In a unique partnership between Michael Eisner, former CEO of the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE:DIS), and book publisher G.P. Putnam, for the first time there will be a digital prequel on the Internet. It will be for the upcoming book by Robin Cook called "Foreign Body."
Cook is known for his best sellers like "Mindbend," "Outbreak" and "Coma," all medical thrillers.
Others that will be involved will be Big Fantastic, a web entertainment company, and Cyber Group Animation. Eisner, through his Vuguru online production studio will develop a series of 50 two-minute videos, similar to past internet ventures, and will premiere them online starting May 27.
On that date the series will launch and show a new episode each day (excluding weekends) over a 10-week period, ending the day before the book release on August 5. The setting of the series itself will be as a prequel leading up to the story in the book, based on its actual characters.
"This is a whole new way to get an audience that's not reading as much as they did in the past to get to know the characters in a novel," Eisner said. "Hopefully they'll get attached enough to go out and buy the book."
That's the key to whether this will be a success or not. If the online series is done well, which it should be, it could present a innovative and attractive way to bring the digital and print mediums together, as far as it relates to storytelling.
If people get strongly attached to the characters in the series, many will definitely want to continue on to see what happens with and to them in the book. I know I would.
Whether this particular experiment works or not in this specific instance, it will work for some in the future. Obviously, like anything else, it still has to be a great story and book to be successful. No amount of innovation can help sell a bad story.
For Vuguru and Eisner, the venture will be monetized through an ad-based model on the Webisodes.
This is one of the better ideas on convergence I've heard in a long time.
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