, there are currently 3 titles in the market, with Books 4 & 5 in the series set for launch in France in Spring and Autumn next year.

And now, due to the overwhelming success at retail and critical acclaim from publishing journalists in France, the first novel in the series “Tout Va Bien” (“It’s All Good”) is being published internationally and will be translated into English, Italian, German and Czechoslovakian.

After an incredibly successful Frankfurt Book Fair, rights have been sold by Les Livres du Dragon d’Or to a variety of leading international publishers including in the USA - Andrews McMeel; Italy - Mondadori; Czech Republic – Albatross and Germany - Ullmann Verlag.

These new novels are a a huge development in publishing by The Smiley Company, who traditionally have created lifestyle-led publishing content for teens and tweens. Long-term SmileyWorld licensee Dragon D’or has been a Smiley partner for 8 years and sold over 650,000 SmileyWorld books in France alone with a range of sticker books, journals and activity books. However My Smiley Life is a brand a new concept and step forward for the company, which brings both the characters and contents to life thanks to the work of author Anne Kalicky and illustrator Tim Jones from the Smiley design studio.

Speaking about these new deals VP of Brand Strategy at Smiley, Lori Heiss – Tiplady said “The My Smiley Life series of novels are a creative and innovative extension of the SmileyWorld brand, and we have worked with partner Dragon d’Or to create characters and content which bring our brand values of Happiness, Positivity, Self-Expression and Emotional Intelligence to life in a new and engaging way for kids. We are thrilled that they are going global with leading publishers including Mondadori and Andrews McMeel, and look forward to seeing this Smiley book series grow with new editions out next year.”