The dynamism of present-day society makes us value every free minute, so people read being stuck in traffic jams and waiting in lines. Though it would be pretty inconvenient to carry heavy books wherever you head towards, thus, people prefer to take advantage of their smartphones and online reading applications.

We shall explore what it takes to build a reliable and convenient e-reading program and how to make it in-demand.

Vital features to include

What makes an eBook reading platform great? Of course, the possibilities it provides. Thus, let’s discuss what functionality is critical to offer your audience.

# The profile

It’s pretty clear, one shall begin with setting up users’ accounts. To enjoy a specific solution individuals have to sign up and specify their personal settings. It would be great if you manage to encourage customers to share a little bit about their interests and preferences literature wise. This data is needed to personalize your resource to please your clients.

# Bookstore

Did you know that you could apply your reading framework as a tool to increase e-book store sales? In case you don’t own one, it might be nice to collaborate with an existing bookshop, thus, you’ll be able to offer your people a wider choice of literary works.

# Cost-free library

In order to design an excellent mobile reading system, one shall offer a library having free-of-charge books. Clearly, you’ll also deliver paid options, but don’t forget about free writings. Failing this, your audience frustration will swell, and you wouldn’t like your users to turn discontent, would you?

A smart approach would be to place free books into a separate partition for customers to easily spot and access them. When you’re about to create a lifestyle mobile app, it’s important to think through every detail to make it appealing and convenient for your clients.

# Possibilities to upload and download books

Those are two key parameters to include since people shall have the opportunity to upload books to their app, as well as to download compositions to their devices.

For the record, the majority of mobile services for reading – meaning, your potential competitors – also offer web interfaces for the audience to perform uploadings and downloadings easily and comfortably. Thus, there’s something for you to think about.

# Libraries

The given feature is indispensable for building perfect mobile reading software.

Users’ library serves to save favorite writings. That’s a great means to have a quick 24/7 access to books users love. Don’t force your customers to search for the literary works of their choice on and on every time people want to enjoy them. You create your resource for persons to savor, so take care of their convenience.

# Multiple-format support

You cannot overemphasize the significance of the mentioned aspect. It’s crucial to make an eBook reading service supporting the maximum quantity of various formats, like, epub, txt, HTML, Mobi, RTF, and others. You might say that the audience can always take advantage of different converting systems, but the fewer steps users need to take, the happier they are. It means your objective is to facilitate your application as much as possible.

# Configuration

Wondering why many online reading programs fail to join the list of great applications? They simply don’t bother to ensure decent customization. To avoid such a serious mistake you better enable the following:

• tools to adequately adjust texts, say, its color or font, letter sizes, etc.;
• possibility to choose among multiple colors for backgrounds and themes;
• means to configure brightness or contrast.

By providing those possibilities you allow clients to choose the formats they prefer reading books. Let’s say, a person with low vision will appreciate the opportunity to enlarge the size of letters and brighten the screen.

# Convenient search engine

Providing the audience with access to the e-bookstore and offering free libraries is a good thing, however, it’s not enough to ensure your system’s popularity. You should also grant enhanced searching tools for users to quickly locate the book they’re looking for.

Advanced searching instruments must be filter-based, meaning, customers will manage to find writings by titles, authors’ names, publication years, etc.

# Bookmarks & highlighters

A top-notch online reading resource has to be intuitive, appealing, and user-oriented. So, while designing such a platform, seriously consider the below-mentioned options:

• Notes. While reading some scientific articles and books, people might need to leave notes.
• Text highlighters. Those instruments are applicable to emphasize important pieces of information.
• Bookmarks. In most cases, people don’t read books in one sitting, thus, bookmarks with a wide range of possibilities will turn valuable.

# Integration of social networks

It’s pretty clear why the given feature is mandatory to create a great modern reading program. Such integrations provide multiple benefits for the clients, like, the possibility to quickly get registered in the app, a chance to share books with friends (which means your service gets advertised), etc. As a whole, people get satisfied and turn loyal.

# Notification system

The push notification function is a critical part of any online resource, including eBook reading ones. Thus, figure out some creative approaches to keep in touch with your people notifying them of what they could be interested in. Let’s say, keep them posted on program updates, exciting news on books, fresh backgrounds, and the like.

# Numerous program support

Last but not least, such a feature couldn’t be ignored, so remember to devote enough time for the numerous programs’ support. Moreover, at the outset, it’s pretty difficult to guess users’ preferences regarding what device they’ll choose to apply your app on. Therefore, it might be wiser to create all kinds of versions: Android, iOS, Web.

Monetizing your eBook software

While developing an online reading service of your dream, you expect to generate some income, and it’s quite understandable. However, in this respect, it’s vital to keep the balance between what you’d like and what your customers need.

Let’s review appropriate business models to go for. We would recommend you to consider such aspects, as:

Freemium approach

That’s always a great idea to build two versions of an e-reading resource:

• No-charge version to provide basic parameters, which means it could include ads. As you can guess, advertising can serve as one more monetizing solution.
• Premium version to offer no-ad advanced functionality, for instance, reading aloud, integrating e-translators, accessing audiobooks, etc.

Extra e-book sales

Why not increase your volumes, in case you own an electronic book shop?

In-application purchase

You could provide more options to your clients, so use your imagination to offer people something extraordinary.

Hopefully, you’ll find our hints and tips relevant and useful to develop a remarkable eBook reading application keeping your users content and making a good profit for you.

…

Author’s bio

My name is Anastasiia. I’m a writer for Agilie. I’m working closely with the mobile and web application development, so I often write tips on the development process optimization, various design solutions, and relevant business cases.