Just back from the book fair in Frankfurt. Have you been there? If you have, you’ll never forget it. It is so enormous – the New York of book fairs. And just like New York, it is over-crowded, hot and full of action. The main difference is that most people speak German, and while mine is a little rusty, I still managed to get a lot out of it.
The first thought is – who are going to read all these books? Then, after a while you realize that probably you see all the major books that are brought to market at this specific moment. It is a rather mighty feeling.
Bibles? Yes, there were Bibles. Not too many of them. The Americans probably had most Bible related stands as far as I could count. But the Germans were not bad either. Even if you from time to time can feel greatful that there actually are anybody out there still, I wasn’t overly impressed with what I saw from the novelty perspective.
Once again I have to make an exception for the Germans. I think the German Bible Society (www.dbg.de) and their work with www.bibelonline.de is very promising. They showed several good digital products. It felt fresh and compelling.
I was also happy to note that we got a very good reception for our thoughts concerning Voxbiblia and Biblesearch.org everywhere we went. Except for Libreria Editrice Vaticana – the Vatican Library slash publishing house (www.libreriaeditricevaticana.com). On the direct question from one of his assistants if he was interested in digital publishing the director answered a blunt “no”.
Well, I guess there still are some souls out there to win for the digital age.
Johan Jorgensen, CEO and Founder