Does Facebook have a new rival in the author community? They do if Melbourne-based publishing startup Tablo has anything to say about it. And you don’t need to be a resident of Australia to participate.
According to ITWire.com, Tablo was founded by 21-year-old Ash Davies (yikes! 21???), who recently completed a new round of funding. The company already says it’s helping over 10,000 authors publish to iBooks and Amazon.
Davies says that Tablo’s new social networking platform is “part of a wider effort to transform the writer from a solitary character into a social one by encouraging collaboration amongst authors and likeminded bookworms within an online community.”
According to Davies, the new, unique social network for authors will allow them to:
- Create their own profiles (including a biography, a photo and a list of works)
- Share their writing with others in the community
- Browse the “bookshelves” of their favorite authors
- Receive notifications as new chapters are written by their counterparts
- Join groups with other writers in their genre
Here are some more quotes from Davies on the benefits of this venture for authors…
“Writing has traditionally been seen as a lonely endeavour. This, combined with the sad reality that the vast majority of authors struggle to see their work ever published, means that countless pages of writing from talented individuals, are never shared or read by others. Tablo is changing that.
“Publishing a book in 2014 should not be the same as it was in 1914. Yes, authors still put words onto a page (whether digital or paper), but an ambitious or talented writer shouldn’t need a huge publishing deal to ensure their words are read. With our new social features, readers can discover and follow authors from day one. This will help authors secure and grow a loyal readership.
“Very often the best writers are also the best readers, and technology today allows us to be both, anywhere, anytime, and on any device. The nature of the Tablo community means that the next bestseller might be written on a smartphone or discovered on an iPad, and be armed with a loyal fanbase before it’s even published.”
If you’re interested in delving into this community, check out Tablo at https://tablo.io/. And please share your experiences with us! We’d love to know how it’s working for other authors!