Vowelor is India’s first community-based platform for readers and authors where they can connect communicate and share their experiences about books, reading, and writing
Ever since Mankind has existed in the world, it has carved and craved for knowledge. “Medicines, law, business, engineering…noble pursuits.” are all born out of this knowledge carved by us. And whether you are a book lover or not you will agree with John Keating of Dead Poets Society on his views that “Poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
As per records, there are about 130 million books that exist in the world and majority of them has their way of emphasizing on “Poetry, beauty, romance, love.”, if not on any “noble pursuits” However, reading a book is not enough. Carrying the knowledge, discussing your opinions with people around you makes the book come alive and this is the reason why we have so many “book clubs” around the world, because “Why read alone?” But as the world is embracing the digital wave, many traditional things are finding their way to entice the audience online. Ecommerce has changed the way we shop, online ticketing has changed the way we execute our traveling plan. And to create a virtual community for book lovers, Lalit Sharma and Manik Ghawri have co-founded Vowelor.com. Vowler is also a mobile app which is available on Android and has more than 5000 downloads.
The name “Vowelor” is derived from the word ‘VOWELS’ which are the building blocks of English literature. No book will be complete without VOWELS. “Similarly, we aim to complete the bookish world; hence we named it – VOWELOR.” said Lalit Sharma, who has in the past worked closely with authors and was also working as a digital and content marketing professional before starting Vowelor.
Vowelor is India’s first community-based platform for readers and authors where they can connect communicate and share their experiences about books, reading, and writing. Mr. ManikGhawri said, “Not only that, we are solving their problems in a whole new way such as recommending them the next book to read on the basis of their preferences, facilitating discussions on books with like-minded readers on chats and joining book clubs from around the world and much more.” Manik is a self-published author and he has been working to bridge the gap between talented authors and avid readers so that every author can have equal opportunity to succeed. Before starting Vowelor, he was working as a Java Developer with an International IT firm.
How it started?
Back in 2016, ManikGhawri and Lalit Sharma co-authored a book with great enthusiasm but soon they realised that it is hard to find a platform to connect with the right set of people. That’s when they got the idea of starting a Facebook group where readers and writers can interact with each other. As the community grew, Manik and Lalit analysed that the users were relying on the group members for many things such as suggestions on the next book to read while authors in the group faced hurdles in book promotion. After all the research, the duo started Vowelor as a one-stop platform for readers and writers with the unique concept of ‘Why Read Alone’.
Bridging the gap with Vowelor
India is the world’s 6th largest book publishing nation and 2nd largest in the English language. And, the Indian publishing industry is set to be worth INR 730 billion. But, there was no platform which focused on reducing the bottlenecks that authors and readers face. With Vowelor, Lalit and Manik have opened a new world for the book lovers to interact, share and explore.
For writers, Vowelor aims to reduce their struggle with the help of a budget-friendly, easy to use &very effective tool to make their books reach to a large number of readers with precise targeting. The marketing program offers start from as low as Rs. 1000 and each month the platform is approached by at least 15-20 authors for book promotional activities. Vowelor team shortlists the authors and the books on the basis of internal parameters before endorsing the books.
For readers, it is an inclusive community where they can socialise, interact and have meaningful conversations around books and literature. Post a reader has created an account, they can either become part of existing virtual book clubs or communities on the basis of their interest or can also create a book club of their choice to find the like-minded people. On their Vowelor mobile app accounts, readers can create their individual library of books they are currently reading, they have read and also the list of books which they wish to read in the future. Basis on the list available in public, other readers with similar interests can connect and indulge in meaningful discussions. They can chat with each other using Vowelor’s real-time chat facility.
Basis the preferences and activity on the app, Vowelor also recommends the books for the reader on their app feed to easy planning of future book reading.
