Springwise » Media & Publishing

In Spain, trains offer first chapter of novels through QR codes

Tom — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:31:18 GMT

The Netherlands has already introduced an initiative to get commuters reading through the VertragingsApp, which offers up short stories based on travel time. Now the Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan Government Railways) has placed QR codes with links to the first chapters of popular novels on its trains as part of the National Reading Plan, with the aim to encourage citizens of Spain to get into a good book.

On 13 April, the rail service teamed up with book publisher Random House to place posters on the exterior of the central carriages of ten services traveling between Vallès Oriental and Baix Llobregat. Each poster encourages commuters to join the ‘reading train’ and once inside, interior posters provide riders with a selection of 40 book titles from which the first chapter can be downloaded via their respective QR codes. According to El Periódico, authors on the list include Spanish language writers such as Ildefonso Falcones, Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, as well as translated works by John Le Carré and Umberto Eco. The scheme is set to run for two months and will be repeated three times a year until 2016, with hopes to expand to include works from other publishing houses.

As well as seeking to improve the literacy of residents using the train service, the scheme also serves to publicize works of literature, while readers are also entertained during their commute. One to emulate in your part of the world?

Website: www.fgc.net
Contact: rrpp@fgc.cat

Spotted by: Joandó Reverter

Books that double up as smoking papers or a classic dish

Tom — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:18:14 GMT

We recently came across two advertising campaigns that center around books with a practical use beyond their content. Snoop Dogg’s Rolling Words Smokable Songbook is a collection of the rapper’s best lyrics printed onto rolling papers, while design agency Korefe has produced an edible cookbook made of pasta.

Designed by advertising agency Pereira and O’Dell to promote Snoop’s new range of Kingsize Slim Rolling Papers, the Rolling Words pocket-size book comprises of detachable sheets of hemp seed paper designed to hold tobacco and other smoking materials. Each sheet features words from a selection of Snoop’s back catalogue printed in non-toxic ink, bound in a twine cover with a match striking surface fitted onto the spine. According to the dieline, the book will not go on general release but may see a limited edition for sale online in the near future. Those attending the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in California later this month – where Snoop Dogg is headlining with Dr Dre – will be able to sample the papers attached to posters located around the site. Here’s the man himself talking about the project:

Korefe’s creation, meanwhile, is made out of 100 percent fresh pasta and was designed for Gerstenberg Publishing House. It can be filled with ingredients and baked in the oven resulting in a classic lasagne dish, according to the makers.

While both of these examples are not currently available for the masses, the Rolling Words songbook may yet run as a limited edition. Either way, there’s plenty of inspiration here for those involved in publishing to build upon the ideas.

Website: pereiraodell.com and www.korefe.de/en
Contact: robyn.freye@pereiraodell.com and info@korefe.de

Spotted by: Zachary Love

App offers stranded passengers stories based on delay time

ChrisK — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 15:06:06 GMT

Public transport users in Brazil looking for entertainment while they travel have already been offered 24×7 Cultural’s pay-what-you-want book vending machines located in subway stations. For travelers who weren’t planning on taking a lengthy journey however, VertragingsApp now offers stories organized by the time it takes to read them for those stuck on a delayed service.

Available from the App Store for EUR 2.99, VertragingsApp hosts a range of short stories tagged with the average time period needed to complete each piece – including 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 45 and 60-minute stories. The idea behind the app is that travelers experiencing delays due to poor weather conditions or problems with the route can search for fiction or non-fiction from well-known authors that they will be able to finish before they step off the train or bus. Developed in collaboration with the publishing houses Querido, Nijgh & Van Ditmar, Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep and Q, the current collection features excerpts from longer books which include links to a webshop where the reader can purchase the full text. As well as entertaining commuters stuck on public transport or those without much free time to read, the app serves to promote the up-and-coming authors published by VertragingApp’s partners. Users can also request their for favorite authors be added.

VertragingsApp is currently available only in Dutch. With that in mind, is this one to partner with, or an idea to replicate for texts in other languages?

Website: www.vertragingsapp.nl
Contact: info@querido.nl

Spotted by: Noortje Berrevoet-Verhoeven

Invisible material can link offline print to digital content

ChrisK — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 11:44:52 GMT

While the introduction of QR codes may have made it easy for publishers to link their offline and online content, we’re now seeing efforts that offer the same functionality without the need for visible markings. Similar in some ways to Blippar, Touchcode has now developed a way to integrate tags into print without affecting its design. What’s more, unlike most innovations we’ve seen in this field, the technology doesn’t require the user to scan the print with a camera in order to access the digital content.

