The German Non-Fiction Prize – now also in the metaverse!

The German Non-Fiction Prize is entering the metaverse. On 30 May 2022, this year’s award will be presented not only at the Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss (Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace) but also in virtual space. The digital certificate for the best non-fiction book of the year will be inscribed on a blockchain. Together with Creatokia, the book industry’s NFT platform, the German Non-Fiction Prize is allowing publishers to try out the technology around non-fungible tokens. To start, four of the non-fiction books nominated for this year’s award, as well as the winning title from 2021, “Hegels Welt” (“Hegel’s World”), already exist in special digital editions as NFTs now. They will go on sale from 23 May 2022. 

“The German Non-Fiction Prize aims to help us better understand the era in which we live. The impulses for this are provided not only by the nominated non-fiction books themselves but also by our desire as organisers to explore new forms and technologies. The field of NFTs was and is largely uncharted territory for us and for the participating publishers, and we’re curious to see how the use of blockchain technology in the book and literature industry develops. That’s what we’d like to set in motion and find out through this pilot project with Creatokia”, says Anne-Mette Noack, Head of Marketing and Cultural Projects at the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels.

“At Creatokia, we’re betting on the idea that literature and the metaverse belong together. Or, put another way: in reality, literature is already a metaverse in its own right. This representative project is now opening a bridge for authors, readers and publishers in an exemplary way, connecting these worlds. I myself was an enthusiastic reader of last year’s winning novel, ‘Hegels Welt’ (‘Hegel’s World’) by Jürgen Kaube. This is something special and definitely a waypoint in blockchain technology in the publishing industry, documented by the prize. It’s great that the German Non-Fiction Prize has embarked on this collaboration”, enthuses John Ruhrmann, Managing Director & Co-Founder of Bookwire GmbH and Creatokia GmbH.

German Non-Fiction Prize and NFTs: How does it work?

The following works are available as NFTs:

• Alice Bota: Die Frauen von Belarus. Von Revolution, Mut und dem Drang nach Freiheit [The Women of Belarus. On Revolution, Courage and the Yearning for Freedom] (Berlin Verlag) 
• Stefan Creuzberger: Das deutsch-russische Jahrhundert. Geschichte einer besonderen Beziehung [The German-Russian Century. History of a Special Relationship] (Rowohlt Verlag) 
• Samira El Ouassil & Friedemann Karig: Erzählende Affen. Mythen, Lügen, Utopien – wie Geschichten unser Leben bestimmen [Narrating Monkeys. Myths, Lies, Utopias – How Stories Determine Our Lives] (Ullstein Verlag) 
• Stephan Malinowski: Die Hohenzollern und die Nazis. Geschichte einer Kollaboration [The Hohenzollern and the Nazis. History of a Collaboration] (Propyläen Verlag) 
• Jürgen Kaube: Hegels Welt [Hegel’s World] (Rowohlt Berlin) – non-fiction book of the year 2021

Interested readers can already review the special editions in a digital showroom now and, from 23 May, can acquire the NFTs through a microsite using tokens or euros. From that date, for a period of one week, until shortly before the announcement of the best non-fiction book of the year on 30 May, ten limited special Non-Fiction Book Prize editions of each of these titles will be available for purchase. These digital originals include the e-book of the title with adapted cover, digital signature and jury statement, as well as at least one other item of digital content chosen by the publisher. From among all purchasers of these NFTs, the German Non-Fiction Prize will draw a name to receive an invitation for two to the award ceremony in 2023. In addition to the award ceremony in Berlin, the German Non-Fiction Prize will be digitised as a digital certificate through its inscription on a blockchain, in a unique and non-replicable form, for the prize winner. 

What are NFTs?

NFT stands for non-fungible (i.e. non-interchangeable) token. A token is a kind of digital key that serves as a means of identification and authentication on a blockchain. It can be linked to files, so that a given digital content is assigned a unique NFT. In this way, only the owner of the corresponding token can access the associated content. Since tokens are stored on a blockchain, they cannot be altered. Publishing books based on this technology guarantees the uniqueness of a copy, opening up a whole new market for collector’s items and digital originals, such as first editions. Using this platform, publishers and authors can offer their target groups attractive and exclusive products that cater to the needs and habits of new generations of readers shaped by the digital world.

Links: 

• Overview: https://www.creatokia.com/de/s/deutscher-sachbuchpreis
• German Non-Fiction Prize 2021: https://www.creatokia.com/de/s/dsp-2021
• German Non-Fiction Prize 2022: https://www.creatokia.com/de/s/dsp-2022 
• Virtual gallery: https://oncyber.io/dsp20212022

Material for the media: 
Images are available at www.boersenverein.de/pressefotos 
 
About the German Non-Fiction Prize 
The German Non-Fiction Prize, worth a total of 42,500 euros, will be awarded this year, for the second time, by the Stiftung Buchkultur und Leseförderung des Börsenvereins des Deutschen Buchhandels (Foundation for Book Culture and the Promotion of Reading of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association) to an outstanding non-fiction book written in German that inspires social debate. From the eight nominated titles, the jury will select the best non-fiction book of the year, which will be announced at the Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss (Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace) on 30 May 2022. Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth is the main supporter of the German Non-Fiction Prize. The Deutsche Bank Stiftung (Deutsche Bank Foundation) is the main sponsor of the prize, which is also supported by the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss (Foundation of the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace). www.deutscher-sachbuchpreis.de 

About Creatokia
Great worlds have always been created in the minds of readers thanks to the imagination and empathy of authors, the telling of stories and literature – in fact, these were the metaverse long before new technologies made virtual worlds a reality. As the first platform specialised in publishing books and literary content as a special form of NFT art, Creatokia’s mission is to introduce every possible form of literature into these new virtual worlds and to bring it to life. https://www.creatokia.com/de 

About Bookwire
Bookwire GmbH was founded in Frankfurt in 2010 as a service company for publisher distribution of e-books and digital content. Since then, Bookwire has developed into one of the leading international companies in the field of digital publishing technology. Currently, 135 employees in Germany, Great Britain, Spain, France, Brazil, Mexico and the USA support more than 2,300 publishers in the e-book, audiobook, podcast and print-on-demand sectors. Some 600,000 e-books and 150,000 audiobooks are delivered, analysed and marketed to all relevant distribution channels via “Bookwire OS – One Solution”, the pioneering software launched in 2019. In addition to the latest technology in customer analytics, pricing, etc., Bookwire GmbH’s publishing customers also have access to individual and comprehensive support from account & marketing managers. In 2019, Bookwire GmbH received the first “Digital Publishing Award” in the B2B-solutions sector for the audiobook production solution “We Audiobook You” (WAY). Bookwire GmbH is managed by its founders Jens Klingelhöfer and John Ruhrmann, and, in addition to its headquarters in Frankfurt a. M. and a “digital hub” in Dortmund, also operates branches in Barcelona, London, Mexico City, São Paulo, New York and Paris. https://www.bookwire.de/