From Rachel Denwood, publishing director for HCUK’s children’s books, in The Bookseller:
“We’re delighted to join our US colleagues and 4th Story Media on this fantastic venture, the first of its kind for teenage girls. Each element is brilliantly conceived and delivered, but it was the quality of the books that got me so excited about this series. A pitch-perfect voice, a really strong and unusual story – plus cool, compelling characters: this is commercial teen fiction at its very best.”
The challenge, and perhaps opportunity, which Michael Staton noted, is to engage site visitors and charge for content. However, the key is not to sell content, but rather to sell a community’s trust.
While we have already seen this idea in practice with the likes of Yelp and Wikipedia, FSM took the concept to an entirely new level by using the Internet and new forms of technology to enable girls (ages 13 and up) to submit their own story lines to The Amanda Project. The premise behind The Amanda Project’s concept is to create online niche communities not only centered around a brand or product, but also around feelings and beliefs. The idea is for this to maximize user participation and partnership.
The article goes on to discuss The Amanda Project, and why one “former Hollywood film producer” thinks it “has the potential to be the most successful out of all the start-up ideas we heard from.”
With early June bringing both Book Expo America (BEA) and Internet Week to the fine city of New York, Fourth Story Media was recently invited to speak on a few panels.
As part of School Library Journal’s Day of Dialog during BEA, Lisa Holton, FSM’s CEO & Founder, sat on the panel The Multiplatform Novel: From Print to Web to Social Networks. Moderated by librarian extraordinaire Lisa Von Drasek (who raved about how she couldn’t put down Invisible I), other panelists included Scholastic’s David Levithan, 39 Clues author Peter Lerangis, and Jennifer Cowan, author of Earthgirl. The conversation ranged from the process and challenges involved in creating multimedia series to the fundamental importance of strong narrative.
And, over Internet Week, Ariel Aberg-Riger, FSM’s Creative Development & Marketing Manager, spoke on the panel Beyond Facebook: How Will Today’s Students Use the Web of Tomorrow? Hosted by “the librarian of the internet” Finding Dulcinea, panelists included Unigo’s Jordan Goldman, Kate Hillis of Next Next Entertainment and Qwidget, James Rohrbach of Gulliver Go, and Inigral’s Michael Stanton. Focusing on ways to encourage user participation and user generated content, panelists discussed their start-ups and predicted how students will expect to interact with content, brands, and companies in the future.
For coverage of the panels, check out our press section.
By itself, this is a well-developed mystery with a really interesting protagonist. In addition to being the first of a new series, though, this is also an interactive project where readers can posit theories about Amanda, contribute music and art to the project website, and generally determine the trajectory of the series via the website www.theamandaproject.com. It’s a really cool idea and I’m excited to see what kind of response it gets. In any case, the book is great and I highly recommend it.
Spike Jonze’s new (and fantastic) blog We Love You So (created in anticipation of this Fall’s Where The Wild Things Are movie), recently posted this video of Mister Rogers defending PBS to the U.S. Senate in 1969. As they say, “have the tissues ready.”
Editoras Online recently launched a guerilla ad campaign to promote their online store by posting over 4,000 QR code stickers all over São Paulo. The codes each led to sentences of either love or hate, generated by their Twitter feed. Editoras then produced a “living” book made up entirely of these QR codes that refreshes on a weekly basis. The book is sold exclusively on Editoras Online.
Publisher’s Weekly just released a long piece about Fourth Story Media, The Amanda Project, and multimedia children’s publishing.
From the piece:
Perched in a cozy top floor of a classic dot-com-like space—Fourth Story is in a former sail-making factory on a short cobblestoned street at New York City’s South Street Seaport—Holton exuded excitement. Having recently left corporate America—she stepped down as president of Scholastic Trade in 2007—she’s now focused on her current job, a deep multimedia YA series called The Amanda Project that HarperCollins is launching this fall. After last year’s launch of The 39 Clues, Scholastic’s elaborate book-series-wrapped-in-a-contest-connected-to-a-Web-site-with-play-along-trading-cards, the Amanda Project is primed to be one of the most ambitious multimedia children’s series to date.
Skittles (as in Taste the Rainbow Skittles) has relaunched its website entirely as redirects to various social media sites. All of the links come up in the Skittles.com window, with a small Skittles branded nav box that allows you to flip around (see image).
A rundown of the linktastic possibilities that now comprise the site:
Homepage (”Interweb the Rainbow”): Twitter search for the term “skittles”
Products (”Package the Rainbow”): Wikipedia entry on Skittles
Videos (”Watch the Rainbow”): YouTube Skittles channel
Pictures (”Watch the Rainbow”): Flickr pics tagged “skittles”
Chatter (”Chat the Rainbow”): Twitter search for the term “skittles”
And, in true social media fashion, the tone is pretty snarky. For example, once you’ve lingered long enough, a little “get healthy” tab pops up telling you to do things like take a walk around – your legs will thank you for it – and, you don’t have to eat the Skittles, just use them for a maraca exercise class instead.
Skeleton Creek is Real (from The Land of Elyon’s Patrick Carman) is a ghost story told through both journal entries (published by Scholastic) and short videos hosted at www.skeletoncreekisreal.com. The first book came out February 10th, with a sequel to follow this September.
