June 11, 2024
R.L. Stine just got candid about his success as a novelist.
He is undoubtedly a well-known name when it comes to horror fiction novels, the author himself is not too sure whether he deserves all the praise for penning the second-best selling book series in history.
Stine claims to PEOPLE that all his success was an “accident”, and that virtually none of it was his idea.
"My story is embarrassing," he joked regarding the story behind his career path. The writer initially never planned to write for children, but wanted to write comedy for adults, only to realize that grown-ups weren’t exactly into what he had to offer.
"Adults don't read funny novels", he said. Working with Scholastic is what turned things around for him when he realized how enthusiastic children became for his work, and that is when he turned to an audience he never planned to write for.
After the success of Fear Street, Stine’s publishers pushed him to do a follow-up series called Goosebumps, both leading to immense hype and craze among kids.
Even at 80, Stine doesn’t intend to stop as he is writing another young adult graphic novel series, The Graveyard Club which is to be released this September.