New York, New York - As online communities continue to shake up the literary world, Bindery Books, a new membership platform for readers, is taking things to the next level. Cofounders Matt Kaye and Meghan Harvey told TAG24 NEWS all about their series of publishing imprints curated by today's biggest bookish content creators!

Launched in August 2023, Bindery Books is a membership platform that allows selected influencers, known as "tastemakers," to mobilize their online communities and use that support to uplift authors and stories they believe in.

The platform blends the close-knit literary circles fostered on TikTok, YouTube, and other social media sites with the functions of buy-in membership services like Patreon.

"We were really inspired by what was happening with influencers driving sales in ways that had never really happened before," Kaye, cofounder and CEO of Bindery Books, told TAG24. "They had these reader communities that could move volumes."

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Over the past few years, BookTok – a collective term referring to the side of TikTok filled with book recommendations, discussions, and more – has proven its power by skyrocketing authors to the top of bestseller lists. From page-turning "spicy" romances to the languishing spirit of "sad girl literature," subgenres made famous on the platform have entered the literary zeitgeist thanks to the dramatic increase in sales afforded by BookTok popularity.

But Bindery Books has gone beyond just capitalizing on this increasingly prominent influence and, instead, uses that power to platform new voices in literature with an innovative approach to publishing.

"Watching what was going on with these influencers, especially on BookTok, and their impact on print sales and how they're driving people into stores, those are people with huge audiences of readers in these different areas," Harvey, cofounder and president of Bindery Books said.

"So, we thought, 'Wouldn't it be awesome for authors if they could partner with people who have audiences, rather than trying to build from scratch individual audiences for each author?'"

With the growing influence of social media, publishing houses now look to follow virality, but they often fail to provide new authors with the necessary assistance to get their names out there in the first place.

"Things have gotten a lot worse for authors," Kaye said. "If you don't have your own platform, it's a lot harder to get published. If you do, you're getting paid a lot less than you were."

By enlisting the help of tastemakers with their own passionate followings, Bindery is able to connect new authors and their titles with an enthusiastic group of readers.

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"Most authors don't have much of a marketing budget to support the launch of their book, so they're given the directive by their publisher to go hire a digital agency," Harvey explained. "So we're trying to help authors build their connections with readers, help authors build their platforms."

Bindery tastemakers with large enough membership communities can launch their own imprints – micro publishing presses under which they can help publish titles that they select from author submissions. The distribution, design, and editing processes are handled by publishing agency Girl Friday.

While traditional publishing has been slow to make meaningful progress toward uplifting diverse voices, online communities have stepped up to support titles that typical bestseller lists and other conventional means of promotion may overlook.

Bindery has taken things a step further by not only pushing to generate interest in stories by authors from often-underrepresented groups, but by giving these writers a place to share their voices in the first place.

"The structure of traditional publishing is one in which a lot of assumptions are being made on all sides," Kaye said.

"Because they have no direct relationship with readers, they're making assumptions about what readers will like when they're acquiring it, and then they're hoping that people cover it and like it when they publish it."

Though publishers and booksellers have certainly taken note of social media's influence on the market, progress has been notably slower when it comes to representing stories for a wider range of readers.

Now, social media has beaten them to the punch.

Romance novels – often overlooked and undermined in traditional literary circles – have become power players in the market thanks to online circles sharing enthusiasm for the genre.

Where romance novels were once ashamedly hidden away in the corners of bookstores, they're now on proud display.

"It's happening organically based on all these conversations among hundreds of millions of people, so I think publishers are now following what's happening on social media instead of driving the conversation around books in a way that I'm sure feels destabilizing to them but creates a lot of opportunity for the kinds of books that publishers didn't pay attention to before," Kaye said.

That opportunity is coming to fruition through Bindery, which has acquired four titles due for release this October: Strange Beasts by Susan J. Morris (Inky Phoenix), Inferno's Heir by Tiffany Wang (Violetear Books), And the Sky Bled by S. Hati (Fantasy & Frens), and House of Frank by Kay Sinclaire (Ezeekat Press).

With a focus on authors and genres often neglected by traditional publishing houses, these titles have set a foundation for innovative storytelling fueled by the passion of readers.