Bookworm.artInside Story
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Fun Bookworm
As Bookworm becomes increasingly more established it is time to take a look at some of the exciting new features that have been added to the site and to introduce developments which are making Bookworm a fun site for readers and authors to visit and use. First let’s start with some housekeeping. Good housekeeping is essential to a website and Bookworm is no exception. Over the last few weeks, we have been working hard to improve the site, from adding new features to quality-of-life changes. Let’s talk about our biggest changes. The first involves authentication. When you register you will now receive a code to your email to confirm that the email belongs to the user. Thereafter the user can simply log in as usual. The landing page has had some big changes starting with a carousel being the main focus presenting an assortment of book and author related news. A book count has also been added for user’s interest. The “Add Book” button is now centre and foremost on the landing page for ease of use. Fifteen percent of unnecessary code has been removed improving load times and site performance for all pages by twenty percent. Improvements have been made to the navigation bar with a much cleaner and uncluttered appearance. Similarly, the drop-down menu on the avatar has been made more attractive improving the user interface of the site. Dark mode is also an exciting new feature that will be added shortly which will let users interact with the site as normal but with a darker theme, allowing easier accessibility in darker places and reduces eye strain. The settings page has also been updated, improving user interface, and reducing code which intern improves page loading times. Currently users can enter their username for the site, add their bio and update their socials. And now for the fun stuff. Bookworm has introduced a host of new features establishing connectivity between users allowing for a community of Bookworms to grow. A major advancement has been through the introduction of forums allowing Bookwormers to chat together and help one another with book choices and contribute to community building. Simply click on the “New Forums” icon on the navigation bar and start a thread. Other Bookwormers can “like” and comment accordingly. A fun attribute added to the site is the introduction of “badges”. “Badges” are earnt by Bookwormers completing challenges such as reaching reading milestones and the number of books a user adds to the site. These badges are displayed on the user’s profile page. Bookwormers can view how they fair with fellow users by checking the “leader board” page which ranks the badges and displays the best readers and highest challenge achievers on the site. This page also displays the challenges that readers can complete to earn badges. Highest ranked Bookwormers at the end of the month will receive a premium badge which they hold for the following month. Another development is the creation of a public user profile page allowing Bookwormers to access their friends account, show off their reading badges and follow their favourite authors and readers. So, to explore all this new functionality, jump onto Bookworm.art and have fun.
YouTube Bookworm
YouTube and Bookworm? Intriguing combination indeed. You’re no doubt wondering what YouTube has to do with Bookworm. Well as it happens, quite a lot, but first let’s take a look at YouTube. YouTube launched in 2005 with co-founder Jawed Karim’s awkward video “Me at the Zoo”, taped in front of the elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo. After slow beginnings the revenue earning potential of the platform was realised and the site exploded to the tech behemoth it is today with 30.6 billion monthly visits and 2nd on the list of most visited sites globally with 3.7 million videos uploaded every day. This has essentially turned the world completely upside down with teenage content creators, or “YouTubers” as they are affectionately known, making millions of dollars while the rest of us are nearing the end of a “9 to 5” career having just paid off the mortgage. These newly materialised jeans and t shirt clad youths now drive brightly coloured Lamborghinis and swan into exclusive realty retreats like the Hamptons and buy properties in a similar fashion to hamburgers, leaving the “one-percenters” in demoralised disbelief. So how did this gargantuan shift in demographic tectonics occur? To put it simply…algorithms. YouTube, as are so many of the social media platforms, is infested with algorithms which all work towards showing you what you want to view before you even know what you want to view. All to keep you engaged and attached to the platform for longer than you ever anticipated and willing to admit. The most successful YouTubers, have analysed these algorithms carefully with tremendous financial success, creating carefully crafted and specialised content which the algorithms devour and in turn, with clinical precision, push at viewers with disturbing regularity and with a hint of passive aggressiveness. Content creation by the youth of today is an artform which kowtows to the YouTube algorithms but once the algorithms are appeased, they reward generously. The other significant secret of YouTube is that videos uploaded to the site never die a natural death. A newly posted video has a somewhat predictable life cycle, with a rush of views in the beginning and a gradual levelling off as time passes giving the impression that the video has reached its end date. But the professional content creators know that this is not the case. A well-developed YouTube channel with a healthy number of videos and regular uploads allows these early videos to continue to flourish and attract views, producing constant revenue. And how these YouTubers sup from these “infinite money glitches”. So, what does all this YouTube talk have to do with Bookworm and how can authors and readers benefit from this powerful social media phenomenon? Bookworm is developing a YouTube channel in unison with its website. The benefits of this initiative to authors will become more apparent in phase 2 of Bookworm’s life. In the meantime, authors can upload their books to the platform, let us know, and we will create a vibrant, exciting and immersive “YouTube short” to promote the work. And don’t be concerned, this is all done for free. So, jump on Bookworm to register and have your literary works turned into a promotional video on YouTube. And remember…YouTube videos never really disappear.
