Reader’s Legacy is a place for book lovers to interact with their peers, to browse for new titles, receive recommendations, and for aspiring writers and novelists to receive feedback and get discovered. It is a place where reading enthusiasts can not only preserve relationships with books, but build new ones with fellow book lovers. https://ReadersLegacy.com
Reader’s Legacy is a high tech social media website, as well as a bookseller and publisher for the modern age. Picture a mashup of Facebook, Amazon, GoodReads & LuLu — that is Reader’s Legacy.
People who love books, love to have books around them. We have created a community where people can create a digital legacy of their books. On ReadersLegacy.com, every book in the world has a page, every author has a page, every publisher has a page, and everyone who loves books has a page.
Imagine your grandkids going to your library and seeing your favorite books and the words that influenced you to become the person they know and love. They know that the gentile, frail, and loving person they see before them was once a wanderer, a dreamer, someone full of hopes, desires, and inspiration. Now imagine the future when personal libraries don’t exist anymore. Well, at least not in the physical, tactile sense. https://ReadersLegacy.com
Reader’s Legacy couldn’t and wouldn’t accept a future such as this, so we set out to do something about it.
Although there are, and have been for years now, a myriad of companies aiding in the digitization of books, they all appear to have forgotten one very important part of this transition: the true love of reading and the enthusiasm literaries have for their books.
To make this a reality, we created a new platform where readers can create a virtual version of their home libraries in a social media environment. In doing so, they accumulate Litcoin™ credits which are used to purchase books on https://ReadersLegacy.com.
Reader’s Legacy is a place where book lovers can preserve the intimate relationships they have built over the years with their books. The same books that taught them invaluable lessons, lifted them out of dark times, transported them to places they could only dream about — those same books hold deep value, both tangible and sentimental.
We are an online community where people who love to read can come together — the world’s largest bookclub, in a sense.
Independant authors will rely upon Reader’s Legacy to promote their books and make more sales. Reading enthusiasts will flock to our website for the chance to socialize with other readers and with their favorite authors, and to build up their Litcoin™ accounts.
All users love the familiarity of ReadersLegacy.com. We are built using the same technology as both Amazon and Facebook, creating an enjoyable experience discussing and discovering books on https://ReadersLegacy.com.
We incorporated a myriad of features in our website to make the experience meaningful.
Users of ReadersLegacy.com can create a free account and use our smartphone app to scan the barcodes of every book you’ve ever read. Those books then show up in your virtual bookshelf, preserving your legacy. We also built in a search feature on the website to find books and add them to your collection.
When books get added to your bookshelf on ReadersLegacy.com, they aren’t the actual books themselves, but advertorial pages of the books. These pages contain a picture of the book cover, the author’s name, other works by that author, a trailer video of the book, and thousands of comments by fellow lovers of that book, who are all registered users of Reader’s Legacy.
With all this information at your fingertips, you would come across a treasure trove of new book recommendations, either by the same author or another user saying, “If you love this book, I know you’ll also love ____.”
In turn, you could also add your own notes and help your fellow book lovers find new books, or even make sense of a specific passage or chapter in that book.
As part of the world’s largest book club, a mashup of Facebook, Amazon, GoodReads and Lulu, users also have the ability to follow their favorite authors, publishers, and of course, their friends and colleagues.
So, for example, you could be on Reader’s Legacy one day and see in your feed that a respected colleague, or maybe even just a friend who you know loves the same types of books as you, just added a new book to their library. You’ve never heard of this book but, trusting in this person’s tastes and judgement, decide to check it out knowing it must be a good read.
You then check out the advertorial page for that book and see all the other comments people have made about it. Within those comments, you see a comment by Bill Gates or Oprah that cements your interest. On Reader’s Legacy, you are naturally brought to the point where you want to buy that book.
Litcoin™ credits are our own virtual currency on ReadersLegacy.com. We created them to help you take your virtual bookshelf to the next level. What good is having a bookshelf unless you can keep adding to it after all?
Gamification is a powerful tool to build and sustain engagement and enjoyment with a website. Litcoin™ credits are earned through creating an account, adding books, engaging in the community, following authors and publishers, posting comments, sharing comments to other social media networks, etc.
Litcoin™ credits are easy to earn and make it so you may never have to buy another book again. The more you participate in this fun and social book club, the cheaper your new books become.
