If you’ve logged onto iTunes and searched for “Transformers” recently, you would have noticed that IDW are offering the complete series of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Alliance and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Defiance for download. Each issue costs £0.59 ($0.99) which is brilliant value for UK fans, given the actual comic would costs a lot more.
Here is the press release:
IDW Publishing, the fourth largest comic book publisher in the U.S., has selected iPublishCentral, a self-service e-content platform from Impelsys, to help broaden its e-publishing strategy. Using iPublishCentral, IDW plans to digitize 25 issues from its classic Transformers series, and use the iPublishCentral tool suite to market and sell the content online.
Under the agreement, IDW will utilize the full iPublishCentral tool suite, including ViewInside and iPublishWidget. ViewInside and iPublishWidget are viral marketing tools that help publishers promote their brand and market books on the internet. ViewInside enables readers to browse pages from a book or a comic series before they decide to buy. This option allows prospective customers to sample an issue of a comic book series, and see the high quality artwork that is so essential to bringing a comic book to life.
“E-publishing is a great way to make our comics more accessible to a new audience, enticing them to eventually try the print versions,” said Ted Adams, CEO of IDW. “iPublishCentral’s self-service model has an elegant, easy-to-use approach to digitizing content and engaging our online community. We are looking forward to the opportunity to experiment with iPublishCentral’s suite.”
In addition to ViewInside, the iPublishCentral suite includes iPublishWidget, which enables readers and authors to participate in spreading information about a title of their interest on social profile pages like Facebook and MySpace. Readers and authors can also easily add book widgets to their personal blogs. This viral marketing tool enhances visibility, sustains interest and enables sales conversions for any title.
“iPublishCentral is the perfect solution for publishers such as IDW which heavily rely on print sales of comic books, but which also want to sync print publishing with e-publishing in order to attract new customers,” said Sameer Shariff, CEO of Impelsys. “With iPublishCentral’s sampling and viral marketing tools, IDW is able to expand its reach to audiences online, innovating along with their tech-forward audience, all without altering the authenticity of their titles.”
iPublishCentral enables publishers of any size to digitize their content for sale online and promote their brands and titles across the Web through strategic viral marketing. Publishers can sign up for iPublishCentral’s basic, no-cost package to access standard features and functionalities, drastically reducing the cost and risk of initiating an e-publishing strategy.
