The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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HarperCollins ups Danger levels

21.05.08 Graeme Neill

HarperCollins is expanding its Dangerous Book for Boys series with the release of three more pocket-book editions by Conn and Hal Iggulden, as well as two new books for girls.

The titles will take the same small hardback format as the Igguldens' The Pocket Dangerous Book for Boys: Things to Do book, which has sold almost 100,000 copies since it was released last year, according to Nielsen BookScan. Things to Know will be released next month, and HC is finalising details for an autumn launch of two more pocket-book titles. Each book will be priced at £8.99.

The publisher is also planning autumn releases for Things to Do and Things to Know pocket-book editions of The Daring Book for Girls by Andrea Buchanan and Miriam Peskowitz, at the same price point.

Publishing director Susan Watt said she had originally planned to release one pocket-book title a year. "But I thought it would be a fun thing for a reader to be able to have a four-book library on their shelves from the autumn," she said. Watt added that the books would share the "early-20th-century hardback feel" that the Things to Do pocket-book has.

The books are part of a Dangerous marketing push, which includes a Dangerous Boardgame for Boys by Hasbro next month, and T-shirts and magic tricks over the summer. A Dangerous Book for Boys TV show will be broadcast on Channel Five in October, and Burger King will be launching a tie-in kids' meal deal in November.

Book HarperCollins Graeme Neill