Melbourne publishing startup Tablo has rolled out a new analytics program to help authors understand who is engaging with their work.
Tablo Scholar will allow users to see which chapters readers like the most and who their target market is so they can adjust their writing accordingly.
Launched in 2012, Tablo now has more than 20,000 users in around 130 countries.
Founder Ash Davies told StartupSmart the latest product launch is all part of Tablo’s broader vision.
“It’s solidifying Tablo’s place in the self-publishing space because we want to be known as the company that helps authors write better books and have a greater chance of success,” he says.
“We think it is a natural progression of our vision of helping every author share their work and make a name for themselves.”
Davies says startups are well-placed to give data-hungry consumers added value through analytics.
In August last year Twitter rolled out an analytics dashboard to all users, allowing people to see how many people saw or engaged with a particular tweet.
“I think there’s a big danger in offering something that is overcomplicated and that’s just pure numbers and graphs – particularly in the author space where generally it’s a creative audience,” Davies says.
“We’ve worked hard to make sure every piece of information we give is directly linked to a benefit an author can use to improve their books.”
In January Tablo unveiled an iOS and Android app to help readers find authors on the platform. Davies says the trick to rolling out product updates or tweaks is to chip away at a long-term plan but at the same time remain flexible enough to quickly respond to feedback from users.
“We have a lot in development and a lot of plans over the next six months or so, but it’s also very flexible because our user feedback and the conversations we have with people who are using our product are so important,” he says.
“We need to make sure we’re agile enough to jump on an idea or conversation and make sure that’s reflected in the product schedule.”
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Broede Carmody is a former senior SmartCompany reporter. Before this, he was a co-editor of RMIT University’s student magazine Catalyst.
