10 Critical Benefits of Custom E-reader Apps

Quite a questionable idea that modern people prefer video content to books has the right to exist. The rise of platforms like YouTube and the number of people with smartphones should prove that idea. Books seem to die, giving way to digital media.

However, statistics discord from what sounds self-evident: the global ebook market keeps sustainably growing from $19.95 billion (2022) to an estimated $32.19 (2032) with an average CAGR of 4.9%. Not bad for a dying industry, right?

The clue is that digital gadgets and books are not mutually exclusive. On the contrary: smartphone users read texts from the screen since they are spared from having to buy paper copies. Moreover, an opportunity to access e-libraries with any book that has ever been published tempts many non-readers to start reading. Books teach and entertain no matter what is the carrier for the text. Let bibliophiles enjoy the smell of dusty pages. Reviewing the benefits of e-reader apps is worth the time spent by modern entrepreneurs and consumers who use gadgets around the clock.

Why e-reader apps are the best option?

Many centuries ago, when printing technology was conquering the world, the then-literate people saw the advantages of paper multi-page books over hand-written scrolls made of parchment. The primary advantage was the accessibility of printed books for a mass audience. But times have changed, and today’s literate masses must combine many activities using a single compact device to follow the zeitgeist. Reading books is no exception being a part of that combination. Smartphones symbolize such a paradigm shift as few other gadgets do.

Any modern publisher can hardly afford to ignore ebooks to stay in the industry. Many digital standards have been developed to bring ebooks into a unified cluster of digital texts. The online e-libraries in the form of specific websites resemble massive book fairs where everything ever published is available. Hence, modern readers have a few options to access ebooks. They can either purchase e-readers as standalone hardware solutions, such as Amazon’s Kindle, with pre-installed libraries or use their browsers to crawl through numerous ebook platforms on the internet.

Both options exist in parallel with the third one that better meets the readers' expectations: custom e-reader apps. The following set of advantages makes e-reader apps exceptionally convenient for modern people in these days of indiscriminate “smartphonezation”.

1. Most straightforward B2C channel

Without custom e-reader apps, publishers have to reach their audience via various intermediaries like e-libraries, e-commerce platforms, and the like. Having no direct contact with readers, they are multiplying entry points into the ebook market, which leads to the greater complexity, inconvenience, and competition inherent in long supply chains.

The multiplication of the market participants results in higher ebooks pricing and poorer user experience. In other words, the shorter the distance between a publisher and a reader, the better the customer satisfaction achieved and, consequently, the stronger the position of the publisher in the entire app economy. What path can be shorter than reaching readers directly with a custom e-reader application?

2. It is never enough

Modern internet users know well that any hard disk can not outperform any cloud in storage space. We can download hundreds if not thousands of ebooks into our Kindle’s memory. However large can be their number, it remains far from being infinite. A custom e-reader app provides access to the theoretically unlimited stock of ebooks. Books belong to the kind of goods for which the size of choice is critical. The wider the choice, the better the chance to find what we like to read. Various options facilitating our selection, such as readers’ rankings, add value to the app’s owner to enhance brand awareness.

3. Spatial omnipresence

Smartphones are always in our pockets wherever we go. An e-reader application allows us to hold several (several hundred?) ebooks in our pockets as well. We can keep reading even if a mobile internet connection is absent since the app can hold our books cached. E-reader apps transform a physical object, like a book, into a virtual substance that cannot be lost, stolen, or left at home. Hence, an ebook is always accessible with a couple of taps to be highly convenient for modern people whose spare time for reading is distributed across a long, busy day full of affairs and commitments.

4. Let them share

Recollect when you want to share your excitement about a recently finished book with friends. A paper book. It was not that easy, right? If your friends know nothing about the book, you have to spend substantial time and many words to introduce the book and explain why it is worth reading. Even if you are pretty convincing and highly articulate, the chance your friends will purchase and read the book remains modest. People are forgetful and busy to abandon everything and start searching for the exact impressive book. And how about two or three books simultaneously?

Digital readers change the game in this regard. A shareable link for any ebook can reach all your friends via social media, messengers, and email in minutes. You can add your own comments while a professionally written introduction, table of contents, and feedback from other readers are already available. Such an opportunity is especially valuable for educational purposes when learning materials become easily accessible to a student community of any size.

5. Raconteur in your pocket

Reading as such is hard. It consumes all our attention. We have spent several years in our childhood learning to read. We can hardly combine reading with any other activity. At the same time, we can listen to texts read aloud when doing something else. We can walk in the park, do sports, work around the house, and commit to many other things while digesting audible information simultaneously.

