Users’ right swipes gamify book discovery process

WINTER PARK, FLA., UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, August 17, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Think of a book that is “legendary,” a classic like “Pride and Prejudice” or a new release like “Once Upon K-Prom.” What makes a book legendary — critical acclaim, sales or awards? Like most things related to beauty, readers say it may be in the eye of the beholder.

Booky Call, a free book discovery platform cleverly disguised as a dating app, is giving users the opportunity to push their favorite titles to legendary status, one of several enhancements recently released to further gamify the book discovery process. The app utilizes the psychology and functionality of dating apps — including individualized dating profiles, left and right swipes, and direct messages — to connect readers to books.

In the latest update, Booky Call added four new designations for books. While “New2Boo” is based on when a book’s dating profile is released in the app, there are three designations that depend on users’ right swipes. The more right swipes, the higher the designation. “Trending” denotes a title’s initial popularity followed by “Fan Fav.” The top designation, achieved by fewer than one percent of the books in Booky Call’s “date-abase,” is “Legendary.”

Books achieving legendary status range from a YA mystery, “Six Months Later,” to the nonfiction self-help book “You Deserve this Sh!t” and Austen’s classic that introduced Mr. Darcy to the world.

“We are determined to focus on the positive aspects of all of our potential book dates, so we intentionally avoided creating a toxic environment where users can leave scathing reviews or one-star ratings,” Brant Menswar, Booky Call’s CEO, said. “There are many outlets for trashing books. We’re different. We want to encourage a love affair between a book and a reader.”

Booky Call starts by matching books to readers based on their stated preferences. Readers can scroll through the book’s answers to questions about their most attractive traits, what’s on their mind and what they’ll do on their first date. If the book has an audiobook version, an audio sample is also included. If there’s no connection, the reader swipes left. A right swipe leads to the book sending the reader a DM with links to date it: asking if they want to “meet in person” for the print version, “keep it digital” for the ebook or let the book “whisper in your ear” for the audiobook. Users can then click on a link and purchase the title in the chosen format from either Bookshop, Libro.fm or Amazon.

Users can also browse for books by genre, title, author or descriptors known as tags. Booky Call’s “date-abase" includes fiction and nonfiction new releases as well as older titles — including classical literature — from major publishing houses, indie publishers and self-published authors.

Given the proliferation of dating apps, it’s not surprising Booky Call has helped connect tens of thousands of active users across the globe to books by using the same structure and behaviors. Although the app only launched 10 months ago, it recently celebrated 750,000 book matches and anticipates topping one million matches before its one-year anniversary. The app is available in the App Store and Google Play.

Nicole Talbott
Booky Call
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