This is a website we did for as a promotion for a new book. It is a geopolitical thriller that takes place in the year 2040 where America has become a moderate Muslim state.

We build a fake news site to get people into the world of the book.

Please review and let me know what you think of the site and concept. Any insight is appreciated

http://www.republicworldnews.com

Thanks in advance,

TomDude

HEY,
i love the concept!!
technicaly, is the site supposed to be all the way over on the left?, maybe it was my browser not playing nice ?

the site looks pro to me, ( im just a looker), the articles are not all "dated" but this have been more a choice than an over sight.. it wasnt even noticable to me at first..

something I did notice although, is that you have a couple of small images with women in them on the articals.. The women are not wearing head dress.. ( e.g under education )I'm not sure if this would be for relavance to your book, but this isnt realy accepted in a muslim community. The image shown for "real friends" is even more apparent..
maybe the muslims, this paper is targeting are more progressive ?

best of luck with your book

Compared to the version the TV show Lost did (for the fictional Hanso foundation), this could be a very good alternative reality site. However, while the layout is good, there is no way to tell how the site fits 1) with the book 2) with the strategy for book promotion.

What makes for good AR hasn't been established. Since you have such a content-rich site, there are some opportunities.

First, you can address reader questions in articles. These can provide background on what drives a fictional story in a future time. If there is anything like why a character did some thing, you can fill in here -- the literary alternative to a FAQ. Also, it might be interesting to explore things like prequels and sequel ideas in the stories. For this, you'd need to track the most popular articles or offer some kind of feedback mechanism.

Second, you can create a contest. Using what's in the book and site, you can get crossover traffic. Again, this requires a good deal of integration.

This site looks good and is fairly involved. It remains to be seen how well it is aligned with some kind of strategy, or if it is simply a creative writing project. A website tightly integrated with the book provides marketing synergies, while a disconnected site of this type can cause problems.

For example, inconsistencies or outright contradictions between site and book will ruin what's called "suspension of disbelief." To make a good fictional universe, the reader has to work to keep from casting a critical eye on the basic premise. You can set up something unbelievable like a magical universe, but then have to make the rules of magic consistent for the user to think the story "works."

It is an interesting site concept, but the book and site must be very much on the same wavelength to work. With coherency comes opportunity.