US publishers to create book portal

Three big publishers in the US have announced to create a portal that bundles information about books and authors in order to create a virtual destination in which bibliophiles can find everything that they desire. Penguin, Simon & Schuster and the Hachette Book Group hope that their new site, Bookish.com, becomes THE place to go for all readers, just like pitchfork.com is on top of the minds of music lovers when looking for reviews and information.

Currently, publishers and bookstores have their individual sites, with info about their own portfolio of writers and books. Simon & Schuster CEO Carolyn Reidy says in the New York Times: “There’s a frustration with book consumers that there’s no one-stop shopping when it comes to information about books and authors. We need to try to recreate the discovery of new books that currently happens in the physical environment, but which we don’t believe is currently happening online.”

Bookish.com is going to bundle information like news, reviews, recommendations, excerpts as well as providing shopping opportunities both from the site and from other retail outlets.