Simon & Schuster is adding QR codes to all its print books. Will readers bite? — paidContent — Laura Hazard Owen

Twenty-six percent of Simon & Schuster’s sales are now digital, and the QR codes are seen as a way to link digital and print. The codes “make it easy for consumers to visit our site and hopefully subscribe to one of our newsletters,” S&S chief digital officer Ellie Hirschhorn wrote in a recent email to employees. Scanning the QR code on a book ”will bring the consumer to the author’s mobile page on S&S.com where they can sign up for an email, browse the author’s other books and watch video.” Jackets will also include a printed link to the author’s website “so consumers without smartphones or QR scanners could still easily find the author’s page.”

Personally, I’m not sure it will catch on. QR codes still remain somewhat of a mystery to most Americans – and those who are aware of it rarely whip out their smart phones to scan things. What do you think?