Pocket FM to invest $40 mn in Pocket Novel, expand reading library

Audio series platform Pocket FM will invest $40 million in its online reading service Pocket Novel to enhance the latter's presence in the literary landscape and develop intellectual properties over the next year, said Rohan Nayak, co-founder and CEO, Pocket Novel.

- Lata Jha

Pocket Novel, which was launched on Tuesday after undergoing beta testing for a year, allows writers to upload novels and receive compensation in return.

For the consumer, it offers chapters of novels for purchase via micro-transactions, with prices ranging from ₹9 to ₹100, quite like how Pocket FM operates with audio.

In the beta phase, the reading service built a community of 150,000 writers, Nayak said and a library of around 250,000 novels. Readers made more than 1 million transactions for purchasing entire novels or select chapters in the beta phase.

Pocket Novel aims to grow its writer community to 1 million and expand its novel library to 2 million by 2025, targeting $100 million in annualized revenue.

"The idea is to find great stories to entertain audiences and expand storytelling formats (to novels) so that talented writers can make a living without having to go to gatekeepers like publishers. Each writer can upload their work on the app and if it finds traction, it will gradually be shown to more users," he added.