We've all encountered at least one reluctant reader in our lifetimes , whether it be a classmate, a friend or a son or daughter. The days of dreading reading hour in the classroom may be coming to an end. Authors now use interactive social media sites to increase their readership and to promote their current and future literary works. For people who dislike reading, an interactive website not only provides a medium that they will find more enjoyable, it also provides dedicated fans with a source for more information about their favorite characters, plot-lines etc. Pottermore, J.K. Rowling's new venture with online media, is a perfect example of a website beautifully marrying social media, gaming and literature.
Currently open to only one million (incredibly lucky!) people, Pottermore is still in its Beta phase. Web developers are using this phase to interview users and see how and why people are using the site to optimize desired features. To give you an idea how addictive and compelling the site is: with only one million viewers, there have been over 550 million hits on the site within the span of one month. Imagine how much more traffic will Pottermore generate once it is open to the public.
So what does Pottermore offer and how does is encourage people to read the novels?
Gaming
For unregistered users, Pottermore created the "Magical Quill Challenge" as a way of extending Beta-level membership to more people. Webdesigners "hid" a quill in on the homepage of Pottermore. To play the game all you had to do was find the quill and correctly answer a few Harry Potter trivia questions. The first few people to complete the challenge were granted access to the site as Beta testers.
For registered Beta users, Pottermore has many games including puzzle-type games and social/interactive games. For example, you can compete with other users in "wizard duels" or take the time to try and correctly brew various potions. Turning the features of the books into games is an effective way to make kids want to read them.
Social Network
The site has a virtual sorting hat place users into one of the four houses of Hogwarts. Once in a house, you can comment on your houses common-room wall and interact with members of your house. Pottermore encouraged people of various houses to compete to have the most twitter updates promoting house pride by tweeting #gryffindorpride or equivalent.
Additional Reading Material
Pottermore has Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone up on the site with beautiful illustrations and additional reading material not found in the printed copy of the book. Rowling provides insight into the lives of the characters as well as never-before-seen stories about Harry's parents. Rowling will be posting more additional reading material as the site evolves.
The site will eventually be selling eBook versions of the entire series providing immediate access to the entire series, yet another way to increase Rowling's readership.
Literary phenomena similar to Harry Potter like The Lord Of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia and future book series will probably start promoting their work by creating interactive websites like Pottermore. These promotional tools are a great way to encourage children to read. For example, Pottermore offers the book in a variety of formats (audio, digital, print, interactive gaming, social networking) all of which tell the story of Harry Potter -- making it accessible and enjoyable to a larger audience.
For more information check out Pottermore's blog!
Pottermore is such a well developed example of extending a story over various media platforms. I think it's great that the series can engage fans in more than one way and ends up creating an entire community around the literature. It's involving fictional narratives into our everyday lives and creating an even more realistic and tangible form of the story as it surrounds us. I personally have only gotten through the first book, so I can't speak from personal experience, but I think for fans the marriage of books with games, social media and more is an exciting and ever-increasing phenomenon.
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Cecilia.
ReplyDeleteSites like Pottermore make me want to be a kid again. I remember being obsessed with certain cartoons and books, but only being able to involve myself so far. If I was a fan of a show, for example, I would wait impatiently for that one hour a week where I would get to see my favorite characters. With these interactive social media sites, fans can be involved in limitless ways and the depth to that involvement is so much greater. This is a perfect example of how new media can enrich our lives.