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Random House Children's Books is to publish a virtual paranormal romance with interactive features with Stardoll, an online fashion and games community for teenage girls.
The first episode of Mortal Kiss will go online today (6th September), with the rest of the 80,000 word novel delivered in daily feeds over the eight weeks to Hallowe'en.
The project is a collaboration between an in-house writing team at Random House and Stardoll artists and programmers who have created the visual dimension to the story, which is told through an interactive book and a map of Winter Mill, the fictitious US town where it is set.
Teenage subscribers will be able to comment on the story and also to participate in shaping it
at two "pivot points" in the narrative.
Random House Group chair and chief executive Gail Rebuck said Mortal Kiss was "breaking new ground in teen publishing as we explore imaginative ways to interact with this digitally savvy group". She called the project an "innovative concept to create new ways of reaching young people and encouraging them to read."
RHCB's colour and licensing publisher Fiona Macmillan said this form of publishing was "a brave new world", adding: "We are focusing on delivering the story and working in partnership with Stardoll to get the model working. Both parties are very clear that there will be monetisation opportunities, potentially through sponsorship, advertising and subscriptions."
There will also be the potential to extend Mortal Kiss into print-on-demand books and e-books, Macmillan said.
Stardoll is aimed at "young women focused on fame, fashion and friends" and has 4.6m registered users in the UK and 74m worldwide. The site, which features a virtual shopping plaza, already has an extensive relationship with major fashion brands, as well as with film and music companies, and big consumer companies including Unilever and Proctor & Gamble.
Chris Seth, general manager of the Stardoll Network, said smaller promotional projects with Random House, such as competitions for RCHB authors, had proved very popular with the site's users.
"From our perspective it's about providing content to drive usage and engagement. We know that our audience respond to the written word in large numbers and we ant the best content we can give them," he said.
Seth added that there were "numerous possibilities" about where Mortal Kiss could go from the business model perspective.
* Katie Bell, Stardoll commercial director, will be speaking at The Bookseller’s Children’s Annual Conference on 30th September.
www.stardoll.com/en/" target="_blank">Stardoll