Going by the book
App suggests what to read with a smartphone’s geolocation feature
AHoustonbased company has launched an app that aims to help bookworms discover new titles to read.
Squirl suggests books by using a smartphone’s geolocation feature. When a user walks to a place where a book has been set, the app pings him or her with a short synopsis and excerpt. The notification also has a link to buy the book on Amazon.com.
Call it Pokemon Go for the publishing world.
“It’s an engaging way to discover new books,” cofounder Jef Van der Avoort said.
Van der Avoort came up with the idea when he was reading Jack Kerouac’s “On The Road,” based on the beat writer’s travels around the country. The Belgium native was fascinated by the stories tied to each of Kerouac’s destinations and wanted to help fellow readers find those locationbased stories, much like a squirrel scavenges for acorns.
“There’s a special connection between the real world and the story world,” Van der Avoort said. “We want to create a portal between those worlds.”
Van der Avoort and co-founder Serie Wolfe established their tech startup in Houston because
of its location midway between Silicon Valley and the New York publishing capital, he said.
“There’s a lot of technology companies here for oil and gas and medical,” Van der Avoort said. “Why not something like this for publishing?”
Since creating Squirl about a year ago, more than 5,000 beta users are now testing the free app, which features more than 800 books from about 600 authors. Users can discover books set in some 2,500 locations around the world.
Squirl offers all kinds of books — poetry, history and young adult novels — set in cities like New York, Paris and London. In the Houston area, there are books set in a Galleriaarea hotel, Galveston’s historic district and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
“There are books on Squirl from every continent except for Antarctica,” Van der Avoort said.
Authors can create a profile on the app, add their titles and set locations where their books are based or inspired. Squirl makes money by charging authors and publishers to access analytics data and post advertising on the app. Users can get discounts if they purchase books on the spot.
Andrea Barbosa, a Houston-based writer, uses Squirl to showcase her four published books: a psychological thriller, poetry and romance novels. Her latest romance novel, where an art student in Houston falls in love with a visiting Greek anthropologist at the MFAH, takes the reader through several locations in Houston, San Antonio and Greece.
Barbosa said Squirl can introduce her work to a wider, international audience while also helping her research locations for upcoming novels.
“I believe it can and will bring a lot of exposure once the app is more available and shared around,” Barbosa said. “It can get a lot of fun finding new books, especially when I’m traveling.”
Van der Avoort and Wolfe are looking to raise seed funding to take the app into augmented reality, where computer generation information is overlaid on the real world. With augmented reality, Squirl users wearing a special headset can find a virtual copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” while visiting New York’s Plaza Hotel, where a pivotal scene in the novel took place.
“Augmented reality is going to happen two or three years from now,” Van der Avoort said. “We want to be ready to put that layer on top of the world.”
Ultimately, Van der Avoort hopes Squirl can encourage casual readers to discover books beyond the best-seller lists, and help independent and self-published authors tap into a wider reader base. Since he started Squirl in Houston, Van der Avoort said he has joined a men’s book club and has been reading more.
“This app can really do something for casual readers,” Van der Avoort said. “It can really engage the casual reader.”