Despite how successful a business is, it will inescapably saturate to the point of finding new sales channels. 

This holds true from SMEs showing their product to the world, to a big publisher planning to go online, or an offline bookseller looking for a new way for customers to connect with their business. Book publishers and booksellers often consider building an e-reading app. 

Herein, I will shed light on the crucial points of how to make a successful reading app and boost your online sales. 

Moreover, considering the success of the reading app is not only confined to the number of books sold. Indeed, the result of reading app development brings a whole set of benefits: 

• Improved brand loyalty
• Higher sales
• Add-ons for customers
• Better brand awareness

What Have Book Retailers Already Created? 

According to Wikipedia, the idea of an e-reader incepted first in 1930 and later invented in 1971 by by American writer Micheal S. hart, the founder of project Gutenberg (the oldest digital library available). Unsurprisingly, the first e-reader was “The Rocket eBook” introduced in 1998, that used a LCD screen and stored ten e-books. 

Time-by-time, the amount of ebook reading increases. In 2004, Barnes & Noble looked for new channels to get more bookworms as their customers. That’s when they launched a website, taking baby steps into the online game. 

The next step was partnering with the right resources to develop the Nook-e-reader device and Nook ebook reader app to compete with mammoths like Kobo and Amazon. In merely a year, Barnes & Noble got an additional $277 million from Nook-related sales and successfully harnessed 27% of the US ebook market. 

But, at present, the smartphone is dominating the era, be it iPhone or Android, iPad or Android tabs with good screens offering an easy to read on, surge for e-readers are waning.  

However, a handy app to buy and read ebooks is always the top choice of users. 

So, if you think it’s hard to catch the train filled with big market players, cheer up! I’ll help you with basic and killer features to integrate into your app, get authors from the fiction and education industry and publishers to offer diversified content and the best way to monetize your reading app. 

But first thing first – partner with the right Android and iPhone app developers in Dubai for the project’s undeniable success. 

Let’s start! 

The Essential Features Of Modern Reading App In 2021

Alike any other mobile app today, user-friendly UI and UX are the imperatives for the reading app. But, you don’t really need to revolutionize the wheel. Check out the exclusive features of all the popular e-reader apps include:

• Support for the most popular digital formats (TXT, PDF, EPUB, ODF, AZW, MOBI).
• An in-app ebook store along with a user library management system
• The capability to adjust text formatting for font and size to make the reading more easy and convenient on any screen meeting the user’s need. 
• Color themes and backgrounds are available for app customization.
• Cloud storage  for books with the capability to download them on-demand to save storage space. 
• The feature to search for text, books, and categories allow users to find everything they need. 
• A help centre to ensure users can get through any concerns. 
• Social network integration for hassle-free registration and also for sharing notes or quotes from ebooks – or even for sharing ebook files. 
• Text highlighting, bookmarking, and notes are helpful for users to mark parts they find exciting or remember where they have stopped reading. 

The Extra Add-On Features For Your Reading App

Now that you are familiar with the basic features, to begin with, you are probably thinking about how to step into the market with such mammoth players as Kindle, Google Books, and Moon+ Reader.

Don’t worry! 

There’s still room for one more! You can ask your partnered mobile app developer in Dubai to add killer features to catch attention and make users loyal. 

Have a look at the below mentioned suggestions on how to make a truly awesome app: 

An Eye On Stats

It helps the reader to stay motivated and track their progress with detailed reading reports and graphs. MyBook, one of the leading apps in the Eastern European market, tells users how much time they have invested in reading, what books they are presently reading, how many books and pages they have already covered, and the list goes on.  

Customized Content 

Allow users to choose the genres and topics they like by going through a set of welcome screens. Another idea is to recommend reading plans so users have something to achieve and can keep track of their progress. 

Also, you can check out some similar apps for a clearer vision to see how to integrate this functionality. 

Offline Mode

Integrating offline mode helps user to use the app without the need of an internet connection to read. For example, FBReader is just one of the many e-reader apps that have an offline mode option. 

