Stephen King Library tool wins Digital Book World award

The Stephen King Library smart speaker tool has been awarded the Digital Book World Alexa Skill of the Year Award for Storytelling.

Stephen King Library believed to be the first voice-activated book recommendation tool dedicated to an author’s body of work from a major publisher, is a joint production of Stephen King’s longtime publisher Scribner, Simon & Schuster, Inc, and Simon & Schuster Audio, and was developed for the publisher by Skilled Creative.

Offering recommendations from among 56 of King’s most beloved books, Stephen King Library asks users a series of situational questions and suggests a reading list informed by their responses. The questions are enhanced with eerie music and sound effects, creating a more immersive and entertaining user experience. Select titles also include audiobook excerpts and users can access bonus King content, including audio excerpts.

Liz Perl, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Simon & Schuster, Inc, said: “We are thrilled to have won this honour for Stephen King Library. As smart speaker platforms and voice interaction explode, we are determined to keep mining and refining this user-friendly technology to connect readers and listeners to books and authors.”

Roz Lippel, vice president and associate publisher of Scribner added: “With Stephen King Library we endeavoured to make an entertaining, interactive and informative way for dedicated fans and casual readers to find their next Stephen King book. We are grateful to the Alexa Awards for recognising our efforts to bring the world of Stephen King to smart speaker universe.”

The prize was awarded at the 2019 Alexa Conference held in Chattanooga, Tennessee on 15th January.