In the latest effort to enhance book discovery, Simon & Schuster is partnering with mobile content delivery service Foli to offer customers complimentary access to a selection of full-text e-books in airports, museums and hotels around the country. Beginning May 15, David McCullough's The Wright Brothers will be a feature selection at the National Air & Space Museum and 50 venues around the country. Another 18 titles will be available though a select group of hotels and airport lounges.
The new service relies on Foli’s location-based wireless technology, which allows the the delivery of a single title, or group of titles, to a specific geographic location. In order to access the e-books in the program, customers can download the Foli app to their iOS or Android device and read a full-text version of any of the books.
The availability of the e-books will last for three days while they are being accessed at the targeted venue. The service also allows the consumer to buy the book outright at any time. One of the feature titles in the program, David McCullough's The Wright Brothers, displays how the publisher can use this technology in promoting specific titles. The biography, published this month, will be available at venues that tie into its theme, in all about 50 venues around the country. The title will be available via the National Air & Space Museum and other landmark locations in the "first in flight" state of North Carolina.
Other titles available through the program include Stephen King’s Revival, Anna Todd’s After and Walter Isaacson’s The Innovators. Hotels participating include The Algonquin in New York City and Stanford Court San Francisco; and airport lounges at the San Francisco International Airport as well as other airports around the country.
Tracy Mercer, general manager of Four Seasons Silicon Valley, one of the hotels featured in the program, said “As a launch partner, we're excited to introduce the enhanced benefit of offering full books in addition to the magazines offered. We are always looking for ways to embrace innovation and technology and Foli fits in perfectly.”
S&S executive v-p and chief marketing officer Liz Perl, said the new service offered “virtually limitless” possibilities to target books to readers. “Travelers, concert-goers, café patrons, attendees at sporting events and conventions and museum visitors, to name just a few groups, are a natural audience for book content. Foli provides a user-friendly solution for readers and a unique vehicle for Simon & Schuster to reach them.”
Correction: an earlier version of this story that said all 19 titles will be available in 50 venues around the country was wrong, only the McCullough book will be available in 50 venues. The service is also available in locations in the state of North Carolina, which is not the Wright Brothers home state.
