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The Random House Group is signing publishing partnerships with digital start-up Small Demons and the "soundtracks for books" app, Booktrack at London Book Fair.
Small Demons, headed by c.e.o. Valla Vakili, is a website whichcross-references every person, place, song, book, film, food, drink and gadget mentioned in a book. Readers who register as users on the site can then go deeper into the story’s world, clicking onto links about the places and products mentioned in the book, or use the links to find other books
that share similar references.
The partnership means Random House Group UK titles will go live on the Small Demons site, starting with the complete Jo Nesbo backlist. Nesbo readers can, for example, explore central character detective Harry Hole’s music and film tastes, and his enjoyment of Jim Beam whiskey, Doc Martens and Camel Lights. Films mentioned in his books include “Love Actually”, “All About Eve” and “Memento”. Further titles from RHGUK’s catalogue will be added to the site over the coming months, and the tagging from these titles will become part of the publisher’s metadata.
RHGUK digital marketing and new product development director Hannah Telfer said: “Small Demons' ambition to help readers find books using all the rich detail from within the book itself chimes perfectly with Random House’s ongoing focus to help readers discover our authors’ books online.”
Meanwhile, Random House today launches the first UK Booktrack edition with former English Poet Laureate Andrew Motion’s Treasure Island sequel, Silver. Booktrack was originally launched in the US in 2011 and is backed by investors including Paypal founder Peter Thiel. The app matches music, sound effects and ambient sound to e-books which aligns with a user’s reading speed. The app had over 100,000 downloads in its first 10 weeks in the US.
Motion said: “I hope that this groundbreaking digital format encourages new readers (and old) to experience narrative in an exciting and innovative way.”