The EPUBulator is Typeflow’s new online readaloud ebook maker, and I only realized six weeks ago — as its new web version entered its final stretch — that this year's Frankfurt Book Fair was something I needed to attend.
But it's always more important to get the thing right than to rush it for a Big Important Event. I learned that from a former life, rushing postproduction to hit a film festival deadline and then regretting it.
So although the EPUBulator itself has been online since early 2023 making all of Typeflow’s readaloud ebooks for Scholastic, De Marque, and smaller publishers and self-pubs (in three languages!), the new web interface might go live by Frankfurt – or it might not. But either way, it's tottering to its feet today, behind the scenes at epubulator.com, and getting its first alpha tests from someone besides the UI programmer.
This is very exciting to me. A year ago, I was pulling a lot of all-nighters at the Danbury Hackerspace, developing a much worse caffeine addiction, learning Python, and coding the core features – and now it's got a cartoon mascot, a stellar track record on real jobs, and an upcoming international debut.
Will anyone want to use it? I have no idea.
Frankfurter Buchmesse: 8 days and counting. Look for us wandering around having interesting conversations with book people. (Or look for Keith Snyder/Typeflow in the Matchmaker section of the Book Fair app.)