Hardy Boys Adventures #8 - Deception on the Set

[kosmicdust]

[MacGyver]

Thanks for the enlarged cover art!

[kosmicdust]

No sweat!  I think they should market these covers (some of them, at least) as posters.

[MacGyver]

Some of these Hardy Boys covers would definitely make really keen posters. (And of course, the Nancy Drew Diaries covers would make really Keene posters. )

[tomswift2002]

At the smaller size on Amazon the boys looked alright, but at this size it looks like someone thought the boys would look good as a couple of digital Michelin Men.

[SkyWarp]

Could this be the last Adventures Book?  Just a gut feeling at the moment.  Anyone know how well these are selling?

[tomswift2002]

I don't know, but on the Simon & Schuster website the ebook of The Lure Of The Italian Treasure (#157 of the Mystery Stories) is being promoted at #157 of the Hardy Boys Casefiles and Stage Fright from the Nancy Drew And Hardy Boys Super Mystery'07 series is being promoted as #90 in the Nancy Drew Files series.  Darkness Falls #89 of the Casefiles, is being promoted as #89 of the Hardy Boys Mystery Stories.

But you've got to wonder when S&S will start re-issuing the other books in the Mystery Stories in ebook form, or even the Casefiles.  But I find it interesting that all 17 books in the Clues Brothers series have been released as ebooks. 

[Hardy Sleuth]

Could this be the last Adventures Book?  Just a gut feeling at the moment.  Anyone know how well these are selling?

It's not supposed to be the last one. Here's the info so far about #9, the next one in the series.

Plus this post has the price increase. I don't like the plot details for Deception on the Set so I know there'll be one less sale for that particular title. Not because of the price, but because I'm sick of zombie stuff.

I don't know, but on the Simon & Schuster website the ebook of The Lure Of The Italian Treasure (#157 of the Mystery Stories) is being promoted at #157 of the Hardy Boys Casefiles and Stage Fright from the Nancy Drew And Hardy Boys Super Mystery'07 series is being promoted as #90 in the Nancy Drew Files series.  Darkness Falls #89 of the Casefiles, is being promoted as #89 of the Hardy Boys Mystery Stories.

But you've got to wonder when S&S will start re-issuing the other books in the Mystery Stories in ebook form, or even the Casefiles.  But I find it interesting that all 17 books in the Clues Brothers series have been released as ebooks.

Yeah, I've definitely noticed errors on the Simon & Schuster site. I really hope they start re-issuing more Mystery Stories soon!

[MacGyver]

Good to know HBA #9 is planned. I don't know any figures on how well the books are selling though, but I'm sure someone's buying them. The older fans of The Hardy Boys if nobody else, anyway. lol Hopefully, the kids are reading them too though.

[MacGyver]

Just thinking on that possibility, regarding whether the Adventures series is doing well or not- I have noticed something regarding the release pattern for Hardy Boys books.
I may be wrong, but it looks like almost every Hardy Boys series has generally released two books at once when kicking off the series. This was the case with the Adventures books and Secret Files books and seems to be the case for the Clues Brothers books, Supermysteries ('88), Digests, and the Casefiles. If I understand correctly, I think the Undercover Brothers books had 4 titles release on the kick-off day for the series! Note though, that a lot of these series eventually settled into fairly normal release and distribution patterns. The Digests had some erratic releases here and there in the '80s, but eventually got to a pattern of releasing a book every other month.
The Clues Brothers books also got into a pattern of releasing a book every other month eventually. The Secret Files series has been generally releasing 3 books per year right now. The Supermysteries ('07) only did one book a year, but that was kind of a one-off thing from the UB books. And you have to remember that these were being produced alongside the UB books and Nancy Drew: Girl Detective books as well. The Hardy Boys Casefiles had the best rate for releases with the series doing a rate of one book per month for almost the entire run. The Supermysteries ('88) kinda varied in its releases, usually putting out 3 or 4 books a year. (Keep in mind again, that this series was produced alongside The Hardy Boys Casefiles books and The Nancy Drew Files books.) And of course, the original series of Hardy Boys books generally released one book per year, though it did get started off with 3 books released in 1927.
        As for the Hardy Boys: Undercover Brothers, since this is the most recent before The Hardy Boys Adventures books, I thought this might be the best comparison. The series started off with a bang, with 4 titles released on the starting day for this series! The pattern for this series started as 7 books per year, which is a slight step above patterns for previous series. But then, of course, as we know with this series, the quality seemed to go downhill and the pace for the series slowed to 4 or 3 books a year before finally releasing only one title in 2012- the last in the series.
            The Hardy Boys Adventures books continued the tradition of releasing multiple titles on launch day, with the first two in the series being released on the same day last February. But the release pace has been much slower comparatively. Four books were released last year, but only 3 are being released this year. I wonder if Simon & Schuster is just trying to be more conservative in the release schedule, especially after the way the UB series went towards the end of its run (and negative reaction from many fans.)
I suppose three per year is still a lot more than the original series release rate, of course, but it's still a far cry less from the Casefiles release rate or the Digests release rate. Of course, the prices of the books are quite different too, since the Adventures books are now priced at $6.99 per book. (So from a financial standpoint, I'm okay with a lessened release rate of just three per year.) But it does make me wonder when it doesn't look like a ton of books are getting released very quickly for the series. I guess we'll just see how it goes.

[tomswift2002]

I just picked up both the paperback and hardcover versions.  They actually just arrived at the store an hour ago.  I went in to pick up another book I had pre-ordered and the books were just getting unpacked as I was at the counter.

[MacGyver]

Nice! Good to know it's in stores now. I will have to pick up a copy when I get a chance.

[tomswift2002]

I'm just getting around to reading the book now, and boy, is it every tiny in my hands, and from what I see it is only 115 pages long.  Either kids these days are not reading a whole lot, or S&S is trying to cut back on the overall cost of the book.

[MacGyver]

Probably a little bit of both.

[tomswift2002]

I'm up to Chapter 6, and right now I'm finding that it is very repetitive of other Hardy Boys books.  It's almost like S&S is falling back into the Undercover Brothers way of storytelling.