Tor/Forge Books Announces Digital Download Initiative - Tor/Forge Blog
Close

Tor/Forge Books Announces Digital Download Initiative

Tor/Forge Books Announces Digital Download Initiative

Tor/Forge Books Announces Digital Download Initiative

Author Voices to debut at RWA and San Diego Comic-Con featuring co-promotions with Tor.com and Heroes and Heartbreakers

New York, NY – Thursday, June 23, 2011Tor/Forge Books is pleased to announce Tor/Forge Author Voices Digital Downloads, a three-volume digital initiative whereby consumers will download exclusive content via company social networking sites, website and newsletter. Said content will be available via mobile as well as online at us.macmillan.com and Tor.com. The exclusives will be promoted at conferences this summer beginning with Romance Writers of America (RWA) next week and San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) in July.

Poster Placeholder of - 83Tor/Forge Author Voices Vol #1 will release at RWA via a QR code at the Tor table and will take fans to a landing page allowing them to download roughly 400 pages in a pdf or epub file. Excerpts from upcoming books by Tor/Forge and an original short story by RITA nominated Deborah Coonts, (Lucky Stiff, Forge 2011) will be some of the content available in the volume. The landing page will also have a newsletter signup and information about the Tor panel at the show as well as a reminder to visit HeroesandHeartbreakers.com, the Macmillan owned community website for romance readers. The file will become available for download on all ebook retailer sites on July 5th.

Image Place holder  of - 96Tor/Forge Author Voices Vol #2 will debut at San Diego Comic-Con, July 20th-24th and will feature author excerpts and chapter previews with special attention to gaming properties. Tor/Forge and Tor.com will partner with a joint landing page on Tor.com where the file will be available for download. Tor.com will also offer a variety of sweepstakes including a tablet. On the Tuesday after the con, July 26th, the file will become available on all ebook retailer sites.

Macmillan’s Digital Marketing department will take advantage of the Comic-Con promotions to test run a mobile campaign which will feature a keyword whereby the public can text a number to receive a link to the landing page, though it will also be available via QR code. Tor/Forge plans on promoting this effort via posters, postcards and other promotional items in the Tor Booth (#2707, 2709).

“Mobile, in combination with traditional marketing channels, is a great way to reach a new audience and establish an immediate connection with fans. We are testing four different mobile channels at once during San Diego Comic-Con with two great partners, Link.me and Zoove. If the Comic-Con campaign proves successful, we plan to integrate mobile marketing channels into more of our traditional marketing efforts moving forward,” says Michael Harbolt, VP, Digital Markets.

Tor/Forge Author Voices Vol 3 is currently in production and will offer similar content to promote at New York Comic-Con in October. Included in this volume will be an ad with links to all the publisher’s online assets and other Tor/Forge digital marketing initiatives. The company hopes to design the ads for the individual imprints in the future and are looking into creating a similar campaign for their YA and children’s imprints, Starscape and Tor Teen.

About Tor and Forge Books

Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, is a New York-based publisher of hardcover and softcover books, founded in 1980 and committed (although not limited) to arguably the largest and most diverse line of science fiction and fantasy ever produced by a single English-language publisher. Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, is also the home of award-winning Forge Books, founded in 1993 and committed (although not limited) to thrillers, mysteries, historical fiction and general fiction. Forge includes books by bestselling and critically acclaimed authors such as Douglas Preston, Eric Lustbader, W. Bruce Cameron and Former Secretary of Defense, William S. Cohen. Together, the imprints garnered 20 New York Times bestsellers in 2010.