Fable.co, the mobile platform for online book clubs, has added a personalized book discovery and discussion feed called Fable For You, bringing the platform closer to a social media service. Fable was launched in early 2021 to facilitate book club–like discussions typically facilitated by authors, BookTok influencers, and celebrities, and site sells e-books that can be read in-app on iOS and Android; 20% of the net proceeds of sales from Fable’s proprietary e-book store are donated to the World Literacy Foundation.
Fable launched its For You feed in August, offering individualized reading recommendations and the opportunity to engage in discussions with the community outside formal clubs. The new section of the app includes book lists, reading updates, reviews, suggested clubs, and other related bookish content from around the app. Soon, users will be able to integrate their Goodreads and Kindle content on the platform and post photos and comments, as other features common to social media platforms continue to be added.
“We wanted to create something for book lovers to connect with people who share interests and can have a free-flowing conversation,” said Padmasree Warrior, CEO of Fable. To that point, Warrior added, among the most popular activities on the app is a list creation feature. “It can be very addictive,” she said. “People are very passionate.”
At present, Fable has some 400,000 users participating in roughly 14,000 different book clubs. Among the largest of these clubs is the Spicy Romance Book Club, which has more than 32,000 members, and is run by Ayman Chaudhary, a twenty-something social media influencer with nearly a million TokTok followers. Fable also routinely posts content about book-related activities, such as National Novel Writing Month and Banned Books Week.
Since its founding, Fable has raised more than $20 million in funding, and now has 30 employees. The company is continuing to expand, planning to host book clubs for professional development and corporate training and experimenting with a variety of such new features as in-app marketing opportunities for authors and publishers. In the future, the company may even expand discussions beyond books to include other forms of storytelling, such as television and movies.
Warrior noted that as social media becomes more toxic—a reference to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter—she saw more users gravitating towards alternate platforms that have communities aligned with their values. Fable, Warrior said, was gaining users for this very reason. “We’re well away on our mission of building a social platform for readers that is safe and fun,” she said.
