In an effort to attract teen readers, Simon & Schuster has created PulseIt.
Teens love to interact, don't they, and they spend all their time on MySpace or Twitter. The marketing people figured that if the publisher provided a forum for interaction, they had a chance to introduce Simon & Schuster books to a new crowd of 14- to 18-year-olds.
According to the banner, PulseIt is a place to read books online, for free, and review them. As long as the kids don't feel like they're creating a book report, which is much too much like homework, there might be interest among the bookworms.
Like Facebook, it's to be a closed community where the kids can post a profile and upload a picture. Again like Facebook, there's public information that can be seen by all, and private information that's closed to non-members. Parents are to be assured that pedophiles won't be hanging around, gaining access to e-mails or the like.
To increase visits to PulseIt, members are supposed to post a note on their Facebook page, to tell their non-literary friends that they've read a book and here's what it's all about. The idea is that other kids will then go to PulseIt, maybe look around, and join up.
Simon & Schuster has built it. Now will they come? Or will teens continue to see reading as work to be avoided, rather than a pleasure to be savored?
No comments:
Post a Comment