NetGalley has acquired the Bookish.com website and associate brands and trademarks. No price was disclosed.
Bookish was founded in 2011 by Hachette Book Group, Penguin, and Simon & Schuster as a website covering books and authors. The site was also intended to recommend titles to readers, and sell them directly to its audience. After struggling for about three years, Zola Books bought Bookish in 2014. Through the deal with Netgalley, Zola will retain Bookish’s book recommendation engine, which has been renamed Zola Recommends.
Joe Regal, founder of Zola, said Zola decided to sell Bookish.com to focus on creating book technology services.
NetGalley, owned by Firebrand Technologies, was a bit vague on its plans for Bookish.com, although it did say that Bookish.com “will remain an editorial independent, standalone site” that will look to connect readers with “interesting and relevant content.” Following the purchase, NetGalley and Bookish.com will explore ways to connect the editorial content between the two websites.
"We are very excited to bring Bookish's consumer-facing, curated, editorial voice to the NetGalley family," says Fran Toolan, CEO of NetGalley and Firebrand. "We view Bookish.com as yet another way that our client publishers can help their books succeed."
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the fact that NetGalley bought the Bookish.com website, not Bookish itself.
