NEXT BERLIN.

The book culture is currently in a process of change, which alters the user behaviour and the entire industry completely. The media converge, new forms of publication are born – the consumption of media becomes mobile. The snippy App from a start-up called snippy GmbH (Leipzig), which was recently croned as the most innovative company in the book industry, brings together mobile technology and literature. The Snippy app, as the first mobile application on the German market, enables smartphones to access more than 120 short stories – including selected classics as well as stories of famous contemporary writers such as the Book Award winner Catherine Hacker or crime stories and texts of young authors. A special feature is the availability of texts in audio and text formats. All texts have been recorded in a recording studio by a professional speaker.
A simple and well-designed menu makes the selection easier. For example, a user can sort audio files according to their duration. The records last between five and 70 minutes. A clever random system is packed in a “Shake your story” option: if one shakes his or her iPhone once, he or she gets a random short story suggested. New short stories are added weekly und are sorted into such categories as crime stories, classic literature or modern literature.

André Hille, born in 1974, has been working since 1996 as a writer, editor and journalist. As a freelancer he is active in numerous literary media and daily newspapers. In addition, he is teaching at various universities and has been managing his successful writer’s achool "Text Manufaktur". In 2011 he founded “Snippy”, which provides the first short story App for Smartphones. Snippy opens new sales channels for publishers and reaches new target groups. "The short form is the modern form," says company founder André Hille. Snippy is a platform for contemporary literature, which satisfies today's reader’s needs. It relies on social reading and provides novel opportunities to publish.

Opportunities and risks of the digital revolution for the book industry. New distribution channels, business models and target groups for publishers and authors.