Image: Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandel, Christof Jakob
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘To Enrich Books With Interactive Content’
The start-up Gamebook Studio was named the ContentShift accelerator’s Content Start-up of 2024 at Frankfurter Buchmesse on Thursday (October 17).
A total of 36 startups applied this year, including 13 international entries. These came mostly from European countries but also included applications from South Africa and Rwanda.
In Thursday’s final round, Gamebook Studio came out on top with their pitch against the other finalists and receives a purse of €10,000 (US$10,837.99).
The Gamebook Studio platform’s intent is to enrich books with interactive content, allowing readers to become the heroes of the story through animation. They can step into the shoes of existing characters and embark on new adventures with them.
Jury spokesperson Carla Scheunemann of Community Editions/Bastei Lübbe gave the rationale for the jury’s decision, saying, “Gamebook Studio uses its products to combine conventional reading with exciting elements from gaming.
“Stories can be told creatively, individually and as a series. This reflects the preferred media consumption of young people and is a fun way to promote reading. For publishers, the low-threshold, module-based service of the web platform presents an opportunity to further develop their new and existing brands and gain direct access to those communities.”
ContentShift 2024 Finalists
Equalizent links digital versions of books with its own database, which contains explanations and translations of German words in German sign language. Every word with a sign-language explanation is linked to a video in the database.
Gamebook Interactive Books Platform is a platform for the production, appraisal, and promotion of new and existing brands in an interactive book format. It facilitates monetization, AI translation, daily updates, and marketing with “playables” and data analysis.
Kompreno offers more than 10,000 translated texts from national newspapers, special-interest magazines, and journalism projects covering a wide range of themes from 14 European countries, available on the Internet or in an app.
MyBookNet Pro is building a network of self-publishing platforms for ebooks in several languages. The initiative consists of a standardized service for authors that enables them to publish their work and distribute it worldwide with the help of AI translations.
Qeludra offers a tool for data analysis by drawing on Ludra, a software that uses generative AI to give researchers the ability to call up the information they need in a conversational format.
The accelerator program is supported by companies in the book sector and media industry, with each company sending a representative to serve on the ContentShift jury. In 2024, the jury comprises:
- Martina Fiddrich and Olaf Carstens (Cornelsen Verlag)
- Carla Scheunemann and Jonas Konrad (Community Editions/Bastei Lübbe)
- Alexander Woge (KNK Customer Engagement)
- Stefanie Penck (TeNeues Verlag)
- Nina Hugendubel and Per Dalheimer (Buchhandlung Hugendubel)
- Leif Göritz and Detlef Büttner (Lehmanns Media/Buchhandlung Thalia)
- Philipp Lindinger (Herder Verlag), Ronald Schild (MVB)
- Lennart Schneider, an independent advisor and partner to the program
The accelerator is also accompanied by Harald Henzler (International University SDI München) and Okke Schlüter (Hochschule der Medien/University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart) in an advisory capacity.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the ContentShift program is here. More from us on the German market is here, and more on international book and publishing competitions and awards is here.
Our 2024 Frankfurt Book Fair Magazine, currently being read at Frankfurter Buchmesse by trade visitors, now is available in a digital edition here.
You’ll read our focused coverage of issues and events in the Guest of Honor Italy program; book market trends in Brazil, France, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, and Poland; perspectives on the international rights trade from Matthes & Seitz Berlin’s Meran Mentzel; and commentary from independent publishers from Greece, Colombia, and Kenya; PEN International president emerita Jennifer Clement on censorship ahead of the IPA’s International Publishers Congress; and much more.
Publishing Perspectives is a project of Frankfurter Buchmesse, operated through MVB US, Inc.