Automatic Sorting 

Integrating the feature of automatic sorting helps users organize their offline content for quick search and access. Your app can automatically find and sort downloaded content by series, genres, author and format. 

For better understanding, Comicat, which is an Android app for reading comic books, is a good example of how you can do that. 

Night Mode

Taking care of user’s eyes by giving a break from strong light by changing the UI to darker colors with night mode. Undeniably, this is like an icing on the cake for your app. 

Web Version

A web version of your app will allow your users to read on a mobile device and any device with an internet browser. The cherry on the top is that you will be able to scale your business further if you opt to have a web version, which means more customers in the future. 

Push Notification 

Despite Android app development or iPhone app version, Push Notifications are the unskippable part of your project. It will keep your users from missing new ebooks, discounts, special offers, and recommendations.   

The Amazon Kindle app uses push notifications effectively. To be precise, Beanstalk is an app for reading challenges, is all set to take notices to another level. It will soon be integrating Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant, to keep track of reading progress and remind users of new reading demurs and daily reading tasks. 

On-Demand Translations

Provide your users with access to literature in different languages by offering on-demand translation (especially if you offer any digital learning content). 

For example, you might let users tap on a word they don’t know and see a translation by Google Translate or Amazon translate. Even you can check out some similar apps like KyBook Reader to see how to create this feature for your app’s user-friendly interface. 

Syncing Across Devices

Amazon offers its Whispersync tech to let all audiobook lovers switch between devices on web and mobile platforms without losing their listening and reading progress. Have a look at the Audible app to see how this feature works.

Audiobooks

Provide audiobooks in your app so users can walk or run while enjoying a book. If you are looking to check out an app that successfully offers online as well as offline audiobooks, have a look at LibriVox. 

This will offer you an insight of what can draw the subtle difference for your app.

Integrating Social Platforms

Let your users interact with each other in your reading program. Create a rating system with comments and likes so users can learn more about digital books and choose ones they truly admire or enjoy. 

Goodread is an excellent example of a network where users can easily add reviews, recommend books for reading, and track each other’s progress.

Text-To-Speech

The app development in Dubai makes sure you don’t miss on “Text-To-Speech” feature for your app. You can offer text-to-speech as an alternative to audiobooks. Some apps, like Cool Reader, Offers this feature out of the blues. Else, like FBReader, let users download a plugin for a text-to-speech part. 

Besides, you can add a couple of voices to make listening more comfortable and joyous. 

Finally, How To Monetize Your Reading App

Mostly, today’s reading apps use the freemium model, offering the app for free and allowing users to purchase books from a built-in store. Also, to promote their books, these apps usually use newsletters and ads. 

Although, ads seem to annoy users a bit or, in some case, more than a bit. 

So, what are some other more effective ways to make money from a reading app? 

Subscriptions

Rather than selling separate books to users, let them read as much as they want to by purchasing a monthly or yearly subscription. You can craft different types of subscriptions, providing extra features like access to special book edition, journals, and audio content with premium plans. 

This is exactly what Kindle offers. 

An Add-On Service For Authors

Opting for this revenue model also helps author improve their books by offering editing, cover design, and marketing services. This will also allow you to guarantee an unparalleled level of quality content, as you will control the quality of ebooks. 

For instance, BookBaby offers the services mentioned here.

Partners and Sponsors

If you thought that’s all, then wait! 

Another way to monetize your app is to get partners with a similar customer base. You can add partner ads to your app and ask your partners to place your ads in their apps. 

The next step would be creating an integrated experience, bringing some feature of a third-party app into your own. To your surprise, none of the industry mammoths has opted for this model yet. But, this is precisely what Optimizely and Localytics did, teaming up to offer mobile analytics services. 

The Final Words…

As you can observe, there are numerous things to be considered when customizing eBook reading app development as a new sales channel and a new product to drive more revenue. Although there are so many reading apps already in the app stores, unique features can still attract users and drive lots of revenue.

So, if you are of the mind to create an e-reading app and have questions about web and mobile app development, talk to experts. The technology experts will be happy to answer them and also provide development services for your project without leaving a burning hole.