Atria Publishes ‘Smart Book’ Tagged with an RFID Chip

NEW YORK—Oct. 28, 2011—One thousand copies of a new title from Atria Books will be stickered with a RFID chip allowing any user of a cell phone with near-field communication (NFC) capabilities to simply tap the tag and engage with the book’s content.

Any NFC-enabled phone will automatically perform the command embedded in the tag. In this case, the phone’s mobile web browser will be opened to specific book-related content. The smart book tag can be embedded into a book cover or paper bookmark.

“The smart book allows the physical book to become interactive for both the book buyer and the book browser,” says Judith Curr, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Atria Books. “The reader can tap to rich interactive content on their phone. The goal is to engage the consumer and start a permission-based two-way relationship that may lead to the sale of this book or further sales in this category of interest.”

The first NFC-enabled smart book will be “The Impulse Economy: Understanding Mobile Shoppers and What Makes Them Buy” (Atria Books; Nov. 1, 2011; ISBN: 9781451671865; $24.00), a groundbreaking book that shows how mobile technology is changing shopping habits, anticipates the near future of m-commerce, and helps retailers understand what they can do to leverage this technology to grow their customer base.

“Proximity marketing solutions like NFC will allow for seamless and frictionless interactive experience whether this is for interactive content on your phone or mobile wallet commerce opportunities,” says Gary Schwartz, the author of THE IMPULSE ECONOMY. “This new breed of consumer is using the mobile phone in the physical store to select products, research purchases, and act on content.”

About Atria Books
Atria Books is an imprint of Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corp. Simon & Schuster is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Online, and international companies in Australia, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom.