Electric Drinking with music (DJ to be announced) and screening of the World Cup match between Germany and Ghana.

Twitter-using publisher Ms Frohmann aka @frohmannverlag plays the friendly ethnologist. Twitter legend @MannvomBalkon will stop short of revealing anything about his principles, and instead tweet live in front of an audience for the first time: Frohmann will tweet live about @MannvomBalkon’s live tweeting. The subject of @MannvomBalkon’s tweets and @frohmannverlag’s metatweets shall remain under wraps until the Electric Book Fair.

TRAUMAWIEN ARTCLUB presents YouTube Poetry to round things off.

Kathrin Passig wird als externe Beobachterin Eindrücke rund um die Electric Book Fair sammeln und diese am Abend kurz vorstellen.

Literature published with CulturBooks, Verlag Das Beben, if ebooks, shelff, Verbrecher Verlag and Waahr.

Jamuna Devi: Love Me Later (if ebooks 2014)

Introduced by Dorothea Martin

Pippa Goldschmidt: Von der Notwendigkeit, den Weltraum zu ordnen (CulturBooks 2014)

Introduced by Zoë Beck

Georg Friedrich Kammerer: Alles Kaputtschlagen (Verlag Das Beben 2013)

Giwi Margwelaschwili: verfasser unser (Verbrecher Verlag)

Introduced by Jörg Sundermeier

Johannes Thumfart: Der Katechon (shelff 2014)

Anne Waak: Hartz IV und wir – Protokolle (Waahr/Marienbad 2014)

Real drinks after a hard day of discussing software and hardware. Stefan Adrian, a barman in Berlin, will mix one mini drink  for each guest – and read from his current publication, the rhyming, socially critical collection of recipes “Der Gin des Lebens. Drinklyrik” (mikrotext, 2014). Frédéric Valin brings with him further alcohol-related experiences and will also read.

Kindly supported by GRIN

Presenting digital contents without a bookcase – how does that even work? During this talk we’ll hear about new e-book start-ups, joint initiatives and story apps and look at the advantages and disadvantages of producing “digital first”.

Literature from the States has seen the development of a new stream a literature, in the form of alternative lit. Representatives of alternative literature don’t only write online and market their writing online, they also talk of today’s net as being a 24/7 contemporary space for parallel thoughts and experiences. Even in the German-speaking literary world, approaches to writing are increasingly being digitally inspired. Whether it is texts adopting computer-screen formats to flow on social media channels, or being composed using global chat language: Online literature made in Germany. And Austria!

Chloe Zeegen: “Literature” is a word strongly associated with the industry that grew around the printing press. “Narratives” or “Storytelling” better relate to our lives online. And online narratives – profiles, feeds, statuses, images, graphics, private messages, emojis, link, clips, juxtapositions and so on – are the most dominant form of creative expression today. The future of “fictional” online narratives lies in tapping into this creativity via tools built to suit the virtual world, rather than those simply carried over from the physical one.

What would it be like if the 21^st century was the century of reading? What would it look like? What would have to happen for it to take place? What would it be like if, for example, in 20 years time Wattpad was the predominant model for the consumption – and the production – of literature? A completely speculative look at the future.

At present, the e-book remains publishers‘ unloved child. This isn’t down to e-books lacking in technical or typographical quality, but instead due to the old-fashioned business model used by publishers. And because they don’t like e-books, it is often the case that “bad e-books” are sold at the same price as print books. The fact of the matter is that both digital typography and displays have never been as good as they are today. In fact, they are far superior to what is used in print media. And when the two come together – elaborate digital text face, plus neat CSS code and a retina display… on top of the comfort of digital reading/marking/quoting/bookmarks – who’s going to want to read a normal book?

Digital publishing is a global topic. Emerging markets such as Kenya are already experimenting with mobile methods of payment, and in 2013, the independent Argentinian literature industry organised the first Feria del Libro Digital in Buenos Aries. In Kosovo, the national library is digitalising contemporary Albanian literature and handing this work over to a non-profit publishers. And two publishers hailing from the French e-book market, who specialised in American literature, have just moved over to Berlin. Everything is on the move. The challenges are different, but local approaches in new contexts can provide food for thought. Albatros Rexhaj and Cecilia Espósito will speak via web call and Julie Etienne and Angela Wachuka will be attending in person.

Julie Etienne: Being a digital-only publisher in France at the moment means trusting that new reading habits are going to appear in the near future. We are convinced that the digital medium is ideally fitted to the literary genre we publish, which has been generally overlooked by the French publishing industry. But for now, the market is very small, as buying an e-book is still not as convenient as it should be. It’d also be good to be part of a network of like-minded publishers, but we haven’t found that yet.

The e-book is also slowly catching on in the areas of knowledge and education. All kinds of technical possibilities exist to prepare learning materials digitally for joint usage. But which models are they based on? Providers of digital contents used in academia and schools exchange views on their strategies and experiences regarding knowledge co-operation and knowledge transfer.

