Jess M. Brallier is a publisher working in various media, genres, and formats, such as bestselling books, popular web sites, apps, and virtual worlds including Poptropica, one of the Internet's largest virtual worlds for kids. He helped launch bestselling brands such as Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Galactic Hot Dogs; and extended the Poptropica brand into toys, global education, and books. He is also the author or co-author of 31 books, including Lawyers and Other Reptiles.
Publishing Career
Jess Brallier initially held marketing positions for trade book publishers, including Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Little Brown, and Addison Wesley. In 1992, Brallier founded the children's publishing imprint, Planet Dexter. In 2007, Brallier launched Poptropica, the online role-playing website for kids. Readers actively participate in stories on the website with their own virtual characters. Poptropica became the world's largest virtual world for kids: Visitors from more than 130 countries enjoyed the site in more than 100 languages, and the site averages 10 million kids a month. It was named one of Time Magazine's 50 Best Websites and one of Family Fun magazine's top 10 fun websites. Brallier used the website FunBrain to be the first to publish Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid online in 2004, two years before the property was published in print. In 2013, Brallier did likewise with the virtual graphic novel series Galactic Hot Dogs. Brallier served as Senior Vice President and Publisher of Pearson's Family Education Network, an online publisher for parents, teachers, and reference readers. Family Education Network operated Funbrain and Poptropica until it was acquired by Sandbox Partners in 2015. Of the 30+ published books that Brallier authored or co-authored, half are adult titles and half children's books. Brallier also won book publishing's Literary Marketplace Individual Achievement Award in recognition of his marketing campaign for three New York Times bestsellers: Reinventing Government by David Osborne, Mama Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White, and Touchpoints by T. Berry Brazelton. Brallier also is a keynote speaker.