On Reader’s Legacy, independent authors — all 50 million of them by some accounts — can create an account for them and for their book, fill in all the metadata, and start selling their book straight from the website. By being part of this community, you also have the rare opportunity to connect with your potential readers on a personal level. You are simply book-loving peers on Reader’s Legacy. You can appeal to your readers’ interests because you know them on a deeper level.
Additionally, the big players in self-publishing are all huge companies who don’t care about the success of your book. Reader’s Legacy is different because we take an active interest in helping you market and sell your life’s work. We help make your legacy, and your reader’s legacy, one in the same.
Publishers now have an easy way to contact authors, market their packages, and keep in touch with future or potential readers. They can also create a complete list of all the authors they have published, allowing them to collect a fan base. A user will be naturally inclined to a publisher they see is responsible for all their favorite authors. How many publishers can say they have fans? This will, in turn, inspire other authors to use you as their publisher in the future.
The idea for Reader’s Legacy started in 2011. Behind the work of our 29 full-time staff, we successfully launched the website on June 7, 2015. In the first 10 days after launch, we had over 1,000 people join the community.
In fact, Cevin Bryenman, Publisher at Publishers Weekly and a go-to authority in the publishing industry, called us, “one of the fastest growing publishing companies in the U.S.” and Bryerman said, “ReadersLegacy.com is like adding gas to an already raging fire”.
Infrastructure
https://ReadersLegacy.com is built on the Python platform. Our partnership with Ingram Content, the largest distributor in the world, gives us an embedded API where all our data is housed — this is the same setup that Amazon has with Ingram for data feed and distribution.
Our base is solid and familiar, as both Amazon and Facebook are built with Python. Also akin to Facebook are our ads which intuitively recommend books to you based on your demographic, your reading interests, and book collection.
Partners
In addition to Ingram, we have secured relationships with the largest distributors in the United States. This allowed us to launch the website with over 15 million of the world’s top books for sale with 100 more are being added every day.
Infrastructure + Partners = Profits
We have already generated great revenues. In 2012, we hauled in close to $300K in revenue, $680K in 2013, and nearly $2 million in 2014. And that’s just in publishing. Now we’re opening up 10 additional revenue streams. ReadersLegacy.com will give us the largest data-base of authors in the world, an endless stream of new clients.
Reader’s Legacy is already a highly profitable business. Our process and team are proven.
Up next: Our 1st annual Reader’s Legacy Choice Awards and Writer’s Conference. This is an elite level event that will become the Academy Awards of the book business. We had over 300 attendees, and the who’s who of the publishing industry at our 1st event. Strictly black tie, of course. We will hold an annual event, like the Academy Awards, that will showcase the top selling books in the world, the the books with the biggest fan-counts and will also be a world calibre writers conference.
Following the event, we started a campaign with Publisher’s Weekly which will see Reader’s Legacy being advertised every day on their website (over 1 million unique visitors a month). We were also the cover story of their magazine which goes out to 100K people.
The more money we raise with this round of funding, the more PR and advertising we can do. Our other ongoing method of advertising: Every time someone adds a book to their library, the website generates an auto post on Facebook directing people back to Reader’s Legacy. During our 3-week beta, we had over 2,000 books added, resulting in 2,000 Facebook shares.
Kenneth J. Dunn, Founder & CEO
Ken has been an entrepreneur for 20 years and his success is dependable — he has been a millionaire 3 times over in 3 different businesses. He is an independent author himself, having written 5 books and sold 250K copies. Prior to his entrepreneurial exploits, he was an investigative police officer for 14 years.
Rod Larrivee, President
Rod is Ken’s business partner as well as the source of the lightening rod that struck the idea of Reader’s Legacy. He runs all operations, production, and logistics. Rod also has been an entrepreneur for over two decades and is the former COO/Co-Founder of a $10 million chain of Dollar Stores.
Simon Presland, Editor In Chief
Simon is an elite level editor with 15 years of experience. He is responsible for all editing and book publishing.
Tiffany Magner, VP of Sales
With her 25 years of professional sales management experience, Tiffany oversees all sales and project management for Reader’s Legacy.
Colin Ellis, Director of IT
Colin is our IT Director and Chief Programmer. He previously built Audioboom.com.
Jeberaj Gnanesekar, Director of Printing Services
Jeberaj brings 18 years of experience in the printing business to the Reader’s Legacy team.