Publishing Hackathon Focuses on Book Discovery

Hoping to address the ongoing challenge of book discovery in a digital world, a group led by the Perseus Books Group, Librify, BookExpo, the AlleyNYC and William Morris have announced the Publishing Hackathon, which invites digital designers, engineers, programmers and entrepreneurs to spend 36 hours together in teams to develop new approaches to digital book discovery.

The Publishing Hackathon will take place on May 18 and 19 at the Alley NYC. Participants will be briefed by a cross-section of book publishing leaders and then form teams to create apps, websites, programming or businesses that can address the issue of book discovery in this rapidly evolving landscape.

At the end of the weekend, judges will identify the three to five most promising finalists, who will have the opportunity to pitch their solutions at BookExpo America on Friday, May 31, to a panel of judges that includes Jennifer Rudolph Walsh (literary department head at William Morris Endeavor), David Steinberger (Perseus CEO and chairman of the National Book Foundation) and Stephen Evans (director, SilverLake Capital). The winning project will receive a $10,000 prize and the opportunity to pitch the idea at a breakfast meeting with Ari Emanuel, co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor.

"We believe convening the best minds in both digital and publishing can only spur better thinking and solutions for the industry as a whole, something we are always keen to be at the forefront of," said Steinberger.

BEA event director Steve Rosato noted that "hosting the Publishing Hackathon finals at BEA not only brings attention to how important technology is in publishing and that tech is such an important aspect of BEA, but this also brings together venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, publishers, agents and others at BookExpo to discuss the digital future and the multitude of opportunities."

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