Online Reader Communities

Though research has been conducted on literature-focused communities in digital spaces, a specific kind of online community created for readers of young adult literature (YAL) has yet to be explored academically. These spaces are not imprints of larger publishers, as they do not sell books themselves. However, they contribute to marketing YAL titles while using recreational digital content to create an online community around the genre. These communities do not exist outside of YAL; this and the contrast between themselves and the online presences of their parent publishers raises questions about their existence. Through a comparative website analysis of the four largest publishers in the US and their respective online communities, this thesis answers foundational questions about the definition, purpose, and impact of these spaces that the author names “online reader communities,” or “ORCs.” Additionally, through comparative analyses of ORCs to “online brand communities” (OBCs) and of the ORC Epic Reads’s social media activities to those of its parent publisher, HarperCollins, this thesis further establishes ORCs within professional and technical writing, rhetoric and composition, and publishing. The results of these studies are used to propose an ORC centered on adult literature considering YAL-focused ORCs’ success within the publishing industry.