Enriching the Reader Experience with Digital Content: How Atria Books Connected to Readers

In the fast-changing landscape of publishing, the future is no longer about looking at linear text – both digital and print platforms are actively taking advantage of new and improved technologies for enriching reader experience. With e-readers and other digital devices, this is easy to do. Everything you need to connect text with videos, links, sounds, etc. is on one screen. But for the old-fashioned standby – the printed book – connecting the offline of the text to the online of the enriched reader experience does not have as simple or obvious a solution.

In this session, publisher and founder of Atria Books, Judith Curr will address the innovative ways that Atria solved this problem and integrated new content into books for an expanded experience. She will also explore new digital possibilities around promotional material that is laser-focused for specific target audiences. She will highlight case studies examples of various publications that are connecting books to readers’ mobile devices and other screens and how this is resonating with today’s multitasking audience. Judith will describe the unique ways in which Atria is improving customer experience and also stepping up its marketing game, by citing the following examples:

• Full Black by Brad Thor, for which Atria added 2D barcode tags on the book jacket that linked to videos about the book, as well as implemented both outdoor and print ads that linked to chapter excerpts and author videos.
• Eva Scrivo on Beauty, which offers tags throughout the pages linking to videos that demonstrate Scrivo’s techniques and tools as described in the text.
• True Spirit by Jessica Watson, with videos that the teenage author created during her cross-globe sailing voyage linked through tags throughout.
• Roam, a soon-to-be-released work of fiction by Alan Lazar, who, as a composer, created new music to accompany each chapter. The printed work will contain tags linking readers to those songs in a format designed to be compatible with all mobile devices.