April 24, 2014

Roundup: Bookish Launches New Book Discovery/Recommendation Database

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Screenshot at Feb 05 11 39 09 Roundup: Bookish Launches New Book Discovery/Recommendation DatabaseBookish a new site/book recommendation database went live yesterday.

Here’s a roundup of some press coverage. But first, some background about the company and the services they offer.

The Bookish Mission Statement

Here at Bookish, our mission is to engage more readers with more books, more authors and with one another. So, start discovering and delving deeper into books–we created Bookish just for you!

Some books are for sale and delivered in .ePUB format direct from Bookish. All books have direct links to purchase from Amazon, B&N, Books-a-Million, iBookstore, Indiebound, and Kobo.

Some titles include links to reviews, video, and other materials.

Search/Browse

Search by title, author, keyword. Browse using one of 18 top-level categories.

Personalization?

If you register (not required) you can create personalized bookshelves, add quotes to book pages, and what you search and view helps personalize the selection algorithm.

Mobile?

No iOS apps at the moment (coming soon). Android app via Google Play.

Publishing Partners

As of today 20 publishers are listed.

What Makes Bookish Different?

They point out three features:

A) Use of Human Editors

B) Access to Writers and Editors

Our exclusive access to authors, their editors and their publishers delivers insights straight from the source—the folks who imagine, realize and create the books. This kind of book know-how lives both within and beyond the cover.

C. Size of Database

About 1.2 million titles/400,000 authors

Coverage

Bookish Launches New Ebook Retail Website (via DBW)

As Bookish gathers user data — users can enter books they’ve read, books they’ve liked and book they’d like to read in addition to purchasing books — it will begin to add that knowledge into its recommendations.

The data scientist in charge of the recommendation engine, Karen Sun, used to spend an hour or two every day trying to find new books to read to feed a book-a-day reading habit, which has since been cut down to just two or three a week due to her position at Bookish. When it came to finding books, “Amazon wasn’t good enough,” she said.

Two years and three CEOs later, publisher JV Bookish is ready to help users find their next book (via paidContent)

With a book recommendation algorithm, original editorial content and a database of 1.2 million titles and 400,000 authors, Bookish is designed to be a one-stop shop for readers looking to connect with authors and find their next book.

“Recommendations are based on the books and understanding of the books.” The recommendation looks at features like the authors, editors and illustrators who contributed to a book, the awards a book has won, and genre and publication date, then layers on a machine-learning component that parses user and professional reviews to try to distill themes, concepts and sentiments. Insights from the editorial team are included, too.

Bookish Goes Live (via PW)

Consumers can buy print books, e-books and physical audiobooks right from the site or through links established to a number of affiliates that include Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, IndieBound, and Kobo. Any title bought directly from Bookish will be fulfilled by Baker & Taylor, which is also setting the price for the titles. While Bookish will not include downloadable audio at launch, Khazaei said it expects to add that soon. Apps and enhanced e-books are also not being sold through Bookish.

share save 171 16 Roundup: Bookish Launches New Book Discovery/Recommendation Database
Gary Price About Gary Price

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.
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