Spotify for books? Waterstones founder to launch subscription-based e-books venture

Waterstones founder Tim Waterstone is planning to launch a Spotify-like digital books business, the Daily Telegraph has reported.

The company, Read Petite, will launch by the end of the year and will charge readers between £5 and £12 a month to get access to unlimited books online.

Read Petite will feature short stories and serialisations from the likes of Oliver Twist creator Charles Dickens and Vanity Fair author William Makepeace Thackeray.

Waterstone has co-founded this business with Neill Denny, the former editor of The Bookseller magazine, literary agent peter Cox and Martyn Daniels, founder of book supply chain specialist, Batch.

Speaking to the Telegraph, Waterstone said, “It worked for Dickens and it worked for us. If you are going to read on a laptop, or a smartphone or a tablet, [a short story] is about as much as you want.

“This is not slush pile publishing. There is an absolutely staggering treasure trove [of material] available.”