Watching Jeff Kinney sign books is akin to watching an elaborate piece of performance art. Backstage at a theatre in Chester, where the author is continuing his UK tour, three folding tables heave under the weight of thousands of copies. Kinney wheels round the table on a swivel chair, signing as he goes. He is a picture of total focus.
Today Kinney is signing copies of Partypooper, the 20th book in his blockbuster Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Every copy bears the phrase “Over 300 million books sold”. To put that into perspective, Kinney has sold more books than Led Zeppelin have sold albums. If you’ve had – or been – a child of reading age at any point over the last couple of decades, Kinney is a rock star. And nowhere is that clearer than at his sold-out event later that evening, as he is custard-pied while a crowd of 800 children and parents scream with excitement.
Kinney shows are a world away from the usual sedate author signings. This is a performance, with walk-on characters and audience participation so enthusiastic that one poor mum almost tore herself in half trying to do the splits. It’s impressive stuff, especially since Kinney claims not to be a natural. “I’m not the type of person who needs to stand in the spotlight,” he insists backstage. “I’m a writer. I chose that profession because I’m an introvert. So it’s a weird thing to be on stage, but these days, if you’re a children’s writer, you also need to learn to be an entertainer.”
Formerly a software engineer, Kinney first created Wimpy Kid – about the various misadventures of titular middle school student Greg Heffley – for the browser game site Funbrain. Three years later, the first book was released and immediately became a sensation, thrilling children with its relatable characters and the sheer density of jokes. The Wimpy Kid books read like exceptionally well-crafted observational comedy routines, something that lures in children reluctant to delve into, say, bricklike, lore-heavy fantasy series.
Now 54 years old, and greying at the temples, Kinney is both very tall and extremely polite. And, for someone who has to be richer than God, unflappably normal. He could quite easily pass as a friendly teacher, or someone who runs a small pottery business.
Yet, at this point in his career, Kinney feels untouchable. Every new Wimpy Kid book is an event and while the pressure of maintaining such a beloved series for so long might get to some authors, Kinney wears it lightly. “I’ve got a whole world that I feel responsible for, and employees that I have. People have careers that come out of this engine, so I definitely need to keep the motor running. I’m aware of that, but I wouldn’t call it pressure. It’s a nice place to be.”
Although the series has existed since 2007, Partypooper is just as funny and kinetic as any of his previous books, with a gleeful darkness that lingers around the edges. Greg Heffley remains possibly the most lovable psychopath in all of children’s literature; one scene in the new book sees him blow out a funeral candle in a crazed bid to have a wish granted.
“Every year I ask the big questions,” he says. “What am I doing? Why am I doing this? Three days ago I was trying to state my goals. Consistency and longevity at a high level in comedy is my current goal. I think a lot about Bob Dylan. I’m certainly not trying to compare myself to Bob Dylan, but he just moves forward. And I think that’s a nice model.”
Kinney has become the custodian of an entire franchise. As well as the books and the riotous shows he takes around the world (as soon as the Chester show finishes, he flies out for a leg in Germany), he also writes the screenplays for all of Disney’s Wimpy Kid movies (the latest, The Last Straw, came out in early December). He credits working across so many mediums for his ability to keep the books fresh.
“My first few books are just like a collection of jokes,” he smiles. “I didn’t care that much about telling a good story. But when those books were adapted for the screen, I started learning about structure. It wasn’t until book nine that I even tried to tell a good story. And it wasn’t until book 12 that I started to get the hang of it. The first book that I’m proud of as a narrative is my 19th book, which only came out last year.”
If that wasn’t enough to juggle, Kinney also has a sideline as a town planner. When his books started to take off, he used some of the funds to open a bookshop – An Unlikely Story – in his hometown of Plainville, Massachusetts. And when the store became a success he decided to branch out and apply the same formula to the entire region.
“The downtown is very depressed,” he says. “The industry is gone, and now you’re left with this town where everybody lives, but they don’t have anything to do. So what we’re doing is we’re building. We just finished a beer garden, and now we’re gonna put in a pizza restaurant, and then we’re going to create a town green and some other things too.”
When a series has enjoyed a run as long as Wimpy Kid’s, some authors can begin to feel restless. Kinney has toyed with the margins of his universe in recent years, with a spin-off series about Heffley’s best friend, and a collection of short stories. I ask him if he has an end goal, a number of books he’d like to hit before he moves on.
“Right at this moment, I really am looking out over the horizon,” he replies, slowly at first. “There were two goals I wanted to reach. One was book 20, and the other was 300 million books in print. I didn’t ever think beyond that. And now I’ve gotta say, what’s next?”
For a moment, I worry that he’s about to give me an unhappy exclusive and announce his retirement. But no. “When you look at what I’ve created here, it’s not so much a literary character as a cartoon character,” he goes on. “Cartoon characters tend to go on for a long time. I’m not embarrassed by it. You know, Charles Schulz did Peanuts for 50 years.”
A quietly logical man, he writes his books with an elaborate process that involves obsessively journalling and then using a practice derived from engineering called Systematic Inventive Thinking to mine the journals for jokes. And this formula should allow Wimpy Kid to run and run.
“It’s just such a privilege to have a long-running series because, you know, it’s hard to break in as a writer,” he says. “I’m very aware of how lucky I am to not have to introduce myself to the public when I have a new book. I’m more like a legacy person now, and I like that better. You know when you see photos of Schulz or Dr Seuss and they’re old? They’re looking a little bent over with their glasses on. I’m headed for that. I’m headed to my final form.”