Universal Books

Universal Books (formerly Multimedia Books and before that Schultz & Associates) is an American book publishing company formed in 1971 by Mark J. Schultz, former employer at Random House and Simon & Schuster. It publishes books based on TV shows like Onion Mastori and Ace of All Trades.

History
In 1971, book vetaran Mark J. Schultz, Sr. stepped down from Simon & Schuster and decided to start a book publishing company, called Schultz & Associates. Schultz's big hit came in 1974 when they published a novel Grand Victory: The Story of the 1964 Olympics by Matthew Flower, which received critical acclaim.

They continue to do books, by putting out a novelization of the 1979 feature Ray & Julie. Schultz, Sr. died in 1981 and his son took over operations of the company. One of the greatest success the company earned was a novelization of the 1981 film The Master of Colors. In 1985, film producer David V. Scott took over the company.

On February 10, 1988, Multimedia announced that they will acquire David V. Scott's entertainment companies (which included film and TV production company David Scott Entertainment, animation studio Michael Wildshill Productions (Scott acquired control of the studio in 1986, raising it to 100% in 1987, prior to that he has a 10%) and the book company). Multimedia suggest a rename of the company to Multimedia Books to reflect its identity.

Schultz, Jr. started out Gingo Books in 1991 to do novelizations of its Gingo shows, like Gabriel Garza, the books end up becoming bestsellers and surpassed popular children's titles in sales.

On January 31, 1996, MCA acquired Multimedia's entertainment group (excluding its newspapers and broadcasting assets) from Gannett and decided to rename it to Universal Books. From that point on, the success came in with a series of junior novels based around Universal Animation's own feature films.

Its best selling children's book series released under the Universal label was a series of Comouteropolis books that ran starting in 2005.

Imprints

 * Gingo Books
 * DreamWorks Books - label from 1997 to 2005
 * Illumination Books
 * DreamWorks Animation Books - label from 2016-present