S&S Blogfest to Connect Authors and Teens

By John Sellers, Children's Bookshelf -- Publishers Weekly, 1/24/2008

Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing has announced its first annual Simon Pulse Blogfest, a two-week event in March that will allow authors to connect with fans by answering a different reader-submitted question each day. Participating authors include Avi, Susan Cooper, Cynthia Kadohata, Pete Hautman, Scott Westerfeld and Holly Black, among many others. A full list is available on the event’s dedicated Web site, where the blogging will take place.

“This is a great opportunity for Simon & Schuster’s teen authors to come together and not only cross-promote their works to get the widest exposure possible, but also to give all of their fans an incredible online event that promotes reading and offers a behind-the-scenes look into what it’s like to be an author,” said Rick Richter, president and publisher of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, in a statement.

The idea originated about a year ago at a digital marketing committee within S&S. “We saw that when we did online marketing to teens they were really responding,” says Mary McAveney, v-p of marketing at S&S Children’s. “We were doing it in a targeted way—with Scott Westerfeld, the Private series [by Kate Brian], Ellen Hopkins, Holly Black. When teens were able to connect with these authors and spread the word, we really were able to get the word out about their properties.” 

Having noticed the popularity of blogs and MySpace pages by its writers, the committee hit upon the idea of having S&S teen and middle-grade authors respond to questions on a joint blog. “Teens who came to the site would be cross-exposed to other authors they might not know about,” McAveney says. “It’s a great opportunity for kids to interact with authors, which they seem to enjoy doing.”

S&S will soon begin to solicit questions for the Blogfest from teenagers via the company’s Pulse IT teen advisory board and mailing lists, ultimately narrowing down the submissions to 14 questions, with one revealed on the site per day, beginning March 14. The author’s blog posts will include a byline as well as information about them and their latest titles. In addition, site visitors will be able to post comments to each entry.

Ninety authors have confirmed their participation, and the company expects more to sign on. “[The list of authors] will continue to grow right up until the start,” McAveney predicts. “Virtually every teen author [of ours] is participating.”