We start the week with a round-up of interesting new platforms and tools. And we begin with an expanded offering from one of ALLi’s partners, Tertulia (note to self as a theologian who spent a term studying the patristic author Tertullian, that there is but one “l”). Tertulia started life and continues to thrive as an online bookstore designed to be run differently.
ALLi News Editor Dan Holloway
The bookstore is designed to help readers find books based on the loving curation and recommendations you would hope to find in the best bricks-and-mortar stores, rather than through algorithms.
A New Tool for Authors
Now the company is introducing Tertulia for Authors, which aims to provide a one-stop shop for authors looking to sell from their own site. The idea is to build authors a simple sales website that combines buy links, email capture, and analytics, but without any of the hassle associated with traditional website building.
It does this, interestingly, not by foregrounding very new technology but by using one of the older technologies in the book world: the ISBN. Authors input their ISBN, and Tertulia for Authors is able—thanks, it says, to using Ingram as its delivery partner—to pull through all the information it needs to create an instant website with cover image and information using its template pages, which authors can then customize. And this will then be able to feed into the Tertulia reader community.
A New Social Platform
Which is a segue into the other new platform I came across this week. Phictly is a social reading and listening platform designed to build community around the books and shows we love. The USP for Phictly seems to be limiting the number of people in any one group to twenty.
The idea is to recreate the kind of intimate reading groups that might meet up in a coffee shop and engage in lively and enthusiastic debate, rather than the much larger groups where voices get lost.
It’s an interesting idea. I might even give it a go in time for the new series of Stranger Things.
Thoughts or further questions on this post or any self-publishing issue?
If you’re an ALLi member, head over to the SelfPubConnect forum for support from our experienced community of indie authors, advisors, and our own ALLi team. Simply create an account (if you haven’t already) to request to join the forum and get going.
Non-members looking for more information can search our extensive archive of blog posts and podcast episodes packed with tips and advice at ALLi's Self-Publishing Advice Center.
