Publishers, Readers, and Digital Engagement

"Marianne Martens's Publishers, Readers and Digital Engagement offers fresh insights into digital reading through focusing on the role of both traditional and emerging digital gatekeepers. Martens's case studies capture the complex lifespan of digital reading platforms and reveal the importance of affective labour in contemporary children's and YA publishing" (Simon Rowberry, University of Stirling, UK)

This book demonstrates how the roles of “author,” “marketer,” and “reviewer” are being redefined, as online environments enable new means for young adults to participate in the books they love.
Prior to the expansion of digital technologies around reading, teachers, parents and librarians were the primary gatekeepers responsible for getting books into the hands of young people. Now publishers can create disintermediated digital enclosures in which they can communicate directly with their reading audience. 
This book exposes how teens contribute their immaterial and affective labor as they engage in participatory reading experiences via publishers’ and authors’ interactive websites and use of social media, and how in turn publishers are able to use such labor as they get invaluable market research, peer-to-peer recommendations, and even content which can be used in other projects  all virtually free-of-charge.