A Decade of Transforming Digital Publishing
Our Website's Decade-Long Evolution from Academic Project to Prosperous Online Hub
Ten years ago, our platform was born out of a student's ambition to publish a master's thesis. Today, it stands as a global leader in digital publishing, empowering thousands of authors and publishers to bring their books to readers worldwide with ease, speed, and confidence.
This story charts the journey of how we transformed from a thesis repository into a tech trailblazer in publishing – facing challenges, overcoming obstacles, and embracing innovation along the way.
A Thesis, Two Friends, and a Big Idea
The roots of our platform date back to a simple desire: publishing a master's thesis. As I ventured into the digital publishing world, I realized it was needlessly complicated for independent creators. There was a gap in scalable solutions, and that’s when two friends with deep knowledge in programming and database management stepped in. With their expertise, we built the foundation for what would become our platform.
At first, it was a one-time publishing project. But we soon realized our mission was to simplify digital publishing for authors and publishers on a global scale.
Breaking Through as Outsiders
Becoming an established player in the publishing industry was not an easy task, especially given our original roots in Hungary. We were young, unproven, and, to some, seemingly from an unlikely source of global tech innovation.
Partnering with major ebook retailers like Apple Books, Google Play Books, and Kobo was a challenge. We faced skepticism and rejection. However, our persistence paid off. As we established a reputation for quality content and reliable service, these same partners began to take notice, not just of us, but also of the authors and publishers we represented.
Opening Up: From Invite-Only to Global Access
Initially, our platform was an invite-only community. We sought to build quality over quantity and gather valuable feedback from trusted early users. In 2015, we opened our doors to the public. This move signified a significant milestone: our first international, fully digital clients began joining us from around the world.
Tackling Complexity at Scale
As our customer base expanded, we faced immense technical challenges: managing royalties across international markets, ensuring seamless updates for thousands of books, and delivering metadata and content promptly to our growing list of partners. We didn’t have all the answers at first, but we built, we iterated, and we optimized until we did.
Key Product Milestones
Throughout our journey, we’ve introduced numerous innovations designed to streamline the publishing process for our users.
Transparent Sales Analytics
From the outset, we recognized the importance of accurate, real-time data for authors and publishers. We sought to challenge the traditional industry practice of withholding sales information. Our sales analytics dashboard allowed users to track performance by country, retailer, format, and more – providing a strategic dashboard for every author and publisher using our platform.
User-Friendly UX
As we attracted more self-published authors to our community, user-friendliness became essential. Over the years, we’ve overhauled our user experience with intuitive onboarding flows, drag-and-drop content uploads, smart metadata suggestions, cleaner, faster dashboards, and a mobile-friendly interface. Our goal was to create a platform powerful enough for professionals, yet intuitive enough for first-time users.
Abacus: Scalable Royalty Management for Publishers
One of our proudest innovations is Abacus, a royalty management solution for publishers handling multiple authors and imprints. Abacus automates royalties, splits for co-authored works, royalty statement generation, and secure delivery of statements to contributors. Publishers can manage hundreds of author agreements with ease, saving countless hours and enhancing trust and transparency in author relationships.
Expansion to New Stores & Business Models
We’ve consistently added new distribution channels to reach readers across the globe. Key milestones include partnerships with regional stores in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, integration with subscription services, expansion to library platforms and corporate content hubs, and new business models like shared revenue, licensing, and AI-generated pricing insights.
Publishing Assistant: AI-Powered Optimization
In recent years, we have harnessed the power of AI to help authors and publishers make informed decisions. Our Publishing Assistant is a game-changer, leveraging advanced large language models to analyze books, suggest optimal metadata, generate book descriptions, recommend keywords and categories tailored to retail algorithms, provide cover generation tools to improve discoverability, and help refresh and republish backlist titles for increased sales.
Impact Stories: How Our Users Grew with Us
Over the past decade, our most significant success stories have stemmed from our users. Indie authors, hybrid publishers, and traditional publishing houses have used our platform to expand their digital presence and boost their earnings. Marc Reklau, Lauren Smith, Quinn Loftis, Michael Anderle, and J-Novel Club are just a few examples of creative entrepreneurs who have succeeded with our platform.
Serving a Wide Audience: Authors and Publishers Alike
As our mission evolved, we recognized that our role wasn't only to simplify distribution – it was to help creative entrepreneurs grow their publishing businesses. In response, we gradually expanded our features and business models to cater to individual authors, small publishers, hybrid publishers, and large-scale publishers alike. By 2020, we had become the go-to platform for anyone serious about digital publishing, regardless of their operation's size.
Technology-Driven, Human-Centered
Our platform is underpinned by cutting-edge technology, but it's always been human beings who drive its development and innovation. We’ve introduced numerous innovations throughout our journey, including the Publishing Assistant, Abacus, and transparent sales analytics.
Building a Team to Support Growth
Behind every line of code and feature rollout was a dedicated team of engineers, product managers, customer success representatives, marketers, and publishing specialists. We started in a small shared office and, over time, grew into a fully remote, international team, with team members from across Europe and the United States.
More Than a Company: Growing our Platform and Our Families
Throughout our journey, we’ve grown not just as a company but as people, as parents, and as friends. Our team, now seven-strong, includes children born to the founders over the past decade. Balancing work and family life has been an essential part of our ethos, and we’ve learned to juggle startups and strollers in equal measure.
Looking Ahead: The Future of our Platform
As we embark on our second decade, we're more focused than ever on delivering innovation and value to the publishing world. Our roadmap includes deepening AI integration, exploring new content formats like audiobooks and AI narration, developing advanced pricing tools, expanding to additional stores and subscription services, and helping our users navigate the ever-evolving publishing landscape.
Thank You to Our Authors, Publishers, Partners, & Team
From a thesis to a thriving platform, our journey has been marked by inspiring partnerships, tireless dedication, and a commitment to empowering creators. Here’s to the next chapter.
Share Your Story
We’d love to hear from you. If our platform has played a role in your publishing journey, please share your story, photo, or quote with us. We’ll feature your success in our upcoming anniversary content. Connect with us on social media here.
[The End]
The platform's inception was rooted in a student's desire to publish a master's thesis, which ultimately sparked an ambition to revolutionize digital publishing for everyone. Today, this platform is a leader in technology-driven lifestyle, serving as a global hub for business, finance, education-and-self-development, and technology enthusiasts worldwide.
As time progressed, the platform evolved from an invite-only community to a global access platform for authors and publishers from diverse industries, such as finance, lifestyle, business, technology, and education-and-self-development. It introduced groundbreaking innovations like transparent sales analytics, user-friendly UX, and AI-powered Publishing Assistant to streamline the publishing process, empowering these creators to thrive in their respective niches.
