Website: www.bookjourney.club
Brief description of the organisation/initiative
Book Journey is a subscription platform for book lovers and wannabe book lovers at any age. The platform offers a unique set of winning prizes, books that expand horizons and a friendly community that shares thoughts and goes on a great journey together.
Challenge overview
Book readers are everywhere around us. After the start of Covid-19 pandemic, people had more time spent at home and they needed to change their usual activities related to social events and gatherings to other hobbies and activities that can be executed at home. Books are never old-fashioned. However, the search for a meaningful book can consume a lot of time and readers, experienced or not, always would appreciate some guidelines for high-valued books and stories.
Book Journey club has been born to meet readers expectations in a creative way. The platform organises the book wealth in three selected different types of services – Surprise Readings, Children’s Readings and Thematic Readings. Some of them would be suitable for different age groups, some of them – for the experienced reader, others – for a very special occasion, but what they all have in common will be the wonderful book, good design and the fact that with every purchase the organisation aims to support talented local artists and key cultural initiatives and businesses.
Establishment of the organisation/initiative/enterprise
Book Journey has been born from the collaboration between Svetlozara Hristova and Daniel Cardozo. Svetlozara is a culturologist by education and a lover of books by vocation. For almost a decade, she has been working as a cultural manager in various artistic initiatives. Her name is associated with two innovative festivals in her hometown Varna – RADAR Festival Beyond Music (since 2014) and Moving Body Festival (since 2016). She also participates as a co-author and playwright in some contemporary dance and theatre performances. Book Journey is her new challenge to help you find your own book paradise.
Daniel Cardozo is a software engineer passionate about everything related to the web, including e-books and podcasts focused on topics such as geography, political science, adventure and science fiction. He was born in Brazil, studied in Canada and then travelled for 2 years across the European continent (over 15 countries) while working from home. That’s how he met Svetlozara and that’s how their journey together began. He is here to create a user-friendly experience and a safe online environment for all readers of Book Journey.
Management structure and governance
Svetlozara Hristova (co-founder and CEO) and Daniel Kardozo (co-founder) form the Book Journal management body. Daniel is responsible for technological innovations, functionalities and services in this platform. They collaborate with authors and graphic designers to maintain and develop the platform.
Principles of work, objectives and activities
Book Journey’s mission is to help people develop their reading skills and spend less time searching for a title to choose from the ocean of books on the market. The platform unites award-winning books, books that broaden the horizons of readers, hoping to create a friendly community that shares thoughts and takes an exciting book journey together.
Book Journey works in the following way:
- Selection: Book Journey’s team is constantly reading new books and communicating with established publishers so that they can share with book lovers the latest and most worthwhile titles. Each month, books are selected that readers are likely to enjoy (or at least hope they will be provocative in some way), partner with small local businesses for additional products that will make reading even more enjoyable, and look around what is happening in the country to include discounts for key cultural initiatives and events.
- You choose: Book Journey offers packages with Surprise Readings, Children’s Readings and Thematic Readings. If the reader decides on the package with Surprising Reading, then they can choose between a one-time purchase or a three-month subscription.
- Book Journey delivers: Book Journey has a “window” for deliveries between the 1st and 10th of the month for Surprise Read packages. For the previous packages from the Surprise Readings collection, as well as for the Children’s Readings and Thematic Readings collections, the delivery time is between 1 and 3 working days.
- You enjoy!: Customers receive their parcel at the address specified, at home, at the office of the delivering company. After reading the book, the customers can enjoy the extra items and discounts and a monthly Book Journey Club event where books are discussed with other book lovers.
Target groups
Book Journey is a platform for book lovers, regardless of their age, as well as for those who want to find a passionate reader in themselves.
Innovation
Book Journey club is a local pioneer company in the field of book subscriptions in Bulgaria that works hard to develop a sustainable ecosystem at every level of the process, as well as to grow the literary community locally and internationally (including subscribers – Bulgarians around the world).
Key partners
Book Journey collaborated with independent artists and companies. Key partners are Irmena Chichikova, a freelance actress who works in the field of cinema, theatre and fashion, Nora Nencheva, an interior designer by profession and a great enthusiast in the field of plant-based nutrition and Theodora Simova is the graphic designer who created the visual identity of Book Journey. The team of Legal Solutions Partners assists with all legal and business issues related to the Book Journey platform.
Impact and Evaluation
The platform was officially launched in July 2021. Nevertheless, it is a new initiative, it has already built its community of passionate book lovers. The founders are upgrading the platform with new content and initiatives constantly, as well as, maintaining a blog with book reviews.
Recommendations
This best practice can be transferred easily to other regions and countries because readers are everywhere across the globe. The key elements are good relationships with publishers, excellent knowledge on the local book market and passion for storytelling.
Lessons Learned
The main lesson learned is that entrepreneurs should follow their dreams and passions and find ways to recreate them as initiatives that can help others. Book Journey is the result of the collaboration between two creative individuals who decided to dedicate themselves to what makes them happy.
References
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.