Vook Acquires a Deteriorating Byliner for Its First Publishing Imprint

Byliner's recent struggles have been well documented this summer with executives jumping ship, stalled author payments, and rumors of imminent closure. Those struggles may have come to an end for the ereading startup, which sold long-form journalism and short fiction pieces, with its recent acquisition by Vook. Vook, a digital publishing service provider, announced yesterday that it would absorb Byliner and its current authors as its first in-house imprint.

"We are excited to welcome Byliner's authors to Vook," said Vook CEO Josh Brody in a press release. "Acquiring Byliner is our first step towards applying everything we've learned from powering large brands' digital publishing programs to create a new publishing model that empowers authors to publish faster, market smarter, and keep more creative and financial control of their work."

Byliner authors will have access to Vook's proprietary data, its sales and marketing dashboard, and a wider range of distribution partners. According to a letter that announced the acquisition to Byliner authors, they can also look forward to larger royalties. "As our first step towards giving authors what we believe they deserve from their publisher," writes Brody, "We will be increasing your royalty rates across the board to 85% of net revenues. In the coming days, our team will be reaching out to you to answer any questions -- and make sure you're set up to receive your royalties without any delay."

Vook will not be continuing Byliner's subscription program, Byliner Plus, which gave readers unlimited access to Byliner stories for $5.99 a month.

"We have always been huge fans of Byliner's writers and books," said Vook co-founder Matthew Cavnar in a press release, "We're looking forward to working with Byliner writers to publish more titles, and to adding new writers to the imprint."

Press Release: Vook acquires leading ebook publisher Byliner to establish its first in-house digital imprint
Vook, Inc. is pleased to announce it is acquiring Byliner, the pre-eminent boutique publisher of the world's best short fiction and non-fiction. Vook's proprietary publishing and data-driven marketing platform powers the publishing programs of the world's leading media companies and brands including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, and Thought Catalog. Byliner is joining Vook as its first in-house imprint, launching the next step in its plan to expand its platform to a growing universe of authors and independent content creators.