Tablo Tackles Discoverability with All-in-One Publishing Platform and Reading Community
Tablo is a book publishing platform and online reading community that is beginning to make its mark on the industry. Like Wattpad, Tablo allows authors to share their in-progress works with readers and gather feedback to improve those works. The big difference, says founder Ash Davies, is that Tablo can help authors design, monetize, and distribute their work. Below Davies describes how Tablo intends to put publishing power in authors' hands.
What is Tablo and how does it work?
Tablo is a place where authors can create books and connect with readers. It's kind of like Goodreads for in-progress books. Authors can build their readership while their books are being written. Readers can follow their favorite authors and discover emerging books.
What problem are you solving?
There are some technical problems we're solving. Creating and publishing a book is conventionally difficult, but you can literally drop a document into Tablo and have a publish-ready book in seconds. We're also improving the quality of books. In the past, authors could only engage with readers when their books were on the bookshelf. Now they can learn about their reader's engagement while they write.
The big problem we're solving surrounds the entire discoverability model for books. Something magical happens when an author shares and engages with a readership while they write. The next bestseller can now be discovered before it's been published.
We're onto something special -- something that disrupts the entire publishing model and shifts power back into the hands of authors. It's why we've seen some incredible growth and received backing from several Silicon Valley investors.
How did you come up with this idea?
I struggled to publish my own book. It took me six months to get my finished book onto digital bookshelves and, when it was finished, only a handful of people managed to find it. I realized the model needed to change -- I was so used to blogging with tools like WordPress and Tumblr, and something similar needed to exist for the publishing industry.
We're democratizing publishing. We're removing technical barriers, connecting authors directly with readers, and changing the entire discoverability model for books.
What wisdom about publishing can you share with the industry?
Publishing has nothing to do with books. Validated EPUB files and ISBNs simply don't matter. The story is important, and books only exist to connect that story with its reader. We've focused purely on that connection between an author and a reader.
Who is your competition?
Wattpad is our biggest competitor. They've built an incredible community of authors and readers along similar principals. Unlike Wattpad, Tablo allows you to publish directly to bookstores, monetize your books, collaborate, work with editors, etc. It's a far more relevant offering for publishing authors.
What's next?
We've just secured investment from Australian and Silicon Valley investors, so we're aggressively hiring and scaling. We have some amazing products on the way that will change the entire discovery experience for books, and we've signed a number of bestselling authors to evangelize platform.