Sumbola is currently launching a cloud-based reading platform for both the web and mobile that's designed to turn literature into a collaborative experience between authors and readers.
"It's the result of two years of design and development, testing with users—both readers and authors—and we're convinced it's one of the most advanced reading experiences, and very soon, the most innovative authoring tool, on the web," said Ernest Mbenkum, Founder and CEO of Sumbola Inc.
The Sumbola platform really caters to book lovers, who are now part of a global platform where they can connect with other readers on the same page, see them on a map, and even find out which ones are close by. Readers can opt-in to share their page notes and chapter comments, highlights, favorite passages, make recommendations, add contextual dictionary terms... even their artistic inspirations.
"Readers, for the first time, can make a text-driven book, a transmedia experience by contributing content enhancements in the form of videos, music, images, tweets, blog feeds or other complementary content," said Mark Hempel, Co-founder of Sumbola. "Authors get to approve the submissions, and the platform makes it easy to enhance any book."
"Authors are really empowered with our platform," Mbenkum said, "not only in terms of accessing big data for the first time, but also how they will be able to produce their books on the web with social matter, wiki matter, video, audio, music, images, geolocation, and even merchandise."
In the coming weeks, Sumbola will launch its Beta Author Program. A limited number of 200 authors will be invited to upload their books and access the innovative publishing backend. Authors can sign up for the Beta Author Program on the Sumbola website on a first-come,-first-served basis.
