BACKLIT LAUNCHES NEW PUBLISHING MODEL FOR TEEN FRANCHISES
New eBook Publisher Incubates Teen Serials as Episodic Apps and Film/Television Properties
Santa Monica, CA November 8, 2011 Backlit launched its first series of teen franchise ebooks via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple: Borrowing Abby Grace and The Start-Up and The Dig, followed by Young Americans, Future Perfect and The Defiants early next year. Similar to such Young Adult (YA) successes as Gossip Girl and The Hunger Games, Backlit ebooks will create new franchises tailored to and tested with teen audiences.
Backlit has a first look film and television deal with Jack Giarraputo of Happy Madison. Jack is one of Hollywood¹s most successful producers; his films have grossed more than $2 billion domestically. He is Backlit¹s strategic partner, creative advisor and lead investor. ³Backlit is reinventing publishing by shortening the path from writer to reader,² said Jack Giarraputo.
The Backlit model quickly determines audience and franchise value. ³The speed of ebook production allows Backlit to test fresh commercial ideas with the audiences who will love them,² said Backlit Publisher, Panio Gianopoulos. ³Working closely with some of Hollywood¹s best creative minds, Backlit is committed to telling stories that will be loved as books, television shows and movies.²
Episodic ebook content will be previewed via Facebook and Twitter, which allows Backlit to engage teens who routinely find their entertainment online. In addition, immediate audience feedback, interactivity and spin-offs take on a whole new value when stories are created and released quickly. Focused on Millennial readers with episodic attention spans, Backlit books will be released exclusively in digital every few weeks, yet offer more narrative depth than typical Amazon Kindle Singles can provide.
Appealing to Millennials who consume in 140 character bursts, Backlit Fiction will address young ³reluctant readers² who are increasingly turning to mobile devices for their entertainment needs. Backlit is committed to innovating methods of storytelling in order to attract and convert new readers to the world of books.
Backlit subscribes to the on-demand model, where ebooks are the new apps for fiction consumption. Episodic in nature, Backlit stories can be consumed and purchased anywhere, and read in any order. This pairing of creation and distribution is tailored to the surprisingly text-friendly teen demographic; 15-24 year olds spend on average 50 minutes a day reading. This is nearly double the 32 minutes spent reading by 25-64 year olds, according to Nielsen.
Backlit: Fiction Forward (BFF) will become a quick, ready and trusted companion to the young adult audience. On a unique promotional basis, devoted readers can also win ³character walk-on² opportunities in upcoming episodes; and a unique teen ³start-up² challenge based around The Start-Up series. Backlit is also launching the Backlit Mentors Program, whereby the publisher will mentor, crowdsource and commission new YA authors to write episodes based on their series¹ story lines.
Current Backlit Series:
o Sent to repair the lives and loves of teenagers on the edge of disaster, smart and sassy Abby Grace has everything going for her, except one thing: a body.
· THE START-UP (named for the story¹s start-up)
o When a college freshman¹s breakthrough software program catapults her into the limelight, she and her twin brother must navigate a treacherous world of money, power, and envy: Silicon Valley.
· THE DIG
oOut of time and out of her element, teenager Zoe Calder finds herself in ancient Greece, battling against the power of the Olympians and the vengeance of a scorned goddess‹all for the strange and mysterious boy she has come to love.
About Backlit
Backlit is a digital media publishing company that creates ebooks and interactive apps based on original franchises. Backlit incubates teen serials as episodic apps and film and television properties.
Backlit publisher Panio Gianopoulos has spent a decade working in the publishing industry. While an editor at Bloomsbury Publishing, he edited titles across every genre, including bestselling memoirs by Chelsea Handler and Anthony Bourdain, the original literary tie-in for the HBO series Deadwood, and the novel that inspired the film Limitless. A former BCG consultant focusing on the entertainment industry, he received his M.B.A. from Stanford University Graduate School of Business. He is currently the Publisher and Editorial Director of Backlit Fiction, LLC.
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I look forward to hearing and seeing what else BackLit brings to the table :]
Enjoy!
Ashley Suzanne
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