Martin Fröhlich: According to one Chinese proverb: When a storm comes, some people build windmills, while some build walls. Up until now, publishers have failed to establish a counterbalance to Amazon. This dependency on revenue from Amazon is now especially being felt by large publishers, who are coming under pressure because Amazon is able to exploit it’s position as the publishing industry Goliath. Were they to not have the upper hand, Amazon would negotiate more sensitively. The time has come for publishers and service providers to sit down at the table and to find a model that is fit for purpose, rather than continuing to go it alone. A long-term solution must come from sharing knowledge – something that is beyond the scope of books. The solution must be a lasting one. Together, we must raise the bar.

Organised in co-operation with Internet & Gesellschaft Collaboratory

Adopting the style of a British debating contest, two sides to a topic will be argued: Author Thorsten Nesch publishes his books aimed at young adults both with Rowohlt and as a self-publisher. As such, he classes himself as a “hybrid author”. Arguing against this is author and publisher Daniela Seel, who supports a classic concept of authorship and sees it completely necessary for the author to be connected to a publisher.

Auftritt von Thorsten Nesch mit freundlicher Unterstützung von epubli

Daniela Seel: Why play the roles and possibilities off against each other? As an author and publisher at kookbooks, I am independent, paper-oriented, a bibliophile, self-publisher, indie author, hybrid author, editor, organiser, coach, service provider for others… I see kookbooks not so much as a publishers in the classical sense of the word, but more as a defender of poets. More important than the prevailing forms of data media are, in my opinion, the networks, communities and infrastructures one builds up and uses to communicate, work and liaise.

Thorsten Nesch: A writer is termed a hybrid author when their books are published in a traditional publishing house in addition to being published by the author themselves. Just because publishers haven’t published my novels for various reasons (“topic already done by the Americans”, “too much suspense”, “too much like something out of a film”… extracts from my rejections), doesn’t mean that I stop believing in my stories. It just means I have to publish them myself – like I did before I became a full-time author. Then it’s up to the readers. The positive reviews and the fact that these novels were also translated into English backs up where I stand on the matter.

Whether or not an e-book requires a cover is “decided” by second position ping-pong: Kaspar Dornfeld (Rattenreiter Verlag) considers cover designs superfluous to electronic publishing. Andrea Nienhaus (Communications Designer, involving designing covers at mikrotext) sees this completely differently.

Kaspar Dornfeld: Forget about book covers… when producing e-books! As is the case with many problems in the e-book industry, questions as to the worth, sense, even the nonsense of a cover, find themselves at the root of many a dispute. For some, the cover should attempt to stray as little as possible from the classic book cover. For others, the more different it is, the better. Taken from: rattenreiter.de/page/vergesst-die-buchcover (in German)

In the world of e-books, nothing sells better than fiction – that’s the way it is and that’s just how we like it. The main fiction genres include fantasy, horror, erotic, science fiction – which make up the mainstay of what readers purchase (as is also the case in print). So, the time has come to stop bashing genre and to start getting a better understanding of it.

Helmut Pesch: There is no significant difference in the way genres are classified when it comes to print and e-books, even if there may be some shifts in terms of their value and saleability. The fact that genres are increasingly being blended together presents challenges in terms of semantic coding. Within entertainment literature, authors who are self-publishing are increasingly writing genre titles, something that presents a growing problem for publishers.

Sarah Khan: From what I have observed, as well as banal genre literature, a lot of unintentional inventions and unintentional humour can be discovered – this includes comment culture, which is an essential part of the digital reader experience. One might read certain things with the sole intention of pontificating about them with others later. This is especially true of stimulation – sexual desire, fear, romantic feelings. One might have a good laugh about it now, but reading things that resemble caricatures – half-finished, broken-off stories, constant repetition and excessive hyperbole – could have a normative effect. Free books in particular are downloaded a lot and are commented on. The question is, do these books ultimately lead to a greater demand for well-written works – or is this level of quality/zero grade perfectly sufficient for interactive e-reading?

Does “big data” make any sense to content producers without a “content context”? How can we extend this term to our products and contents and use the fact that these – in contrast to washing machines, for example – deliver big data, when it is apparent that we currently still fail to use “small data”?

René Kohl: Big data has yet to get going in book retail: It would be interesting, for example, to match someone’s personal profile together with reading interests and book content.

Jürgen Schulze runs Null Papier Verlag, a one-man digital publishers, and is Germany’s first publisher of literary e-books. Here he will talk about how he founded the publishers and his strategies (giving away vs. selling, content in the public domain), and will give the audience a glimpse into the world of publishing.

