Inkitt, a ‘reader powered’ book publisher, raises $3.9M to discover the next best-selling author | TechCrunch

The Inkitt online community consists of a forum to post writing work in-progress and get feedback, and to solicit support for things like editing and plot development. However, a major focus - and key to the startup's unique publishing model - is the beta readers section. Here Inkitt members are encouraged to post full manuscripts to be read by the app's over a million readers. This is a way to get reader reviews and further feedback, but can also lead to a publishing deal with Inkitt itself if the reader engagement data the company collects points to a potential best-seller.