This book demonstrates how the roles of "author," "marketer," and "reviewer" are being redefined, as online environments enable new means for young adults to participate in the books they love.
Prior to the expansion of digital technologies around reading, teachers, parents and librarians were the primary gatekeepers responsible for getting books into the hands of young people. Now publishers can create disintermediated digital enclosures in which they can communicate directly with their reading audience.
This book exposes how teens contribute their immaterial and affective labor as they engage in participatory reading experiences via publishers' and authors' interactive websites and use of social media, and how in turn publishers are able to use such labor as they get invaluable market research, peer-to-peer recommendations, and even content which can be used in other projects all virtually free-of-charge.
Prior to the expansion of digital technologies around reading, teachers, parents and librarians were the primary gatekeepers responsible for getting books into the hands of young people. Now publishers can create disintermediated digital enclosures in which they can communicate directly with their reading audience.
This book exposes how teens contribute their immaterial and affective labor as they engage in participatory reading experiences via publishers' and authors' interactive websites and use of social media, and how in turn publishers are able to use such labor as they get invaluable market research, peer-to-peer recommendations, and even content which can be used in other projects all virtually free-of-charge.
"Marianne Martens looks at the recent trend among book publishers of creating participatory websites aimed at teenage readers. ... one of the most important aspects of Martens's work is providing future researchers with detailed descriptions of these three sites - how they functioned, who their target audiences were, what features they offered, et cetera." (Christopher Doody, Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, Vol. 55 (1), March, 2017)