Simon & Schuster Launches Teen Networking Site

By Jim Milliot -- Publishers Weekly, 6/17/2009 12:40:00 PM

Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing hopes to attract more teens to its books through the creation of a new Pulse It social networking site (www.simonandschuster.com/pulseit). The site is aimed at 14- to 18-year-olds and will let teens do things they can do on such places as Facebook—like create personal profiles and befriend other members—as well as read and react to S&S titles. S&S will make two books per month available to be read online for free and members can choose one of those titles and have 60 days to finish the book. Message boards will let readers discuss the book and rank it. The site will also have an author section where teens can interact with their favorite writers.

Jon Anderson, executive v-p and publisher of the S&S children’s division, said he hopes the new site will encourage teens “to buzz our books by spreading the word to their peers on other networks and sites.” The site grew out of the Pulse It advisory board of 3,000 teens who received free physical books in exchange for providing feedback. According to S&S, board members became so active on message boards the company decided to create a site dedicated to them. Pulse It had a soft launch June 8 and currently has about 3,100 members.