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On The Table Read, “the best book magazine in the UK“, Ukrainian bookscription social media platform, Booknet, is bringing its sales concept to the UK.
Booknet
Booknet has the power to change the way writers engage with readers and vice versa, to empower writers to have more control over the publication and sale of their work, and to reward talented writers who know how to create commercial stories and build their network through regular engagement and sharing of new content.
The Ukrainian company has seen staggering growth and success in Eastern Europe and Latin America since it first opened in Russia in 2015 and, following the outbreak of the war, sold its Russian division and is now turning its attentions to the English-language market, particularly the UK, as it breaks new barriers in publishing.
What is Bookscription?
Bookscription is a publishing sales model based on the concept of gradual eBook publication. Essentially, authors share their books as they write them, chapter by chapter, so readers follow the journey of the story as it’s revealed – unified in their knowledge of not knowing exactly how the plot will unfold. However, readers don’t pay per chapter – the Bookscription model means that they pay per eBook and that price is typically the same as they’d be charged for a full and completed eBook.
In Latin America, where Booknet has been in operation since 2018 and has more than one million users per month, a Spanish-language book typically makes more money during its Bookscription phase (two to four months) than in the first one to two years of the completed book being available for sale. This distinctive method of readers being able to follow an author, read the latest instalment/chapter as they’re published, and being invested in the development/future of the story, appears to be changing reader habits – perhaps attracting a certain type of reader and reader behaviour to books in a way that completed books can’t achieve?
This bite-sized reading habit naturally fits in with the changing world we live in: a short commute to work, a bus ride home, waiting in a queue, sitting in a carpark waiting for a family member, etc. We are consuming information such as television shows, podcasts, audiobooks and social media content in short bursts – so why shouldn’t eBooks be the same?
Booknet research shows that many of their readers are simultaneously accessing multiple stories on Bookscription at a time. Booknet via Bookscription has become more like a social network – described by some of its authors as the YouTube of the literary world. Writers and readers can connect with each other through blogs and, more popularly, the comments sections. As new content is released, readers will often share their thoughts on the latest instalment and it’s good practice for the authors to respond in turn. This kind of access to authors in almost real time is exciting and unique for readers and writers equally!
Interview with the Booknet Team
Q. What prompted the creation of Booknet?
A. We want to demonstrate to English-language authors that there is a different, successful and creative way to publish and sell their eBooks, by creating their own place on the Internet where they can do more than just sell eBooks, as they do in regular online bookshops, but interact with their readers through reader comments and the author blogs, and build a longstanding, loyal target audience.
Q. What is Bookscription?
A. Bookscription is the unique book-selling model that is available for Booknet authors, once they’ve obtained commercial status. Bookscription is a one-time fee to access an eBook that is still being written and gradually published by an author via the platform. The author sets the price for eBook. The reader gets access to the chapters / episodes as soon as they are published by the author. And once the eBook is complete, readers can continue to access that book. It can also then be made available for sale as a completed, whole eBook.
Q. Why do you think the concept of Bookscription and Booknet took off so quickly in parts of Latin America and Eastern Europe?
A. The Booknet literary platform saw booming popularity in Latin America and Ukraine in recent years because of the Bookscription book-selling model. Readers enjoy watching how an author writes and develops a story, they are fascinated by how authors publish their eBook bit-by-bit over 2-4 months. Of course, readers also like being able to interact with authors of stories they’re enjoying, by sharing their thoughts and ideas about the plot line so far, or how the story could continue. This way of reading and interacting with the author is much more interesting than simply reading a completed eBook, purchased in a regular online bookshop. Bookscription really is the main ingredient in Booknet’s success.
Q. How many books are currently listed on Booknet?
A. The Ukrainian-language version houses 7,430 eBooks, the Spanish-language version comprises more than 16,700 eBooks, and the English-language version holds almost 3,000. Therefore, more than 27,000 free and paid eBooks overall been published across the Booknet platform since the creation of the three language versions.
Q. How many readers get their eBooks through Bookscription?
A. As of the year 2021-2022, the total number of sold eBooks via the Bookscription model in the Ukrainian-language, Spanish-language and English-language versions reached 403,000-plus.
Q. How much money can writers make by publishing their books this way?
A. According to Booknet data, one title on their Spanish-language site last April sold 10,425 copies in the first 24 hours. Eva Muñoz (https://booknet.com/es/eva-munoz-u2131660) with her book ‘Queen’ (https://booknet.com/es/book/queen-b333964) made over £14,200 in the first day through the Bookscription model. Commercial authors on Booknet get 70% royalties on eBook sales.
It is worth noting here ‘Queen’ was Muñoz’s second novel in a series, published after the first, equally popular, eBook. What’s more, the author in question is very experienced, who had already built a vast and loyal audience before coming to Booknet, as well as tens of thousands of subscribers on both Instagram and Twitter.
Q. What are the most popular genres on Booknet?
A. Mass, mainstream literary genres are most popular on all language versions of Booknet. The popularity of eBooks and genres differs depending on the region, as is the case in the rest of the publishing industry worldwide.
For example, our Spanish-language version is the largest, and other than romance novels that contain erotic scenes, its readers pay little attention to other fiction genres. In the Ukrainian-language version the most in-demand genres are fantasy and modern prose, including romance novels. The English-language version, for now, is relatively small in terms of content and readership, so it depends more on the kinds of literary competitions we have organised there. So far, the romance genre is in the lead, but we want to focus on fantasy, potentially including YA and science-fiction as well.
Q. What are your hopes for Booknet and Bookscription in five years?
A. In five years, we would like to see Bookscription become one of the main book-selling models in the English-language market, regularly used by readers and popular among both reader and author communities.
Find more from Booknet
https://www.facebook.com/Booknet.official/
https://www.instagram.com/booknet.official/
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