With a plethora of options to choose from in the book space, zeroing in on a book that really interests you could be quite a challenge. Which is where these ‘Book Doctors’ intervene. MyBookWorks is a Bengaluru-based startup that aims to provide a hyper-personal reading programme to corporates to boost the personal and professional development of employees.
Founded by IT professionals Deepthi Rajan, Prayukth KV and Nitin Saxena, the birth of MyBookWorks took place following the downward trend in the reading habit among working professionals. The startup ‘diagnoses’ the preference of the reader based on which a personalised set of books are recommended and home-delivered. “The reader will be asked to fill out a questionnaire that helps us understand and assess the kind of books they would like to read
“As Book Doctors, we offer one-on-one reading clinic services that are hyper-personalised. We have conversations with the reader about their individual preferences. From books related to personal finance to personal development, we ascertain what they think they want to what they really want,” says Rajan.
The startup has a warehouse in Bengaluru that houses over 1,500 books related to biographies, personal finance, personal development, leadership, management, and books based on positivity, profit, growth, among others. According to an assessment by the founders, following the pandemic, people wanted to read stories of optimism and hope.
For corporates, the startup provides two sets of services – recommending books only to those who are outside Bengaluru and recommending books and doorstep delivery to those in Bengaluru. “We also have common services like reading contests, quiz, readership connect that are bundled along with the main services,” adds Rajan.
According to Prayukth, the reader will be charged only for the services and not the book. “Whether the book is priced at `400 or `1,500, the reader will be charged only for the ‘hyper-personalised’ services, and not the book. One user can also buy multiple books at a time. The startup is attempting to enforce and regain the reading culture, which otherwise was fading away due to distractions like OTT, social media etc,” says Prayukth, who also notices that working professionals are making the time to read.
“We connected with some of the new-age readers during the onboarding sessions with the corporates. We understood that there was a void and also an opportunity for readers to carve out time from their work-life to read books,” says Prayukth, who has, so far, got over 300 readers on board.
For more details, visit MyBookWorks website.