Hyperion is building on its experience with online reading groups to launch the Hyperion Select Online Book Club. The new site, which will go live January 10, is designed to promote the publisher's fiction titles and to draw attention to its paperback list, said Joanie Rendon, assistant marketing director.
The online club will feature one book every two weeks, and Hyperion will e-mail excerpts from the title to club members. Rendon said that consumers who have participated in other online reading groups "have become evangelists for books they like" and Hyperion hopes the more robust club will help the company get more consumer response to new books as well as boost sales. In addition to excerpts, club members will be eligible to receive advance copies, signed books and various giveaways, such as tote bags. "We want to build a bond with readers who will promote our books and the club," Rendon said.
The club will launch with excerpts from the upcoming trade paperback edition of Cecelia Ahern's PS, I Love You, which was released in hardcover last year. Readers who sign on for excerpts can receive ARCs from Ahern's next book, Rosi Dunne, which Hyperion is publishing in hardcover in February.
Rendon said Hyperion has done little to promote the club to date, but that it will ramp up efforts after January 10. All mailings will include the URL (hyperionselect.com), and Hyperion will put the Web address in all paperbacks. It will also use its in-house database to promote the club online. Bendon said Hyperion has "no intention" to try to sell books in the club directly through its site. "We want to keep it clean and make it simply a consumer-response mechanism," Rendon said, noting that down the line, the company may add links to e-tailers and booksellers.
