Independently Electric

Independent Berlin ebook publishers discuss their various approaches: Frisch & Co. publishes English translations and cooperates exclusively with several European publishing houses, CulturBooks focuses on contemporary originals in brief formats, licensing, and out-of-print works, while mikrotext focuses on international debates. SuKuLTuR has created its own creative, original model of distribution and curates the e-book boutique minimore.de.

Zoe Beck, publisher (CULTurBOOKS), Hamburg, is a publisher, writer, and translator. She writes stories and novels and for the online CulturMag and is a columnist for the show LiteraturEN for SWR 2. Together with Jan Karsten, she directs the E-book publishing company CULTurBOOKS, specialized on the publication of unusual formats of contemporary prose, out-of-print works, and texts between and outside genres.

Marc Degens, publisher (SuKuLTuR, minimore.de), Berlin, writes novels, short stories, essays, poetry, and works as a cultural journalist. As a part of alle3 (with Torsten Franz and Frank Maleu) he has been running the Berlin independent publishing house SuKuLTuR and the online culture website satt.org since 2000. Since March 2014, he has been curating the e-book boutique minimore.de. In addition, he edits the series Schöner Lesen, which has been distributed in vending machines since 2004.

EJ van Lanen, publisher (Frisch & Co), Berlin. An American editor and publisher, Van Lanen founded the digital publishing house Frisch & Co. Electronic Books in Berlin in 2012, specializing in new English translations of well-known and upcoming writers.

Nikola Richter, publisher (mikrotext), Berlin, is a writer, freelance journalist, and runs a publishing house in Berlin. She writes short stories and poetry, and plays, also working as a journalist and contributing to several blogs. She is the founder of the online literature magazine schriftstelle.de and the Berlin reading platform visch & ferse. In 2013, she founded the digital publishing house mikrotext for brief digital texts, for which she was nominated for the Virenschleuderpreis and the Berlin Innovation Consensus. In 2013/14, Richter curated the event series Netzkultur on digital changes in culture and society at the Berliner Festspiele.

Sabine Scholl, Author, Berlin, Literary advisor Fiktion, is a freelance writer, whose publications include numerous novels, essays, poems, plays, and audio plays. Both as a writer and as a member of the jury, she has participated in the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Preis competition several times, and she has taught creative writing internationally. Her latest novel Wir sind die Früchte des Zorns was published in 2013. Scholl is a member of the Grazer Autorenversammlung and a literary advisor for Fiktion e.V.