E-book library
Put your books online as PDFs, EPUBs and audiobooks: free, for members, for buyers, through a library plan or lent a copy at a time, with search, highlights, reviews and reading stats.
Library puts your books on your site at /library: PDFs drawn exactly as printed, EPUBs that reflow to any screen, and audiobooks, read and heard in the browser. Readers browse by shelf, author, subject and language. It is on your plan as its own module, uploading files needs the media library, and turning it on also turns on your site's account area.
Adding books
- 1Under Library, press Upload books and choose PDF or EPUB files, as many as you like. Each becomes a draft book with its cover: a PDF's first page, or an EPUB's own cover picture.
- 2When the file names an ISBN (an EPUB's details, or a PDF's copyright page), the draft is filled in from Google Books and Open Library: authors, publisher, year, language, subjects and description. An EPUB's own details come first.
- 3Open a book to check its details, put it on Shelves, set its access and press Save changes. Set Status to Published to list it at
/library, or Unlisted to share it by its link only.
To start a book from scratch, press New book. Next to ISBN, Look up shows what the catalogues know, field by field. Fields you have already filled in start unticked; press Use selected, then save. A cover you tick is added to your media library at once.
Who can read a book
| Who can read it | Who opens the book |
|---|---|
| Everyone | Anyone who can open the page. |
| Signed-in members | Visitors signed in to your site's account area. |
| Buyers only | Readers who bought or rented it in your shop (set the book under Sold as, and on the product, which books it opens), members of a library plan that opens it, and learners of a course that sets it as reading. |
| Borrowed, a copy at a time | Readers with a loan running. Set Copies and Loan period (days); when every copy is out, readers join a waiting list and get an email when a copy is theirs. |
Downloads decides what a reader may take away: Read online only, Download with the reader's name (a copy with their email on every page; PDFs only) or Download the original. A borrowed book, and a book opened by a plan or a course, is always read online.
Reading
- The PDF reader shows one page or two side by side, with zoom, night mode, the book's contents, and page turns in the book's direction: a Persian or Arabic book turns right to left.
- The EPUB reader reflows the text to the screen, with text size and night mode. Scripts inside an EPUB never run on your site.
- Search (or Ctrl/⌘+F) finds words anywhere in the book. Persian and Arabic are matched however they were typed, with or without a zero-width non-joiner.
- Signed-in readers keep their place, bookmarks and notes, and can highlight: select a passage, then pick a colour.
- Where readers may not download a book, copying its text is turned off.
Audiobooks
In a book's editor, under Audiobook, press Add audio files and choose the tracks: they are ordered by file name and their lengths read for you. The book's page then shows Listen, with a player that has speed, a sleep timer, the phone's lock-screen controls, and a saved place for signed-in listeners. The audiobook has the same access as the book, and a book may be audio only.
Lending, plans and previews
Under Plans, sell membership of the library through your shop. A plan names its products (a monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-off pass that lasts a number of days), covers the whole library or chosen shelves, can open the buyers-only books in it, and sets how many copies its members may borrow at once. Make the product in your shop first, then the plan.
Borrowing for everyone else sets the loan limit for readers without a plan. Set it to 0 to lend only to plan members; others then see your plans on the book's page.
Free preview (pages) lets anyone read a PDF's first pages before buying or borrowing it. Readers get a copy holding only those pages, never the whole file, and the preview ends with a link back to the book.
Keeping readers coming back
- Reviews: readers who have opened a book rate it and write a review. Stars show on the book's page and to search engines. Under Reviews you approve, reply or delete; Approve reviews before they show is on by default.
- Reading goals: on their library page in the account area, readers set a goal for the year and earn badges.
- Book club: in a book's editor, link a community space or start a forum topic about the book; its page shows Discuss this book. See Community and Forums.
- Readers get an email the day before a loan ends, and can switch it off with Email me the day before a loan ends. The account home shows the books they are reading.
Reading stats
Reading stats shows readers, books started and finished, loans, waiting lists and stars for the last 30 days, and a row for each book with how far its readers get. A book's editor shows where its unfinished readers are, its loans week by week and its listeners by track. Readers are signed-in readers and are never named. With analytics on, the visitors to each book's page and reader are counted too.
Sharing your books
- A landing page can show a Library section: the newest books, or one shelf.
- Embed on a book's page gives the code for a book card on another website, with its cover, title, stars and a link back.
- In a course, a lecture's Books to read become its reading. Enrolled learners read buyers-only books online once the lecture is open to them. See Courses.
- Your own mobile app can list, read, borrow and sync books through the member API. See API and webhooks.
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