Many e-reader apps have the “read aloud” feature allowing us to listen to ebooks when we have no time to read. Saving our precious time is not the only advantage of such a feature, however. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide have severely impaired vision. Millions are totally blind. E-reader apps able to read aloud help those people stay in the reader audience to enjoy poetry, learn from study books, follow new publications, and do other stuff associated with full-fledged reading behaviors.

6. Environment-friendly order

Despite the never-ending technical progress, nothing but trees still remain the best material for paper production. Our civilization cannot afford to refuse paper altogether. Cash register rolls, cardboard packaging, school exercise books, and many other paper-made things cannot be replaced right now. But newspapers, books, and magazines can.

Digital readers allow publishers to follow the environment-friendly agenda of nowadays. Being environment-friendly can help publishers create a positive and sustainable impact beyond their activities and build consumer trust, goodwill, long-term sustainability, and growth. The “go green” approach constitutes one of the most valuable benefits of e-readers these days.

7. Subscription affordability is a long-run win-win

Monetization of e-reader applications matters for both publishers and users. Receiving reliable income by publishers should align with getting affordable service by readers. A common refrain of both endeavors is the durability of relationships. The ability to retain customers is crucial for highly competitive markets, and publishing is no exception.

The subscription model inherent in many e-reader apps is one of the most progressive monetization methods. Paying a few dollars a month allows readers to access ebooks to read online. Conceptually, such a model is a library membership card with the sole difference that such an e-library is always in your pocket.

Publishers, in turn, benefit from having a regular audience who pays a fixed fee with no regard to the number of ebooks read. Since the price for a single paper book usually exceeds any e-reader monthly subscription, the e-reader audience tends to grow. Running a predictable business with highly dispersed but regular income is less risky than betting on unpredictable sales of a single book promising to become a bestseller. Hence, this benefit of e-reader apps can be defined as “stay affordable, and people will follow you.”

8. Predictive analytics

The book market is ample with authors and narratives. They are diverse since literature as art belongs to the unique human intelligence. The ocean of thoughts and ideas can hardly be explained. And yet books can be classified somehow. Moreover, the actual popularity of books and authors can be analyzed by statistical methods. The current Big Data and machine learning algorithms help publishers recognize trends and patterns in readers’ preferences.

Creative writing can never run down, and publishers always have a choice between numerous authors to publish. Understanding what is worth publishing at a particular moment is critical to correspond to readers’ expectations. Publishing is a commercial activity where efficiency matters, as it happens in any other business. Predictive analytics enhances sales since the readers’ demand for authors, genres, and topics becomes well-structured. No crystal ball is necessary to anticipate users’ needs when the AI-based analytics feature is available among other benefits of e-reader apps.

9. Rich functionality

Custom e-reader applications can be designed with a set of useful features upon request. It implies utilizing the expertise of highly skilled software developers who know what a successful user experience is. Besides, custom e-reader development can borrow the best ideas from the solutions created by the existing rivals.

Even though the functionality of each custom e-reader app is individual, there are several features inherent in every e-reader app. They typically include a book search dashboard, offline reading, notifications, etc.

You can read more about the common reader app features here.

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10. The allure of novelty

The lifecycle of any application depends on how long the app can correspond to users’ expectations. As we live in a dynamically changing world, people prefer flexible solutions able to adapt to current trends and circumstances. Updatability helps e-reader apps stay tuned to the ever-changing app economy. Regular updates demonstrate how the publisher cares about readers by improving their user experience. Besides, the very nature of the book market is never petrified: new books and authors appear daily. The latest edition of a popular book available in your custom e-reader app can make your brand outshine competitors.

In addition to the content of your e-library, the functionality of your app needs continuous improvements since only the sky’s the limit in perfection. Technically speaking, updating an e-reader app is a sort of almost invisible routine aimed at increasing the lifetime of a publisher's business. Even minor updates help indirectly boost revenue and strengthen competitiveness since improved functionality increases customers’ loyalty.

Final thoughts

The benefits of e-reader apps are hardly limited by the ones mentioned above. Custom solutions imply individually selected features bringing publishers the most immense value. The current level of software development allows participants in the book market to achieve what the traditional book trade cannot afford: covering millions of readers simultaneously while interacting with each of them individually.

Modern publishers can choose between several approaches to reaching their audiences: selling paper books, selling ebooks via online platforms, selling hardware e-readers with pre-installed libraries, and providing readers with “books-as-a-service” via custom e-reader apps. Only the last approach dares to have those substantial advantages we indicate in the present post. All the rest seem to be just palliatives in terms of the state of the book world today.

To know more about the benefits of custom e-reader apps, contact our development experts, who are always at your disposal with creative ideas and empirical findings able to make your publishing business unshakable.

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