Show HN: I built a website that lets you read classic books as email newsletters

by andrewedstrom • 3 years ago

39 9 3 years ago

acqbu• 3 years ago

Interesting! Clean UI, good execution. Am I correct in thinking that these are all copyright-free books? Also, which vendor do you use to send emails and how many customers do you have so far?

andrewedstrom4• 3 years ago

Thanks, glad you like the site! Yes that is correct—all of the books I sell are in the public domain.

I use Sendgrid to send emails, which has worked great so far although it took a while to get my account fully set up.

Re: customers, so far I've had more than 10 and less than 1000. One encouraging sign is that many people are coming back after finishing their first book and buying another.

dmitkov28• 3 years ago

Very cool! Did you have any issues with Sendgrid mails ending up in spam?

epanahi• 3 years ago

Are you aware of https://www.serialreader.org/? How would you differentiate yourself (besides email VS app)?

andrewedstrom4• 3 years ago

Serial Reader is great! I came across it a year ago while looking for a service that would let me read classics as email newsletters.

I used it for a couple of weeks. The app is slick and it has some really cool features (like letting you import your own ebooks) but I kept forgetting to open the app and then falling behind. Also the daily reading length of 20 minutes per day felt too long for me, personally.

Ultimately I got it in my head that I'd be more likely to actually read issues if they showed up somewhere that I already had a habit of checking daily (my email inbox), and if the issues were shorter (~10 minutes each) with more fine-grained controls about when they were delivered. So that's what I built!

I actually emailed Michael (the person behind Serial Reader) back in June, hoping to get his blessing to use the word "Serial" in my product's name. Never heard back and eventually I decided to move forward with the name.

drewmcmanus• 3 years ago

I’m on my third book from Modern Serial. (Disclosure: I know @andrewedstrom). It works great for me, and getting the segments via email ensures I don’t forget to read. Andrew has also been super-responsive to feedback and feature requests.

potsandpans• 3 years ago

I've gotta ask... how many people are paying 8 bucks to read a free book?

andrewedstrom4• 3 years ago

Haha well, it's no secret that the books are free.

Instapaper users pay to read free articles from the internet in a way that fits into their lives better. Same concept here.

Show HN: I built a website that lets you read classic books as email newsletters

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