Essays

Bantam Dell Believed To Be The First North American Publisher To Enter the 3D Virtual World of Second Life with the Opening of The Bantam Dell Book Shop and Café

To Celebrate the Book Shop’s Grand Opening on March 15th, Bestselling Author Dean Koontz will Read From and Discuss His Upcoming Novel THE GOOD GUY

The Bantam Dell Publishing Group is thrilled to announce the opening of The Bantam Dell Book Shop and Café on Second Life®, the groundbreaking social networking 3D virtual world, created by Linden Lab®, entirely built and owned by its residents and currently inhabited by more than four million residents around the world. Bantam Dell is what we believe to be the first North American publisher to establish a presence in Second Life. At the Bantam Dell Book Shop (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sheep%20island/123/28/25), located in Second Life on Sheep Island, residents will be able to shop for and buy actual books published by Bantam Dell. To celebrate this publishing first, Bantam Dell will throw a Grand Opening event for the Book Shop featuring #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz. At the event, Koontz will treat Second Life residents to the world-premiere reading from his forthcoming novel, THE GOOD GUY, which goes on sale May 29, 2007, and will answer questions from residents in attendance. The reading will take place on Thursday, March 15th at 6 p.m. PST/SLT (that’s Second Life Time).

Dean Koontz will appear in the form of a custom-created Second Life avatar and residents will hear his reading as an audio feed and will be able to both hear his answers to questions. “I’m delighted,” says Koontz. “With all the writing I’m doing I can’t possibly greet readers as much as I’d like to. Making this first ‘BD Authors-in-Second-Life’ appearance at the Shop is a great way to make connections.” The event will be enhanced by book giveaways and other sweepstakes throughout the evening and the following weekend.

Bantam Dell has made the commitment to Second Life to enhance the conversation about books within this world. “We want to give Second Life residents a place to gather to talk about books, experience author events, learn about the publishing process, and more,” says SVP Director of Creative Marketing Betsy Hulsebosch. “We also want to give our authors the chance to experience this virtual world—bringing them to an audience that spans not only the country, but the globe.”

The Bantam Dell Publishing Group is a division of Random House, Inc.

Second Life is a 3D online world with a rapidly growing population from more than 100 countries around the globe, in which the Residents themselves create and build the world which includes homes, vehicles, nightclubs, stores, landscapes, clothing, and games.

The Second Life Grid is a sophisticated development platform created by Linden Lab, a company founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale, to create a revolutionary new form of shared 3D experience. The former CTO of RealNetworks, Rosedale pioneered the development of many of today’s streaming media technologies, including RealVideo. In April 2003, noted software pioneer Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation, was named Chairman. In 2006, Philip Rosedale and Linden Lab received WIRED’s Rave Award for Innovation in Business. Based in San Francisco, Linden Lab employs a senior team bringing together deep expertise in physics, 3D graphics and networking.

Note to editors: Second Life® and Linden Lab® are registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc.

The Bantam Dell Book Shop is hosted on Sheep Island, home of the Electric Sheep Company, Inc., (http://www.electricsheepcompany.com). With more than 50 full-time employees, The Electric Sheep Company is the largest company in the world dedicated to designing experiences and delivering add-on software for 3D virtual worlds. The Company delivers strategic, creative, and technical insight and services to global organizations, and works with multiple virtual world platforms such as Second Life. The Electric Sheep Company has developed dozens of widely acclaimed projects on behalf of internationally recognized brands such as CBS, MTV, AOL/Time Warner, NBC, MLB.com, Nissan, Reuters, Sony BMG, Yahoo, and now, Bantam Dell.