Appropriate remuneration and creative commons, remixing and the stealing of images – the internet and digitalisation have got copyright in a frenzy. It’s actual intention is to support authors in earning money through their works. For lots of creatives – mainly those working digitally – it instead acts as a barrier. What problems do they face with the current copyright laws and how can these be solved? Christoph Endell offers spontaneous legal advice and Valie Djordjevic gives an insight into new ways of thinking when it comes to copyright.

Christoph Endell: A few typical questions are as follows: What are licence agreements and how can I design one? Remix culture vs copyright protection – what is permissible and what isn’t? Opportunities and risks of open licences in commercial practice. How do I protect my intellectual property within a digital context? 

The social web offers self-publishers and publishers numerous creative opportunities to build their brand and stage e-books. It is possible to link digital books, to give them away, to build them their own website and to keep readers informed as to their development and marketing. Based on best practices, we would like to discuss the role played by social media, content marketing and meta data in the visibility and turnover of e-books.

Sometimes business does exactly the same thing it resents pirates for doing: It makes e-books available free of charge. Sascha Lazimbat will illustrate the various legal options for distributing e-books for free, from lending them to giving them away. The fact that consumers are continuing to read e-books illegally does not come as a surprise to Lars Sobiraj.

Lars Sobiraj: TorBoox is admittedly not at the fore of the e-book game, however it far from being out of the danger zone. Why are more and more internet users reaching for free or cheap illegal alternatives? The fight against one large host in Germany in 2013 lead to the emergence of several smaller ones. While they may not be conspicuous to the public eye, that does not make them any less dangerous. Quite the opposite. The question now stands: How can those involved in piracy return to being consumers? 

The group TRAUMAWIEN takes a creative approach to the topic of piracy: Luc Gross reports on the e-book project “Kindle’Voke Ghostwriters”, which took place in Summer 2012. Bernhard Bauch will give an exclusive on the Perl programming language used by ghostwriters, looking particularly at epub and covers.

Never has it been so easy for authors to sell their books. However, many projects and innovative ideas often fail because of financial obstacles. With crowdfunding, they can now finally be realised. The advancement of e-books can go ahead with the support of a large number of people. This talk will go into detail about crowdfunding, financing and how to market project and business ideas; members of the audience will discover how they themselves can implement a successful crowdfunding campaign.

In 2013 newthinking created their first publication in a SPRINT-process. To launch re:publica 2013 a coffee table book comprising of 30 articles was then released. The contents of “Open Everything” were collectively put together by over 40 authors over the course of 3 days, reflecting the fact that SPRINT favours a short-term dynamic and mechanisms such as barcamps and brainstorming sessions. We want to see this process being expanded and developed further. To this end, we would like to present our concept, exchange ideas on it, share experiences and await fresh impetus.

How is the cross-boarder dissemination, marketing, utilisation and accessibility (archiving) of electronic publications structured in Europe? Which legal, fiscal and technical obstacles are publishers up against – and what can be done from a political, publishing and legal point of view? A discussion on the framework conditions for the e-book as a European cultural asset.

Volker Oppmann: In the digital industry, book retailers, libraries and the domestic bookcase have conflated to become large “cloud libraries”, collating content and data about their users as well as the books (e-books) themselves. These cloud-based digital libraries are thus much more than the sum of their individual parts – they become mankind’s central knowledge and data storage devices and systemically important infrastructures in terms of general public interest. As a society we are in the midst of handing over both our digital cultural heritage as well as our personal details to big corporations. We are of the opinion, however, that our digital cultural heritage and our personal details should belong to society and not to individual businesses, who dictate global market conditions and subvert cultural establishments.  

Multimedia-based reading is already part of our daily internet usage. But when does it make sense to produce multimedia enhanced e-books?On the one hand it is important to encourage and preserve the act of reading as an end in itself. On the other hand, the challenge of applying different media, transferring information in an alternative way and broadening the reading experience is also an enticing one. And what about standards? Producing epub3 in particular means getting an expensive technician involved, or even several. If the final product isn’t yet fully up and running, many people will decide to launch their own app. Epub has developed its strengths in using simple text, focusing on non-fiction and series: It is in this area that authors and publishers underestimate the possibilities offered by epub as an interconnected format supporting hypertext. 

While the cultural establishment views books as a bulwark against change, the book has in fact been the primary revolutionary agent of the last five hundred years, socially and economically. To properly prepare ourselves for the years to come, therefore, it is critical to understand the many ways in which books have instigated radical social change, so that we can harness its power in concert with new technologies—e-books and beyond—to create more viable and sustainable business models for the future, not just for digital publishing, but for all cultural endeavor.

This talk will be held over Skype

The Electric Book Fair even has an exclusive meeting place for face-to-face discussions: At one of the tables at the bar. You can register for a thirty minute appointment via this Doodle link. Each half hour slot can only be booked by two people. So if you are up for a surprise, make an appointment and wait and see who you are paired with. 

Welcome from the Electric Book Fair team.