Now Bookworm
The baby Bookworm is growing fast. Book titles are quickly inhabiting the platform and traffic to the site is increasing. Bookworm is taking its first tentative steps into the big world wide web. There is plenty instore for the teenage and adult Bookworm, but I’ll leave those surprises for later. But what of the now Bookworm? Currently Bookworm is an online data base of information relating to books and their characters. The platform is not just a website. It also includes socials such as Youtube, Tiktok, X (formally Twitter) and Instagram all providing a conduit for “shout outs”, book and author promotions and tit bits of information relating to the world of reading and books. Worth a look even to be entertained. The Bookworm website is maturing nicely. Users can simply stop by and browse the catalogue of books and visit their points of sale. The platform’s blog is always a good source for an entertaining read. Alternately, users can register. This provides access to their settings page to add their avatar, bio and username. For registered users the library functionality is activated allowing books to be added to their watch list, currently reading list and read list. Registered users to the site can rate and review books. By scrolling to the bottom of the landing page users can add their favourite book(s) and/or add their favourite book character(s). And as always, click that support button to let us know your thoughts and if you encounter any issues. Speaking of characters, Bookworm is also a platform which actively promotes and enhances book characters. As John Cena so elegantly conveyed at this year’s Oscars, a movie without costumes is not much of a movie. Similarly, a book without characters is pretty much a bunch of blank pages. In the movie world characters such as the likes of E.T, Dirty Harry, and who can forget Marty McFly, are etched into our collective minds for eternity, whether one is in the movie theatre or not. Book characters on the other hand tend to remain concealed between the pages, only coming to life when the book is read. Relative few leap from the pages into the popular culture mindset, Harry Potter, of course, being the notable exception. Bookworm provides a platform where book characters can be shared and discussed, imagined and enlivened. When writing The Mind Man, the characters became my friends. Protagonist Ted Farrell, antagonist Adam Henderson, the fashionable and stylish journalist Laura Taylor and even the overweight editor Dennis Parkinson just to name a few. Spending time in their company was a daily joy, not a chore. When my book was sent for beta reading, I experienced a sense of loss and emptiness as one would if leaving a child with strangers. So, jump on Bookworm and “juice up” (a gem I learnt from my youngest – if you want to know the meaning I’m happy to explain) your favourite character. And who knows, maybe a star might “spawn”.
Ads and Bookworm
We all hate ads…right? The irritation they cause us when they interrupt our seamless consumption of media and entertainment. Who invented advertising. They have a lot to answer for. I bet someone in one of those big global corporate organisations. How dare they. But wait. Hand on a sec. Although it pains me to say it, I do think ads deserve a second look. Our world would be vastly different without advertising. In 1988 I hesitantly ventured into East Berlin for a day. It was a world apart from my comfortable western upbringing filled with democracy and capitalism. For almost 12 hours I wandered the dreary streets, of varying shades of grey, greatly intrigued and enthralled but also bewildered as to what was that critical ingredient that was missing. Advertising. At first I was overcome with a sense of relief. I could finally relax, away from the tentacles of corporate greed trying to sell me something. But as the day drew to a close and I was standing on the platform waiting for my train to take me back to the familiar “west” I looked across no-mans land and witnessed a startling sight. There were lights, colours, activity, action, motion, ambition, determination, perseverance and of course competition all bundled up in a world of advertising. We receive so much from advertising. Quality entertainment and sport is provided for us compliments of advertising. Stadiums filled with fans and live music lovers would not occur without advertising. The entertainment and sport which finds its way into our living rooms on a daily basis is courtesy of advertising. Tennis grand slams, cricket, football, golf, world cups and even the Olympics are offered to us “free to air” as a result of advertising. Think Superbowl without the mid game advertising. Movies and music are delivered to us freely compliments of advertising. Can we really complain. Here at bookworm.art we also endeavour to bring reading to you for free with a little help from our friend advertising. Bookworm returns the entire advertising revenue derived from the platform each month back to authors, distributed in proportion to their books page view count. This includes revenue from the Bookworm blog blog.bookworm.art and the Bookworm Youtube channel Michael Richmond. The team at Bookworm will continuously endeavour to optimise the advertising revenue derived from the platform and associated socials suite. As traffic to the platform grows then it is expected revenue will also increase as the advertising options, models and campaigns that become available to Bookworm evolve, meaning anticipated higher yields for authors. We at bookworm also want to keep the ads high quality. This will come as well as traffic to the platform increases. We want authors to keep writing. So when an ad appears on Bookworm, interrupting your reading, spare a thought for the authors. It’s helping them to write. But if the thought of ads is too much to bear then there is always the subscription option. For the cost far less than most newly purchased hard cover books and comparable to the cost of just a couple of averaged priced ebooks your reading can be seamless and ad free. Everyone, including myself, hates ads, but I do think they deserve a second thought. If they contribute to keeping authors writing, then are they the demonized phenomenon that we perceive them to be. Who knows when the likes of another Harry Potter will emerge to bring joy to the world. Would that be such a bad thing?
