Startup Showcase: Pubslush

When Pubslush started, it launched as more or less a Kickstarter for book projects, with books that met their funding goals being published exclusively by Pubslush. But the company relaunched last year with a different angle on its concept. Think of Pubslush now as part book incubator, and part market intelligence provider.

"When we relaunched, we wanted to be a friend to everyone in the industry," says Amanda Barbara, development director at Pubslush. "With the old model, we were in competition."

Authors can still test the viability of a book project, but they remain free to negotiate a deal with any publisher they want. And through the new Pubslush Pro, publishers and agents can use the platform to test market viability as well.

"Smaller publishers who only debut 10-12 titles a year who are not sure if a book idea will be successful can put the book on here and do presale before they put out 10, 20 or 30 thousand [dollars] of their own money," explains Barbara.

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Publishers and agents as well as authors can mine the demographic data to make decisions about which books to publish and how to market them.

The team at Pubslush sees their platform as a bridge of sorts between self-publishers who'd like a traditional publisher, and those traditional publishers.

"Twenty thousand books get produced by Lulu per month," says Barbara. "There are all these authors that never get read. We see Pubslush as a place for authors to raise funds, get advice, and get help to make it successful. We also see it as a place for publishers to discover new talent."