Using a printable conductive material which is invisible to the human eye but can read by smartphones and tablets, Touchcode is designed to emulate the abilities of QR codes without the need to dedicate space on a page or product label for a visual symbol. Touchscreen devices with a Touchcode-enabled app loaded can automatically read the information embedded in the printed material by placing their device against it. The invisible material then interacts with the device’s touchscreen by acting like fingers typing out a code for the app to read, according to a report on Laptop Magazine. The material can be printed on several types of media, including paper, carton or foil, and can enable access to digital content within a Touchcode-enabled app or online.

One of the unique aspects of the development is that it can be used to detect the validity of a product such as an event ticket or luxury item without allowing counterfeiters to know what the code looks like. Touchcode has already teamed up with Nukotoys in the US, ICONIST magazine in Germany, and Cartamundi and iSuperGoal in Israel. One to try out on your own events, publications, or marketing campaigns?

Website: www.touchcode.de
Contact: www.touchcode.de

In Brazil, books sold through vending machines at pay-what-you-want prices

Chris — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 10:29:19 GMT

We’ve seen pay-what-you-want pricing implemented in a variety of product categories, including restaurants, advertising services and hotels. Recently, however, we came across another new effort — Brazilian company 24×7 Cultural recently launched an initiative enabling customers to choose the price they want to pay for the books sold through its subway station vending machines.

24×7 Cultural has actually been selling books through vending machines for years already in São Paulo subway stations and other locations. Spanning a wide range of subjects and interest areas, books in the company’s vending machines are typically priced at BRL 5. In December, however, 24×7 began testing out a program whereby consumers can decide how much they want to pay for the books sold this way. The pilot began in the Anhangabaú and Trianon stations on the São Paulo Metro and will be expanded depending on its success, according to a report in PublishNews. The machines only accept notes as currency, and the smallest denomination commonly found in that form is worth BRL 2, PublishNews points out. According to Brazilian blogger Marcelo Duarte, sales at the promotional machines had already more than doubled within just over a month after the program’s launch, and most purchases are indeed paid with a BRL 2 note.

Do consumers like to have it their own way? Without a doubt — and perhaps more in pricing than anywhere else. One for inspiration!

Website: www.24×7.com.br
Contact: 24×7@24×7.com.br

Spotted by: Denise Kuperman

Augmented reality poetry book can only be read via webcam

ChrisK — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:59:08 GMT

We’ve already seen augmented reality used to superimpose text on top of chocolate-bar wrappers and newspaper ads, but now we’ve come across an example of the technology being used in the publishing industry. Between Page And Screen is a printed book of poems that relies entirely on augmented reality to convey its words.

The Between Page and Screen poetry book has no text printed on its physical pages. Rather, each page is covered with a stark black and white geometric shape and a web address leading to the book’s website. To read the book, readers must visit that site and hold each page up in front of their webcam, one at a time. Using the reader’s webcam, the site then detects the black and white markers and displays corresponding textual animations mapped to the surface of the page. The animations move with the book, creating the digital equivalent of a pop-up book. The video below demonstrates Between Page and Screen in action:

Written by Amaranth Borsuk and programmed by Brad Bouse, the poems in Between Page and Screen comprise a series of letters between two lovers, P and S, as well as animations based on keywords from their letters. Produced initially as a limited-edition, the book is now available for USD 24.95 from Siglio Press. Authors, publishers, and content producers around the globe: be inspired!

Website: www.betweenpageandscreen.com
Contact: hello@betweenpageandscreen.com

Spotted by: Florent Lesauvage

A crowdfunded, book-publishing platform with non-profit extension

ChrisK — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:28:13 GMT

In the same way that UK-based Unbound draws on the crowds to select and fund new titles to be published, PUBSLUSH in New York operates using a similar model with a charitable twist, donating one book to a child in need for every book sold.

