CALENDAR GIRL, TV Series
The people who found TV series gold in the YA Gossip Girl books have turned their attention to books aimed at an older audience, the erotic romance series Calendar Girl.
About a woman who raises money to pay her father’s medical bills by becoming a high-priced escort, the twelve-book series is named for each month of the year. Each chronicles main character Mia’s relationship with a different client.
ABC Studio’s cable division has grabbed the rights to the series. reports Deadline.
Several of the books hit the USA Today best seller list earlier this year, bringing attention to author Audrey Carlan, who was profiled on the Today Show, with expectations that the series would follow in the footsteps of the Fifty Shades series.
The novels have been a boon for small independent publisher, Waterhouse Press, which currently has just three authors in its stable. In a Publishers Weekly profile of the company, CEO David Grishman attributes the success to his “heavily mathematical” approach to creating best sellers but declined to explain further. It might have to do with releasing the previously self-published titles very close together as $2.99 eBooks to seed combined best seller lists. The first, January, hit USA Today‘s list at #5, at the same time that four other in the series arrived in the top 50. The books have also been released in paperback, in four collected volumes.
The series has not followed the Fifty Shades of Grey continuous growth pattern, however. The titles have slid down the list since their initial success.