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After each keynote address and workshop presentation, audiences everywhere encouraged Canfield and Hansen
to put their best and most illustrative stories into a single book. In 1990, they agreed it was time. So began the Chicken Soup for the Soul® phenomenon. But translating what worked on the podium onto the written page proved more challenging than either Canfield or Hansen anticipated. Finding time in their busy schedules to record these stories on paper was difficult and editing was an even bigger chore. After three long years, the two had compiled just sixty-eight stories...a far cry from the 101 they believed was the magic number for a successful book.

So Canfield and Hansen reached out to other professional speakers, asking them
to submit their favorite stories for publication. The formula finally worked and soon the two were inundated with powerful tales of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Whereas previously they had too few stories, now they had too many. Canfield and Hansen again turned to friends and other professionals and invited forty to read and rate each story on a scale of one to ten for its ability to clarify, move and inspire. The 101 stories with the highest average scores were compiled into a final manuscript.



The book still remained untitled. Realizing it needed to be a really good one, both authors began meditating on a winning title for an hour each day. Jack visualized the image of his grandmother's chicken soup and remembered how she told him it would cure anything. This book would have the same healing powers as that soup, but not for the body - for the soul. Thus, the book's best-selling title was born, Chicken Soup for the Soul®!

After three long years, Jack and Mark were finally ready to approach publishers with their book. Yet, in the first month alone, thirty-three of New York's biggest publishing houses turned them down. Jack and Mark heard, "Anthologies don't sell." "We don't think there is a market for this book." "We just don't get it." "The book is too positive." "It's not topical enough." All totaled, they were rejected by 140 publishers. To top it off, their agent said, "I can't sell this book - I'm giving it back to you guys."

In 1992, Jack and Mark attended the American Booksellers' Association Convention. There, they went from booth to booth talking to editors and sharing their vision of how their book would uplift humanity by helping people open their hearts, rekindle their spirits and give them the courage to pursue their dreams. They left a copy of their manuscript with Peter Vegso, President of Health Communications, Inc. who caught the spirit of the book and soon agreed to publish it.



The first Chicken Soup for the Soul® books were published on June 28, 1993, and became a Christmas favorite by the end of December. People who bought one book returned to buy five more copies as Christmas gifts. Word of mouth soon led to a groundswell of popularity. To meet the demand, the publisher had to subcontract printing.

By April of 1994, Chicken Soup for the Soul® had made some of the bestseller lists and by September it had hit the bestseller lists of The New York Times, The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly and USA Today, as well as all five major lists in Canada.

In 1995, Chicken Soup for the Soul® won the prestigious ABBY (American Booksellers' Book of the Year) Award based on the books that booksellers most enjoyed recommending to bookstore customers. In 1995, Chicken Soup for the Soul® was the recipient of the "Book of the Year" award from Body, Mind & Soul Magazine.

In 1996, A Second Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul® won the "Story Teller World Award" for the best anthology of stories. In addition, Chicken Soup for the Soul® was the winner of the American Family Institute's "Non-Fiction Literary Award."



Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen hold the prestigious title of "The Best-selling Authors of the Year" by USA Today for both 1997 and 1998, selling more books during these two years than any other authors in America.

With over 140 million copies sold to date, 31 titles in print in the United States and translations in more than 30 languages, Chicken Soup for the Soul® has made international publishing history. One or more titles in the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series have been on the New York Times bestseller list in the "How to/ Advice/ Miscellaneous" category consistently. At one time or anothe,r there have been at least eight Chicken Soup for the Soul® titles simultaneously in the top fifty on the USA Today best-selling books list.

In 1998, Chicken Soup for the Kid's Soul® was voted "Favorite Book of the Year" for the Nickelodeon Kid's Choice Awards. Jack and Mark hold the record in The Guinness Book of World Records for having the most books on the New York Times bestseller list at one time; seven books on May 24, 1998.

With Chicken Soup for the Soul® as a brand name, the CSSE licensing program controls:

• A syndicated column in more than 150 newspapers by King Features.
  
  
• A weekly television show on PAX Net Cable Network.
  
  
• Greeting cards, board games, conversation cards, figurines, plates, screen savers, etc.
  
  
• Daytimer's Chicken Soup for the Soul® time management systems and organizers