Random House Children's Books to Publish Mortal Kiss

LONDON, November 19, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Random House Children's Books is to publish Mortal Kiss, the interactive virtual story it created with Stardoll, the world's largest virtual entertainment and social gaming site for teenagers. The move to create a physical book was prompted by the phenomenally positive response to the story from Stardoll users.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20101119/420822 )

The Mortal Kiss pages on Stardoll have received over 13.9 million page views, with the campaign page receiving over 3.8 million. The Mortal Kiss Stardoll fan club has 51,788 members, against 33,347 for the Harry Potter club. Each of the main characters in the story has character Stardolls; the most popular of these, Faye, received over 600,000 views. http://www.stardoll.com/en/mortalkiss/

Mortal Kiss is the first interactive story Random House has published on a social networking platform. A paranormal mystery, created in collaboration between writers and editors at RHCB and artists and programmers at Stardoll, Mortal Kiss was serialised globally via the Stardoll website over the 8-week period leading up to Hallowe'en. The book will be published on 6th January 2011 by Bantam Books, price GBP6.99.

Philippa Dickinson, MD of RHCB, comments, 'We are absolutely delighted to be publishing Mortal Kiss. The extraordinary enthusiasm shown by the Stardoll community for this, our first web-based serial, shows the power a good story has to connect with readers both online and offline.'

Mattias Miksche, CEO of Stardoll Network, comments, 'We are thrilled to be reaching new heights with RHCB, as the virtual story Mortal Kiss is published as a book early next year. The response from the Stardoll community around Mortal Kiss has exceeded expectations and they have been asking for more. RCHB are making it a reality for our members and teens around the world.'

Notes for Editors / over

More about Random House

The Random House Group is one of the largest general book publishing companies in the UK. The Group is based in London and has subsidiary companies in Australia, New Zealand and India, with a joint venture in South Africa called Random House Struik. The Group comprises five publishing companies: Cornerstone Publishing, CCV, Ebury Publishing, Random House Children's Books and Transworld Publishers, boasting more than 40 diverse and highly respected imprints. The Random House Group distribution business services its own imprints as well as 60 other UK publishers. The Random House Group is an independently managed subsidiary of Random House Inc in the US, the trade book publishing division of Bertelsmann AG, one of the world's largest and most diversified integrated media companies.

More about Stardoll

The Stardoll Network is the world's leading group of websites devoted to young women and teens. Launched in early 2009, the network includes: Stardoll.com - the entertainment destination for young women focused on fame, fashion and friends; Piczo.com - the original platform devoted to social self expression and visual blogging; and PaperDollHeaven.com - a simpler game-play environment for the younger, female demographic. The Stardoll Network now works with the world's biggest brands as they look to engage with an increasingly elusive teen audience. The network is the number one publisher in ComScore's teen category, both in Europe and globally. The business is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden with offices in the US, UK and Germany, and is backed by two of the world's top venture capital firms: Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures.

http://www.stardoll.com

SOURCE The Random House Group and The Stardoll Network