Little, Brown Publishers set up a site called Novl (theNovl.com) on which all their teen properties and book projects were featured. The content included book trailers, author guest posts, and author playlists.
Now they are turning it into a digital imprint that will release short-form, low-cost content every month.
These will be e-only short stories and novellas by Little, Brown authors and will be tied to existing properties.
The formats will include prequels and pieces told by characters in series whose points of view have not been explored, or they may be stories whose characters are new but live in the world created by the author.
The lengths will range from 7500 to 15,000 words, and prices will be between 99 cents and $2.99.
There will also be some fan-generated content, and visitors will be able to vote on things like cover art.
At the moment, the site has a relatively modest following (about 13,000) but they hope the new version will draw additional fans.
What's in this for you if you're not a Little, Brown author? If you have a publisher, you might see whether they are open to setting up something like this as well.
If you self-publish, you might want to find another half dozen self-published authors and create a site like this. Ideally the authors would all be writing in the same genre so that visitors are likely to be tempted to sample work by authors they don't know yet.
It could also be a good idea to sign up for their newsletter at the Novl site, to see whether their promotional activities might inspire some of your own.
(for helpful guidance in writing your book, get a copy of Your Writing Coach, published by Nicholas Brealey and available from your favorite bookseller.)
