Random House Publishes Its First Interactive Story on Stardoll.com
RSSBy SLJ Staff
Random House Children's Books has teamed with Stardoll.com, an online community for girls, to deliver Mortal Kiss, an innovative virtual story aimed at teens--and the first interactive story Random House has published on a social networking site. Writers and editors at Random, along with artists and programmers at Stardoll, worked jointly on the paranormal mystery, from its plot and personas to its virtual environments, illustrations, and wardrobes to create a reading experience accompanied with interactive features. Mortal Kiss will be serialized globally on the Stardoll website over an eight-week period, from now until Halloween. The story will deliver three to five minutes of reading material each day, building to a cliffhanger every week. Stardoll members are invited to shape the story and its outcome as it unfolds. The story is being told through an interactive book and map of Winter Mill, a fictitious town in New England with a population of 29,785. The four main characters-Liz, Faye, Finn, and Lucas-will have character Stardolls (or paperdolls), complete with profiles and outfits to dress up in-all drawn from events in the story. To celebrate the launch of Mortal Kiss, Random House is giving away 20 sets of dark romance books to readers who correctly answer questions about the story. The project will also include writing contests with themes based on the book and will ask members to vote on various plots, both ways to encourage reading and creative writing at the start of the school year. "Mortal Kiss is breaking new ground in teen publishing as we explore imaginative ways to interact with this digitally savvy group," says Gail Rebuck, chairman and chief executive of the Random House Group. "Teens will always be engaged with great storytelling and we are delighted to partner Stardoll on this innovative concept to create new ways of reaching young people and encouraging them to read." Launched in 2004, Stardoll is based on the paper doll concept in which users dress up dolls using a range of tools and can participate in interactive activities. Users, mostly between the ages of 7 and 17, can create their own MeDoll or choose from a collection of celebrity dolls. Membership is free. "We're excited to be partnering with leading global publisher Random House," says Mattias Miksche, Stardoll's CEO. "This initiative and new relationship combines the engagement of contemporary media with the printed page to the online game in ways that encourage the development of creativity and individual voice among teens." Interesting crossover between games & books A LA Trans Media. I wonder if my tech savvy nieces will opt in? (That's quite an age spread 7-17) Look forward to seeing this take shape. I like the writing component- girls encouraged to write their own quest plot. cool. * = Required information
Reader Comments (1)
Posted by @cynthiajabar on September 8, 2010 01:06:16AM
