Novely

Novely: a 'push a button, get an emotion' romance fiction app

Ramon and Sam built Novely, an app for short romantic stories readable or listenable on phone. They validated it cheaply by putting up an ugly WordPress site, commissioning a few stories, and seeing readers beg for the next chapter in the comments.

“So same story, put a really ugly, simple WordPress site up, had somebody write a couple short romantic stories, and drove traffic to it, see the engagement, see if people like it or not. And the engagement was crazy. People were literally like begging in the comments, like, oh, we love this chapter, when is the next chapter, things like bad.”

Steal thisValidate a content product cheaply with an ugly landing page and a few sample pieces; let comment demand prove the market.

Romance readers devour a book every 2 weeks vs 5/year average

For his new app Novely, Ramon points out the average American reads 5 books a year, but the average romance novel reader reads one book every two weeks, making them an unusually frequent and valuable audience.

“meaning on average in America, a person reads 5 books a year. The average romantic novel reader reads every one book every 2 weeks.”