GuideGecko Company Blog

I’ve been asked why we are going to the Frankfurt Book Fair – and the answer was simple: To meet you!

Our primary intention is to meet up with travel authors from all over the world. We would like to show you how GuideGecko works and how you as an author can benefit from it. So if you are planning a trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair this month, please come by our booth at B100 in Hall 3.0 to say hello.

We have a ton of events planned during the fair, including short presentations for authors, bookstores and publishers, lucky draws, a small get-together with finger food and the best beer in the world (no, not the one that is only ‘probably’ the best according to their own ads). Please have a look at the event calendar to find interesting events for you.

The fair is open to the general public on Saturday and Sunday (October 17-18). From October 13-16, access is restricted to trade visitors and the press.

Also feel free to contact us and schedule an appointment outside of our event times. We are happy to see you!

Thank you for voting and submitting your guides to the GuideGecko Writing Contest!

We are overwhelmed by the results: We have received over 65+ entries from all over the world, and your 1000+ votes have decided on the winner: Congrats to Karl, Oliver, Anisah, Naleeza and Lorraine!

The top three titles will be showcased on the Frankfurt Book Fair, and Karl wins the trip to Frankfurt to promote his title to the world.

For more details, please take a look at our detailed contest results page with all participating guides and the number of votes.

And, if you are going to visit the Frankfurt Book Fair: Come by our booth at B100 Hall 3.0 for a chat with Karl and us. We hope to see you there!

As you may have read in our press release, we organize a big international writing contest in conjunction with the Frankfurt Book Fair. Three travel guides will be selected and showcased on the fair, and the grand prize is a personal trip to the fair in Ocotber. That’s a tremendous opportunity for budding and established authors to meet up with publishers from all over the world, to pitch story ideas, and maybe even sign a contract on the fair. The contest is almost finished, but you still have a chance to submit your own works if you are quick.

The contest is open to all travel, food and entertainment guides. So go ahead, publish your own guides and register for the contest. We may see you in Frankfurt!

Yes, the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany:

The Frankfurt Book Fair is the largest and most important book fair in the world. Held annually in October (14-18th of October this year), it attracts more than 299,000 visitors and 10,000 journalists. Over 7000 exhibitors from 100+ countries will present their titles, and GuideGecko is one of them! We will have our own booth at the fair at B100 Hall 3.0, and will also contribute two titles to the special Books On China exhibition: Two nice and comprehensive travel guides by our China expert Cheryl Probst, ‘Parents Guide to Beijing‘  and ‘DIY  Beijing: A guide for the independent traveler‘.

Please drop by our booth and say hello!

It’s been a while since the last post, and that’s because we have been very busy preparing for the Frankfurt Book Fair and our International Travel Writing Contest. We will have our own booth at the fair, and of course, we want it to look as nice as possible. We have lots of events going on during the fair, including presentations for publishers and bookstores (hint, hint… something new coming up!) as well as for authors, lucky draws, early bird specials, and a small get together. Yes… and now back to preparing all of these!

If you are planning to visit the Frankfurt Book Fair, please come by our booth at B100 in Hall3.0 and say hello!

Anybody remembers the pinball machine ‘The Twilight Zone’? It uses the above quote to announce a major breakthrough – a multiball game in this case. And we use the same quote for major breakthrough as well: our official launch earlier today!

We are very excited about it, and hope that you enjoy the website as much as we enjoyed developing it. We hope it will be a helpful resource, both for guidebook authors as well as for guidebook customers. We are looking forward to hearing your comments.

We have sent out two press releases for the event, corresponding to the two parts of the website: One press release focuses on our publishing platform where authors and publishers can upload and sell their own guides. The other press release focuses on the customer side and highlights our low prices, large variety and easy search functionalities that allow you to find exactly the guides you are looking for. I’ll copy both press releases in the next postings.

So long: Enjoy the site!

Don’t know much about Latin, but nevertheless, it has been decided: We will launch next week.

Initially, we have been targeting Wednesday, but a close look at the calendar told us that it falls on April 1 – and because we definitely don’t want to fool you, we just decided to work a little harder and launch on Tuesday, March 31.

So watch out for us – and get your guides on GuideGecko!

Here is a small update on what we are doing. But first of all, a big THANK YOU for your feedback and comments.

Over the past weeks, we have been (and still are) working hard to integrate all your suggestions. A few of them are already live on the site, such as guide-reviews and questions. More features are in the pipeline, including a guided-tour for authors and publishers as well as a cover-generator on the uploading page. We are especially proud of the latter – do take a look when it’s ready.

We expect to have all these new features online in a few days. Once done, we will also officially launch the site. So stay tuned! Once again, thanks a lot.

After months of scheming, developing and implementing, we finally say: “Hello world!”

Yes, GuideGecko v0.9 went online today! When you read this, we are probably out celebrating the event – so bear with us if our “Thank You”-reply to your “Congratulations”-email will only come back tomorrow. In the meantime, please browse through our site and see what we have to offer!

One request: If you encounter any bugs, have questions or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact us at info@GuideGecko.com! We love to hear from you and look forward to your feedback!

And then tomorrow, we will have the inevitable and everlasting follow-up to “Hello World”. What is that, you ask? Well, as every computer-geek will know, it is “20 goto 10″ – of course! There are lots of ideas waiting to be implemented. Some are still on the drawing table, others are ready to be programmed right away. So stay tuned and watch for more features to come soon!

Cheers!

Only a few more days and GuideGecko will go online! We are working hard to put the final touches on the website. Naturally, we are very excited about it, and hope you will like our little christmas present as much as we do.

So stay tuned, and we will offer you unbiased travel-information and guidebooks that are tailor-made to your needs. It’s just a few more days!