Libreture
Throughout March, I'm sharing milestones from the last seven years of Libreture, along with what we have planned for the future.
Libreture is your online ebook cloud library - a place to store all your DRM-free ebooks, digital comics, magazines, and RPGs, while tracking your reading and directing others to the ebookshops where you bought your collection.
When I first launched Libreture in March 2017, it included a month-long free trial and a £2.99 subscription with unlimited storage. Where the hell did that go? I hear you ask...
The early idea - just ebooks
Libreture was originally all about ebooks, it didn't support digital comics or magazines, unless they were in epub or mobi formats.
I made the decision early on to stick to ebook files. It felt like it made more sense to support one particular type of digital reading - making it easier to develop for and support. Using the word 'ebooks' would include everything Libreture did.
After researching ebook file sizes I learned that the average ebook is around 2MB. Working through cloud storage systems and providers, hosting costs, development and maintenance costs, I came to the £2.99 a month price point. It was simple and easy to pitch to customers.
The first few users joined and reached the end of their free trial, paid their first £2.99, and we were away. People got the concept and signed up.
But what about the comics?
Early on it became clear that readers would prefer to store all their digital reading together in one place. Storing only ebooks would be asking readers to deliberately fragment their libraries - the opposite of what Libreture was designed to do.
If I was going to support comics, and any other PDF, CBZ and CBR books, I needed to revisit my 'average ebook size' idea. A single user uploading a few PDF digital comics to their library would knock my pricing scheme way out.
And a month-long trial didn't give readers enough time to kick the tyres and really get to know Libreture before deciding to pay.
The unlimited storage for £2.99 simply wouldn't work.
It was time to go freemium!
I killed the 30 day trial, and instead introduced a 250MB free tier along a set of paid plans at various storage capacities and prices. The plans even included an Unlimited tier. The 250MB account was better than a trial and still free!
In a couple of months, the ability to upload PDF, CBZ & CBR files went live. Libreture now supported all your digital reading. Only a couple of months before Image Comics closed their own digital bookshop.
Over time the Free Forever plan increased to 500MB. There's still a £2.99 plan, but that now gives you a whopping 30GB of ebook cloud storage!
Fairness built in
Libreture is designed around fairness from the ground up.
There are plenty of areas where I could tie features to price. Instead I feel every user should receive the same great experience, and only pay for usage - which is based on the amount of storage space they need.
The Free Forever plan includes every feature Libreture has to offer. Join today and you'll get exactly the same ebook cloud library, and reading tracking & organisation tools as someone paying for the Unlimited tier.
This just feels right to me.
...and so much easier to manage.
It also helps readers really understand how Libreture can help them manage and track their digital reading.
When I first launched Libreture in 2017 The Digital Reader wrote an article about it. The author, Nate, felt he couldn't recommend us because he'd seen other ebook services disappear over the years.
Well, I'm happy to prove Nate wrong and still be here seven years later.
Celebrate Libreture's anniversary
Throughout March, I'm be sharing more milestones from the last seven years, along with what we have planned for the future. But first...
To celebrate, here's a coupon for 25% off any new Libreture paid plan (from 30GB up to Unlimited) every month for an entire year! That's 3 months free!
A Free Forever account provides enough storage for hundreds of ebooks, but if you want to add your digital comics, magazines, or even your graphics-rich RPG books, you're gonna need a bigger library.
Upgrade your Storage from your Account page, and enter the code 'HAPPYBIRTHDAY7' in the Add a Coupon field during checkout.
But be quick! The coupon code expires at midnight on 31 March, 2024, GMT.
In the meantime...
Happy Reading,
Kevin
What I'm reading