For the Readers: A List of Sites, Tools, and Examples of Beautiful Works

More and more platforms are springing up to help both indie authors and readers looking for their next great read.

One new platform that does just that is The Books Machine, which allows authors to gift their books to hundreds of thousands of readers, according to the website. Readers have 30 days to read the book and write an honest review.

Reader membership is free, and readers can access excerpts of any titles that sound promising to them. The Books Machine is a community, a meeting place, and authors only pay $10 per month for access to potential readers.

Indie authors, there are a few other useful tools out there. A couple include LibraryJournal, where you can submit books for review, and Curator’s Code, which helps attribute content.

Reader Research

Having a reader base is essential to an author’s success. And more and more readers are turning to ebooks to get their fix, though according to Forbes print is still big. However, a survey found that people who own ereaders and tablets read 60% more than other readers. USA Today found that people read more on tablets than ereaders, and Venture Beat reported more people read on smartphones than tablets (though Publisher’s Weekly reported that adults don’t read as much literature as they used to).

According to Galley Cat, kids who read for pleasure do better in school (Salon also wrote an article arguing that making reading a chore was terrible for kids). And Publishing Perspectives created an infographic showing how much kids should read.

Salon wrote that reading is not yet a social activity, but though Readmill tried before it was bought by Dropbox. Still, reading seems to be becoming more social, with sites like Goodreads, The Pigeonhole (and its new private book clubs), and others.

If you want to know more about readers around the world, then check out Publishing Perspective’s chart.