One of the most exciting demonstrations at today’s first day event of the Frankfurt Book Fair had to have been Narr8, the app and web-based platform that lets readers enjoy graphic and animated content from an in-house team of designers, as well as create and upload their own content using Narr8’s catalog of offerings.
“Narr8 lets you create your own story, and then it gets published onto our app,” explained Narr8’s PR manager Alexis Valerio of the year-old platform. “Editor.narr8.me is the way you create and edit your work through your browser. I can select a background image, add a cover, add text, select background audio, and have a preview of what it is.”
The user-generated content is currently free to read and other titles may be purchased with platform-specific currency that readers earn within the app. A program is in the works to help authors in a revenue sharing system for creating content that receives a pre-determined number of downloads.
While still in private beta, over 1000 titles have been created and shared in serial format, including works of both fiction and non-fiction, educational content, and age-appropriate material for a wide variety of demographics. The pro edition will be launching soon, and Narr8 is actually collaborating with San Francisco-based Academy of Art to see what graphic art students can create with the pro version in exchange for the chance to earn a $2500 scholarship. The free app is available across most tablets and smartphones, while the content creator is solely web-based.
Mercy Pilkington is a Senior Editor for Good e-Reader. She is also the CEO and founder of a hybrid publishing and consulting company.
