Stuff We Love: Bublish
Bublish is a social book discovery platform that is revolutionizing the way writers share their stories and readers find books and authors they’ll love. We’re out to recreate the bookstore browsing experience online. As Bublish evolves, it will combine today’s best ideas in social media, discovery and commerce — the visual interest of Pinterest, the highly shareable content of Twitter, the successful social commerce of Fab.com, and the back-end intelligence of Pandora.
How it works:
Bublish is simple for writers and readers to use. An author creates a profile with a bio on Bublish, uploads their eBook to their dashboard (where only they have access to it), and provides a synopsis, genre and keywords for their book. The author can then highlight excerpts from their book, add author insights (the story behind the story), and share book bubbles across multiple social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. When readers encounter a book bubble socially, they can explore not only the excerpt and author insight, but also view the synopsis and bio as well as follow links to view the author’s web site and even purchase the book right from the bubble. After viewing a few book bubbles on Twitter and Facebook, readers are asked if they’d like to sign up for Bublish to view the entire “bubble stream,” which consists of all the book bubbles created by authors on the platform. As members of Bublish, readers can create a profile to focus their bubble stream on specific genres, authors and topics of interest. Bublish is free for both writers and readers. Authors can manage up to three books from their free Bublish account.
What is the goal of the site?
Bublish is designed to help writers and readers in several ways. For writers, Bublish makes book promotion much easier and more effective. It takes only seconds to create a book bubble and turn excerpts into fresh, engaging content that can be easily shared across multiple social networks. The author insight included in each bubble enriches the excerpt, telling the story behind the story. Book bubbles also help authors create conversations about their work without feeling like salespeople, allowing them to engage readers and find their audience. There are no gimmicks here to make a quick sale. Bublish enables authors to develop long-term relationships with their readers by talking authentically about their stories. And because each book bubbles is tied to the genre and keywords the author inputs when he or she uploaded the book. As Bublish evolves as a platform, the technology will be able to match writers with the types of readers who are actually inclined to explore, share and buy their work.
For readers, Bublish is equally useful. First, it brings the joy of book browsing online. Book bubbles offer the quiet but powerful book-meets-reader experience that traditionally happens in bookstores. When readers sign up for an account, they let Bublish know which genres and topics are of interest to them, allowing Bublish to curate their bubble stream while still sampling book bubbles by new writers and books. Book bubbles give readers a great introduction to a writer’s voice and story. There’s so much to explore about an author’s work in a book bubble. In the future, readers will be able to save book bubbles they like and engage in social experiences with authors and other readers.
Who is the audience?
Our audience consists of authors, readers, publishers, publicists, agents, and anyone else interested in great social storytelling.
What changes or adaptations can be expected in the future?
As we continue to enrich the Bublish experience of social book discovery, we’ll be adding many new community features and offering authors and readers additional ways to connect around book content and shared interests. Bublish is a place that celebrates books. Bubbles will remain the heart of the platform, but what writers and readers will be able to do with book bubbles will become more and more interesting. Additionally, the back end intelligence of Bublish will continue to evolve, allowing us to provide rich social metrics to authors, readers and publishers. We aspire to create an rich social ecosystem that connects writers and readers and allows them to engage in great social storytelling experiences.
Who created the idea for the site and why?
Bublish was created by Kathy Meis and Charles Wyke-Smith, both writers and book lovers who understand the demands on authors’ and readers’ time. In creating Bublish, and book bubbles, they hope to bring discovery solutions to both groups and ensure a future where great books can find their audience in a crowded online marketplace.
If you could tell our community only ONE thing about Bublish, what would it be?
Once writers have bublished out a few book bubbles, they start to understand the powerful role social storytelling can play in book discovery. Try it out! It’s free. It’s effective. It’s fun. www.bublish.com
