After publishing five books himself, Anthony “AJ” Joiner knew writers needed a tech solution to shape their ideas into books and get those books into the hands of more readers.
He’s taken his background as a software project manager into the publishing world with Blooksy, an Atlanta-based subscription-based SaaS startup designed to streamline the writing process.
Joiner described Blooksy as “Waze” for writers.
“If I were driving to a place for the first time, I’d open Waze on my phone, type in the destination, and then Waze would provide me with a step-by-step set of directions to get me there. We’ve created the Blooksy Easy Outline tool, which allows writers to create an outline of their book in a few clicks,” Joiner told Hypepotamus. “If the writer spends 30 minutes creating their outline (in other words, putting together their Waze directions), the destination becomes clearer.”
Budding authors can first verbally outline their ideas through a live transcription service that works with roughly 90 percent accuracy, according to Joiner. Blooksy’s platform also provides templates and prompts to help writers get from an outline to a full-fledged book.
Blooksy will soon roll out an asynchronous collaboration space for manuscript reviews, according to the company’s website, and eventually hire editors and book cover designers.
“We saw how disjointed the writing and publishing process was and set out to create a tool to make it easier for writers to finish their books, but also provide them with the ability to publish without dealing with the roadblocks of old.”
Joiner told Hypepotamus that memoirs have been a popular genre amongst early Blooksy users.
Startup Showdown Momentum
Joiner took home first place at Panoramic Ventures’ third Startup Showdown, a monthly pitch competition with $120,000 on the line. Joiner joins previous Atlanta winner Swipe Credit.
Panoramic Ventures sees a unique market opportunity in what Joiner has been building. Dustin Drees, Vice President at Panoramic, told Hypepotamus that “AJ is an incredibly talented entrepreneur and someone you inherently want to back. The problem Blooksy is addressing is a big one that really hasn’t been addressed well over the years. It also has the potential to open latent demand (i.e., people who have always wanted to write a book but didn’t have the know-how/resources/connections to do so).”
Blooksy will now join Panoramic’s Founder Success Program.
The Startup Showdown win, Joiner believes, will help grow Blooksy and help get more stories out into the world.
“We’re creating a publishing path for everyone, and that’s the fuel that lights our fire. Until now the market didn’t allow this for most people,” he added.
“We’re excited to see where it takes us.”
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