NetGalley, an industry-standard service to promote forthcoming titles to readers of influence, has acquired Bookish.com, an editorial site designed to connect readers with books and authors.
Bookish.com is an online resource serving readers of all genres through author interviews, book recommendations, and literary roundups. Founded by Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group (USA) and Simon & Schuster, Bookish.com was launched in February 2013 and was acquired by Zola Books in January 2014 along with Bookish Recommends, a book recommendation engine.
As a sister company to NetGalley, Bookish will remain an editorially independent, standalone site with its continued commitment to connecting visitors with interesting and relevant content.
Zola Books will retain Bookish’s book recommendation technology, which they have rebranded Zola Recommends. “I’m proud of how the Zola Books team built Bookish.com into the vibrant and exciting experience it is today. As Zola intensifies its focus on creating superlative book technology services, we are delighted that Bookish.com will have an opportunity to fulfill its mission under NetGalley’s stewardship,” Zola Books CEO Joe Regal says of the sale.
Following the acquisition, NetGalley and Bookish.com will continue to grow their respective communities, while exploring natural ways to connect the editorial content between the two websites to best serve readers, publishers, and authors. “We are very excited to bring Bookish’s consumer-facing, curated, editorial voice to the NetGalley family,” says Fran Toolan, CEO of NetGalley and Firebrand Technologies. “We view Bookish.com as yet another way that our client publishers can help their books succeed.”
Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
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About NetGalley
NetGalley (www.netgalley.com) is an industry-standard service to help readers of influence discover and recommend new books to their audiences. NetGalley delivers secure, digital galleys to professional readers on behalf of over 300 publishers in North America, Australia, the UK, France and Germany, to help promote and market new books. NetGalley is part of Firebrand Technologies (www.firebrandtech.com), which provides leading software and services to help publishers achieve success.
Contact: Lindsey Lochner, Community & Marketing Director, NetGalley: lindsey@netgalley.com
About Bookish.com
Bookish.com was founded by leading publishing houses Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group (USA) and Simon & Schuster. Launched in 2013, the site is a comprehensive online resource designed to connect readers with books and authors, and was selected as one of PCWorld’s “25 Favorite Lifestyle Sites.”
Contact: Kelly Gallucci, Editorial Director, Bookish.com: kelly.gallucci@bookish.com
About Zola Books
Zola Books’s mission is to provide technology tools to everyone who cares about books. Whether with its Everywhere Store™ widget, which makes it easy to sell any book in any format anywhere online, or its best-in-class recommendation engine Zola Recommends (“By comparison, Amazon’s recommendation engine falls a little flat” – LA Times), or its free branded reading apps for Apple and Android, Zola empowers authors, booksellers, publishers, and more to reach readers directly and offer a better experience once they do.
Contact: Anita Perala, Manager, Zola Books: anita.perala@zolabooks.com
About Firebrand Technologies
Firebrand Technologies is dedicated to providing leading software and services to help publishers achieve success. Firebrand provides steadfast leadership and seamless information flow throughout the entire publishing process. Title Management Enterprise Software tracks titles from pre-acquisition through post-production, marketing, and sales. Eloquence on Demand is the industry gold standard for implementing ONIX and maximizing control of how data and assets reach the marketplace. Eloquence on Alert’s proprietary title performance monitoring service collects key, hard-to-access details about your products from major online marketplaces and review sites, and puts all of that information directly at your fingertips. FlightDeck is the most powerful EPUB Quality Assurance and validation tool available. NetGalley helps publishers connect with a large and growing number of book influencers, creating buzz about your books, and getting key feedback, before publication.
