Print Alive and Kicking at Book Fair Feting Digital
A worker sorts copies of James Frey’s book ‘Endgame’ at the Oetinger trade fair booth at the Frankfurt Book Fair, on Oct. 7, 2014. Photographer: Arne Dedert/picture-alliance/dpa via AP Photo
The book of the future could be crowdfunded, self-published or tied to a video game — you might even have voted on a key plot twist. Still, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to read it on paper.
At this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, the publishing world’s largest gathering, an industry that has been upended by digitalization and the rise of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN:US) went in search of new business models. As reading habits change and e-books take center stage, the appetite for good storytelling is stronger than ever.
Verlag Friedrich Oetinger GmbH, a children book’s publisher that sells the Hunger Games series in Germany, is a case in point. While investing heavily in digital products and even creating its own coding unit, managing director Till Weitendorf isn’t turning his back on print.
For the first time, she said, representatives from gaming companies such as Ubisoft Entertainment were present at the fair in search of partners. The trend is already taking off. “Endgame,” a book by American author James Frey, is being turned into an augmented-reality game by Google Inc. (GOOG:US)’s Niantic Labs.
As it publishes the German translation of “Endgame,” Oetinger is also trying to ease the passage from offline to online reading with Tigercreate, a platform to transform illustrated children books into animated, interactive e-books. The process used to require expensive programming for each new book and device, according to Weitendorf. Around 40 publishers have already signed up to use the platform, he says.