I was approached to discuss an idea of an online e-book store to operate in a space which Amazon didn’t occupy. The application was built to provide a space where budding authors could write a book in a simple word file and it be created in a multiple format e-book which members of the community could buy, read and review.

From a technical aspect, the site had various interesting elements, from file conversion, a community follow system and the payment system.

The file conversion system allowed a user to upload a word file, a collection of images and the system would compile an e-book in various different file formats which would provide coverage for almost all devices.

The author follow section was like Twitter for authors, allowing authors to build and communicate to an audience about their work, creating a microsite and shop of their work: something they could use to market the material they had written.

The payment processing was another none-standard product. Every time there was a purchase, there was a micropayment- part of the cost would go directly to the author, the other part to the site as commission.

The product was in a very competitive market and required a lot of investment for marketing and product development to be successful.