Readwise Opens an Ebook Store, With Its AI Features Waiting on Publisher Consent
SeaPRwire – Readwise launched Readwise Books on Monday in the United States: an ebook store that doubles as a reading tracker. Titles come from the big five publishers and others, which the company describes as millions of books. The app is free and currently in an invite-only beta. It is replacing two things that used to be separate. Kindle sells the book; Goodreads records whether you finished it. Readwise Books puts buying, reading and logging in one place and adds resolution to the logging: words read, pace, session length, how deep into a sitting a reader stayed. Taken as a store alone, this is the heaviest thing the company has attempted. Independent developers have spent years shipping reading trackers and almost none have gone near ebook retail, for a reason that is easy to find: Kindle holds roughly 83% of ebook sales once Kindle+ (formerly Kindle Unlimited) is counted, according to Goodereader’s tally. Readwise does not sell an e-reader and has no hardware posi...