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Byliner.com

Founded: ~2011 Founder: John Tayman Ted's role: COO (initially advisor, then became COO) Status: Acquired by Vook What it did: Digital publishing platform for kindle singles and long-form writing

Overview

Byliner was a digital publishing company focused on "singles" — short-form books or long-form articles sold for $1.99 as kindle singles. The company was founded by John Tayman, who had relationships with major authors. Ted initially helped as an advisor (raising money, sharpening the plan) and ultimately became COO.

The Vision

The thesis: people are moving to digital reading, and there's money to be made in the new way we read — even as books and magazines decline. The "singles" category (glorified New Yorker articles, the right length for shorter attention spans) was an emerging opportunity on Kindle.

Authors

Byliner published works from notable authors including: - Jon Krakauer — whose previous book Three Cups of Tea had sold tens of millions - Amy Tan - Christopher Hitchens - Others willing to publish outside their normal publishing deals in this new digital category

Business Model

  1. Kindle singles publishing — digital-only books at $1.99 through Amazon
  2. Subscription service — "follow the writer" concept, like following bands. Subscribe to a writer (e.g., Malcolm Gladwell) and get their stories wherever they appeared. This was the longer-term vision

What Happened

Byliner became one of the top publishers of kindle singles, but the volumes weren't in the millions. The market was "still too early" — people hadn't shifted their reading behavior to buying $1.99 singles as a normal thing. It wasn't self-sustaining.

The subscription service was built and launched, but required more resources and patience than the company had to wait for the behavior change.

Byliner was acquired by Vook (still around at the time of the 2015 podcast recording).

Significance

Another "too early" venture in Ted's career. The concept was sound — subscribing to individual writers, short-form digital publishing — but people's reading behavior hadn't shifted yet. "People have so much to read right now, coming at them from a million different places." Ted believed the subscription-to-writers model would eventually prevail. Platforms like Substack later proved the general thesis correct.

See Also