Since Crown Publishing acquired Nina George’s 2013 novel The Little Paris Bookshop, about the lonely owner of a floating bookstore on the Seine, the publisher has been excited about its chances to capture readers. That’s why, following the book’s paperback release in late March, the Penguin Random House division has rolled out a comprehensive promotional initiative spanning multiple house imprints and verticals.

At the center of the effort is Crown’s Read It Forward website, a promotional site that offers readers an advance look at hot titles. The site is now running an appropriately named “April in Paris” campaign that will deliver a month of content with Parisian themes from such writers as Ina Garten and Paula McClain. Read it Forward content will include original pieces, recipes, and excerpts from authors across Crown’s imprints, along with other PRH imprints.

Since its launch in 2008, the Read It Forward website has grown into a digital community that generates more than 300,000 page views a month, with over 180,000 newsletter subscribers (31% of which are in book clubs).

Also in the promotional mix is a Paris-themed sweepstakes contest, co-sponsored with Air France, offering readers the chance to win a trip to Paris, four nights at a top hotel and a gift package produced in partnership with such companies as Sherman’s, Fodor's, and Staub. To drum up grassroots interest, Crown’s marketing team developed a bookstore-ready window display kit which features a light-up Eiffel Tower cutout.

Kayleigh George, senior marketing manager at Crown, said the campaign has become an exercise in creative partnership and interdivisional camaraderie at PRH. “We don’t always have the chance to work with our friends at Clarkson Potter or Ten Speed. It’s not only Read It Forward, it’s all of the other Penguin Random House imprints as well.”

The promotion is promising a formidable consumer reach, as well. According to George the push should reach 12.3 million people, hitting more than 6 million consumers via email, another 5 million on social media, and more than 43,000 through a sweepstakes.

Since the novel is about the power of booksellers to change lives, The Little Paris Bookshop received hefty support from independent bookstores when it was released in hardcover. Since its paperback publication, in March, the book has hit #2 on the indie bestseller list and also landed on the New York Times list.

For George, the difficulty of arranging a campaign across multiple imprints, has been worth the effort. "I think [there were] so many moving parts that it definitely took a lot of management,” she said. “The nice thing about it is that we learned a lot. Pulling it off in this way has been a huge coup.”