Editor’s note: In the second of five profiles featuring the newest recipients of NC IDEA grants, Amy Huffman of ExitEvent features Carrboro-based Freebooksy. ExitEvent is a news partner of WRAL TechWire.
CARRBORO, N.C. - A few years ago when I was gifted my first iPad and began using the Kindle app to read e-books, I was really excited to learn there were so many free and discounted e-books to download and read. After hours of sifting through the selection, I chose a few free books and a discounted one. But one chapter into a discounted book, I realized neither the book nor the genre interested me—I never finished the book. I had no better luck with the free books I downloaded either. With a lot of time down the tubes, I quickly swore off searching for free and reduced-price e-books.
Freebooksy—a startup in Carrboro, N.C.—is designed to solve both the problems I faced while searching for free and reduced-price books and help authors and their work get discovered. Founder Ricci Wolman says that “Freebooksy helps people who love to read find free and discounted books for their Kindle, Nook, iPad or Kobo.”
In the increasingly competitive e-book market, the platform also helps authors and their works get discovered. Authors are connected to readers when readers sign up on freebooksy.com to receive notifications of free books available for download in their favorite genres (Romance, Mystery, Non-Fiction etc.). The same service, but for discounted e-books (under $5.00), is available on the sister site, BargainBooksy.com.
Founded in 2012 as an experimental project and small blog incubated inside Agile Marketing Group, Wolman’s marketing agency, Freebooksy is now a company in its own right. Wolman started Freebooksy when she was helping her mom—an author—market her new book. She realized she could use her data-driven, online marketing expertise to build an audience for her mom and other authors like her.
For more, read the full story at ExitEvent.