About Bookworm
After the successful launch of Bookworm within the idyllic surrounds of the Tasmanian Arboretum on the 26th December 2023 the Bookworm platform is now open for business. With a sleek new-look design the Bookworm site is ready for both readers and authors to enjoy the benefits that the platform offers. And what are those benefits? For readers it is simple. Free books to read. Just hop on the website bookworm.art and start reading, for free. No sign up, no login, just open a browser and commence reading your favourite book or author. But, of course, to enjoy the full benefits of Bookworm, readers can register, creating an account to provide access to features such as comments, my library, rate books etc. For a small monthly subscription readers can enjoy ad free reading and access to chat, groups and much, much more. Authors on the other hand are invited to participate in a revolution in book publishing. By visiting bookworm.art authors can register and upload their book(s). Books will be reviewed and if suitable will be published on the site. That’s when all similarities with the conventional publishing world ends. Authors with their book(s) on Bookworm will be remunerated per pages of their book(s) which are read. A reconciliation will occur at the end of each month with the monthly advertising revenue, which the platform (including the Bookworm blog blog.bookworm.art and the Bookworm Youtube channel Michael Richmond) has derived, divided proportionally with the number of page views of a book has received. Authors will then be compensated accordingly. The team at Bookworm will endeavour to optimise the advertising revenue derived from the site each month. As traffic to the site grows then it is expected revenue will also increase as the advertising options and advertising models that become available to Bookworm evolve, meaning anticipated higher payouts to authors. As discussed in “Why Bookworm” blog.bookworm.art Bookworm does not intend to compete with hard cover books, e-books, book review bloggers nor the book publishing industry. The intention is to complement these disciplines. It is intended to provide established writers with another revenue stream and provide new upcoming self-publishing authors with increased revenue so that they can write more. The first 100 authors who submit their books to Bookworm will receive shoutouts across the whole of Bookworm’s socials and be featured on the home page of Bookworm. Bookworm will have a “Book of the Day” and an “Author of the Week” section on the home page providing authors and their work maximum exposure. Real estate on Bookworm’s home page will also be devoted to book review bloggers, featuring “Book review blogger of the Month”. The Bookworm Youtube channel will be used as a forum to discuss authors and their works. As always, the vision of Bookworm is everyone reading…everywhere…anytime. A platform benefiting readers and authors alike. Join the bookworm community at bookworm.art to make the vision a reality.
Why Bookworm?
I’m unsure when my passion for reading arose but it must have been in place during my primary school years as I remember being asked by my grade 5 teacher what book I was reading and I had to raise my desktop to recall the name, Don Quixote. It definitely continued into my time at high school as I devoured every fiction book in the library and I recall the moment when I asked the librarian, “Are there any more?”. A defining moment came when nearing the end of a thriller set in the “diamond coast’ on the seaboard of Namibia I had the realisation that I too could write a novel. Somehow life got in the way of that thought and it wasn’t until I became a stay-at-home dad many years later that the time opened up for me to realise my dream. Then began one of the most enjoyable years of my life. I would secretly look forward to spending time with my characters each day. They became my friends. I went on incredible adventures with them to exotic locations. For the best part of twelve months, they were my trusted companions. When it came time to hand my manuscript over for proofreading, I felt I was abandoning them as you would handing your newborn child to a stranger. However, as all writers would know, writing your book is the easy part. Selling your book is a completely different story. No pun intended. In hindsight, the remaining time I had at home would have been more productive had I spent it writing more, however, I figured if I could generate enough sales, I could stave off a return to work. Reality had a different view and after many months of relentless marketing I began to identify an issue. I produced a small quantity of hard cover books, mainly to satisfy my ego to see my work in print, however, I soon noticed my books were being shared. This couldn’t have been more stark than when I gave a friend a copy from my home town and I learnt that many family friends and relatives read the same book as it was passed around depriving me of sales. Once sales had subsided, I posted my book on Wattpad. Again, many thousands of reads without remuneration. There had to be a better way. The world revolves around advertising. This fact was a little more disguised before the digital age with mainly media moguls reaping the rewards, but with the advent of the internet and the digital age the means to place content specific advertising became a reality and the role of advertising became more stark. The likes of Facebook and YouTube made it blatantly obvious. Could this model be applied to books I wondered? Could an author be remunerated for every page read? The “pay per page” concept gradually evolved to become bookworm.art. Bookworm does not intend to compete with hard cover books, e-books nor the book publishing industry. It should complement these disciplines. It is intended to provide established writers with another revenue stream and provide new upcoming self-publishing authors with increased revenue so that they can write more. The vision of Bookworm is everyone reading, everywhere, anytime. A platform benefiting readers and authors alike. Join the bookworm community to make the vision a reality.