According to Founder Jesse Potash, PUBSLUSH is a book publisher with a focus on giving. Writers are offered the chance to share ten pages and a summary of their manuscript with readers online, and book fans are given the power to support their favorites. Supporting a book is akin to pre-ordering, and those that attract a thousand supporters or more will be published. Book fans pledge either USD 10, 20, 100 or 500 to fund their preferred stories, and can post comments on the book’s preview page or share excerpts with friends via Facebook. Once a book is published its supporters receive an electronic, printed or signed edition, or an edition with a dedication in the front, depending on the value of their pledge. Supporters only have to honor their pledge once a book reaches one thousand supporters and can withdraw their pledge at any time. According to PUBSLUSH, writers receive higher royalties than in legacy publishing and retain copyright for their work. PUBSLUSH have also created a charitable foundation that targets specific projects helping with illiteracy, and for every PUBSLUSH book sold they donate one book to a child in need. The video below explains PUBSLUSH in more detail:

The PUBSLUSH model gives exposure to new talent while enabling readers to decide what books go to market. A charitable twist on the model is a bonus that can only add to the platform’s appeal. Could a similar model open the doors to fresh creativity in other industries?

Website: www.pubslush.com
Contact: hello@pubslush.com

PDF reader lets researchers organize, search and annotate articles

ChrisK — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 13:39:01 GMT

For researchers in scientific and academic worlds, carrying out research can often involve handling many, many articles in PDF format. That can make organizing and accessing articles difficult, which is why Labtiva’s ReadCube was born. Now in beta, the new reader tool for Mac and Windows can perform full-text searches across a library of academic PDF articles, and even offers outside recommendations based on those the user reads.

Users of ReadCube can create an article library instantly, importing their existing PDFs in a single step as well as downloading in one click any related articles they want from PubMed, Google Scholar or publisher websites. ReadCube will automatically identify the author, title, and journal citation information for every article, and has the ability to search for text across the entire library. The platform also enables users to annotate articles with in-line comments, highlights and sticky notes, and can import citation information to EndNote or other citation software. In addition, ReadCube recommends new, related articles every day, helping users stay on top of what’s new in their field. The video below explains ReadCube in more detail:

Thanks to a partnership between Labtiva, Digital Science and Nature Publishing Group, readers of articles on Nature.com can now enjoy similar functionality from within their browser. Ideas here for other online publishers?

Website: www.readcube.com
Contact: info@labtiva.com

Web-connected printer creates personalized mini newspapers

ChrisK — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 09:47:50 GMT

While various apps already exist to collate daily news, alerts and updates into one personalized place, until now this information could only be viewed on-screen via a computer, tablet or smartphone. However, London-based design agency BERG have now created Little Printer, a device which enables users to set up subscriptions to a range of publications, which it then prints onto one miniature newspaper.

Little Printer requires the user to first select the sources or publications they want to subscribe to via their smartphone. BERG have partnered with Arup, foursquare, Google, the Guardian and Nike for launch, enabling users to subscribe to news headlines, monitor their fitness, manage to-do lists, be reminded of birthdays and see where their friends have checked-in at specific times. Users can also choose when and how frequently Little Printer creates each printout; BERG suggest twice a day, similar to a morning and evening newspaper. The device itself contains an inkless, thermal printer, which connects wirelessly to a small unit plugged into the user’s broadband router. Little Printer is controlled by the BERG Cloud, which means BERG can install software updates automatically. The video below shows Little Printer in more detail:

BERG will be taking orders for Little Printer in 2012 and are looking for partners with ideas for publications. One to get involved with to turn your brand into daily headlines?

Website: www.bergcloud.com/littleprinter
Contact: business@bergcloud.com

Letter-writing service accepts clothing as payment

ChrisK — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 13:17:28 GMT

We’ve already seen a few sites on which buyers can pay by unusual means — a recent example being SocialWhispers, where tweets or Facebook mentions can be used in place of cash. It wasn’t until just recently, however, that we came across a site that lets consumers pay with hand-me-downs. Sure enough, Clothing for Correspondence is an Australian letter-writing service that asks only an item of clothing in return for its written work.

Users begin by contacting the service via email and explaining what type of correspondence they need; letters are the company’s primary focus, but it has previously penned other items as well, including a song. In any case, users then provide the necessary details, including — for letters — who it’s for, the main points to be addressed, the style in which it should be written and any relevant back story to be aware of. Clothing for Correspondence then writes the item and emails it to the user, who sends the company an item of hand-me-down clothing in return.

A letter-writing service is compelling enough in this OFF=ON era, but the addition of swap payments adds an element of quirkiness and sympvertising that’s hard to resist. One for inspiration!

Website: www.clothingforcorrespondence.com
Contact: goodtimes@clothingforcorrespondence.com

Spotted by: Ngaire Stevens