Hachette partners with Droga5 to create ‘in-flight’ collection for Qantas flyers
Hachette Australia has partnered with Sydney creative agency Droga5 and Qantas to create a set of paperback books that are timed to be read during 10 of the airline’s main flying routes.
The ‘Stories for Every Journey’ set includes 10 books by existing Hachette authors. Two of the books by Sean Fewster and Jack Marx are collections that have been edited to fit within particular flight durations, while the eight remaining titles have been republished in their original form. Hachette said in a statement that ‘with the average reader reading approximately a page per minute, the shorter reads will take you from tarmac to tarmac, while the longer flight-timed books also allow for a great meal, a glass of something delicious and a rest break’.
The 10 books and their specified flight routes are:
- City of Evil by Sean Fewster (Adelaide to Canberra)
- Australian Tragic by Jack Marx (Sydney to Auckland)
- A Man’s Got to Have a Hobby by William McInnes (Perth to Singapore)
- Promise by Tony Cavanaugh (Melbourne to Hong Kong)
- Extreme South by James Castrission (Sydney to Tokyo)
- Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman (Sydney to Dubai)
- Bligh: Master Mariner by Rob Mundle (Sydney to Santiago)
- Blossoms & Shadows by Lian Hearn (Sydney to Dallas Fort Worth)
- Kokoda by Peter FitzSimons (Sydney to New York)
- The Australian Light Horse by Roland Perry (Melbourne to London).
Hachette Australia publishing director Fiona Hazard told Books+Publishing that the specially designed editions will only be available through Qantas, and that a set of the books has been sent to Qantas’ ‘most valued passengers’ with a personalised letter from Qantas Frequent Flyer CEO Lesley Grant. While there are no immediate plans to sell the books individually, Stephanie Tully, chief marketing officer for Qantas Loyalty said that the books, which feature new covers designed by Paul Belford, are just one of a range of initiatives that Qantas plans to roll out this year under a new campaign: ‘for every journey’.
Hazard said that Hachette contacted Droga5 after ‘we heard that they were looking to develop a concept around a flight-timed reading experience’. ‘We put together a longlist of titles that Droga5 and Qantas then selected a shortlist from,’ said Hazard. ‘From there, we worked together to come up with the final selection. Apart from the length of the book, which was a critical part of the process, we wanted to ensure that we were including a wide range of reading experiences so that frequent flyers could enjoy their favourites but also try something that they may not have thought about reading before.’
Hazard said in the statement that ‘it’s been great fun working with [Droga5] to get this project off the ground’. ‘One of the greatest challenges in publishing is to remind people of the pleasure that reading brings, and that even though the online world is growing, there is still a romance in the printed page.’
David Nobay, creative chairman of Droga5 Sydney, said in the same statement that ‘in this world of Kindles and iPads, it seems that the last bastion of the humble paperback novel is actually 40,000 feet’. ‘You only need to look at the bulging shelves at any airport bookstore.’
Category: Local news
