We are a new breed. We go beyond words, beyond reading. We’re here because we believe books don’t end with the last page. We bring books alive. We are the readers, the writers, the dreamers. We are the Spinebreakers. You can join us. Doesn’t matter what you’re good at: you can use text, image, video and audio to have your say.
Anastasia Goodstein of Y pulse (tracking generation Y teens) interviewed Anne Rafferty of Penguin UK to find out about Spinebreakers' success:
Ypulse Interview: Anna Rafferty of Penguin UK I've been really impressed with Penguin UK's new teen run web experiment Spinebreakers and was able to do a short interview with Anna Rafferty, Penguin's digital marketing director, about the site. What I found really interesting in her responses was an acknowledgment that the core purpose is not increasing sales but to make books more culturally relevant to teenagers. In a sense they are also building a community of teens that can give them feedback on new titles, cover art, marketing efforts and more.
Ypulse: What made the folks at Penguin decide hand over the reigns to teens vs. just creating an advisory board or soliciting user generated content?
Anna Rafferty: It's all about credibility - we want the site to genuinely belong to the teenagers and not be just another book marketing vehicle, so we've got to keep ourselves at an arm's length from it. An advisory board would imply that we still make the ultimate decisions and we don't want to - we're not the right people to. We want user-generated content to be a huge part of the site too - there's a call to contribute on every piece of content and I feel this engagement is essential it to succeed.
YP: Describe the role the teens have played in both the launch and running of Spinebreakers.
AR: Various teens (not always the same bunch) have been involved since the idea was first floated around Penguin - we were asking questions from the start - on whether it was a good idea at all and what information teens wanted to find on books online. We moved on to more formal consultation once the development of the site started - what should we call it, what was a good URL, which brand was best, which logo, how should the homepage look? and so on. Now we have an established team who decide which books should feature on the site, which articles they'd like to write and commission; they manage the tone of the site - it really is theirs.
YP: How has the response been to the site? Are teens contributing reviews, comments? Is it helping Penguin sell more books? Will there be a U.S. version any time soon?AR: It's been live for four weeks now and we've had thousands of unique visitors and the contributions have started to trickle in steadily, as well as almost as many applications to join the Spinebreakers crew! It's a bit too early to see any effect on sales but direct sales isn't the core purpose for the site - objective number one is making books more culturally relevant to teenagers and that is happening. I'm speaking closely with my US colleagues about expanding the site's remit so watch this space!
YP: What has been the most popular feature on the site?
AR: So far it's been all of the content on Nick Hornby's Slam. There's a lot of stuff there; videos of Nick, readings by Nicholas Hoult, the star of Skins plus extracts, reviews and competitions. It's a great book and not a surprise to see it so popular.
YP: We're always learning - no sooner do we launch the site then I see a load of things that I want to change and develop! The site, as all websites should be, is in permanent beta mode. We're testing and adding new features all the time - the Spinebreakers tell me what needs to change and I'm happy to be fluid and flexible. I think our biggest learning is not to *ever* try and second-guess what the target audience want - we thought they'd be interested in light, 'chick-lit' type books but everything we've pitched to them along those lines has been passed over in favour of darker titles. That's why they're in charge!
