A new project called Delivereads curates interesting content from around the web and delivers it to your Kindle, via your Kindle email address. At the time of this writing, Delivereads was sending out selections like GQ’s “Out on the Ice,” The Atlantic’s “The Lazarus File,” Washington Monthly’s “The Information Sage,” and Time’s “Zach Galifianakis Hates to Be Loved.”
In an email interview, Delivereads founder Dave Pell (@davepell) talked about the project’s origin:
Everyone who worked on the product, including designer Brian Moco and developer Alex King of Crowd Favorite, did so for free because they were excited about the idea and are subscribing to it themselves.
The rest of our interview follows.
How are Deliveread articles curated, and who curates them?
Dave Pell: I do all the curation. I’ve been finding and sharing web content for more than a decade on blogs, in newsletters, and via Twitter. I’ve also started to get a lot of user submissions, which makes the process easier and a lot more interesting.
How does the web app work?
Dave Pell: The app is really only something that I use to tie the articles together into one delivery and give folks a simple table of contents so they can read articles in the order they choose. From a subscriber’s perspective, you’re just getting document emails sent to your Kindle address.
Should users be concerned about providing their Kindle email addresses — how is that data stored and how will it be used or shared?
Dave Pell: Users should not be concerned about sharing their Kindle email addresses for a couple key reasons. First, in order for anyone to send an email to one’s Kindle, the sending address first needs to be added to that person’s Kindle Approved Email Address list. In other words, if a sender is not whitelisted, they can’t send an email to your Kindle address, period. This makes signing up for Delivereads a two-step process (submit Kindle email address, whitelist my sending address), but it’s nice and secure for the subscriber. Second, I’ve been sending out newsletters, etc., for years, and I never share anyone’s address or use it for anything other than what they signed up for.
Have you run into any publisher concerns about reformatting articles?
Dave Pell: I haven’t heard any concerns. There are quite a few ways to read articles where you want and how you want these days. I’m not sure Delivereads is breaking any new ground there. It’s really about curation. Also, it’s a passion project. I don’t have a revenue model. It’s all about getting great writing in front of people who appreciate it.
Webcast: SneakPeek at Publishing Startups — SneakPeeks are a TOC webcast series featuring a behind-the-scenes look at publishing startups and their products. The inaugural SneakPeek webcast includes presentations from 24symbols, Valobox, Appitude, Active Reader and OnSwipe.
Join us on Tuesday, May 31, 2011, at 10 am PT
Register for this free webcast
Related: