Readwise Books · Readwise, Inc

Hundreds of small BookTokers spoke up on the same day: how Readwise Books pushed an invite-only app to #10 on the US book charts

What it is An app where you buy ebooks, read, and log reading automatically. Every page you read gets rolled into reading sessions you can share with friends.

Why it took off Readwise acquired Glose and got licenses from five major publishers, combining bookstore, reader, and automatic tracking in one place. In the six months before launch it sent readers to over two hundred small BookTokers, then on launch day they all opened up and posted codes at once, plus existing paying users and coverage from The Verge and TechCrunch.

CHow you could follow Don't build a bookstore or go after reading trackers head-on. Learn two things: find a scenario where users are already doing the activity inside your app, and turn manual logging into auto-recorded session cards; and in the months before launch, send gifts to seed one or two hundred small creators who actually use it, then unlock them together on launch day with one invite code each.

Grade C: its traction comes from acquired publisher licenses, a user base built over 9 years, and media relationships that followers can't replicate. The reading-tracker space is already crowded this year, and it itself dropped from #10 to #139 within a week. The playbook is worth learning, but copying it wholesale isn't worth it. Publicly reported / widely discussed

Data (updated daily) · launched 2026-10-20 · US store rating 170 · charted in 11-08 of 34 stores: iOS · best category chart rank · by store
US storeUKAustralia
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-08 (11 days, 11 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day
iOS · rating count · US store
Data 2026-10-30 → 2026-11-08 (10 days, 10 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.

Readwise Books is an app where you can buy ebooks, read them, and automatically log your reading, self-described as the 'Strava of reading'. On launch day in Oct 28, dozens of BookTok readers with a few thousand followers each posted videos and invite codes together, and two days later it reached #10 on the US App Store Books Top Free chart. But it isn't a solo indie developer: it's a reading tools company that's been around for 9 years, and it holds a card few can get: ebook licenses from five major publishers.

Oct 28, 'I can finally say'

Oct 28, TikTok book creator @readwithashiley (3,700 followers) posted a video opening with 'I FINALLY GET TO NAME THE APP!' and her invite code DZNKM. The same day, @lovelaina posted 'I CAN FINALLY TALK ABOUT THIS!', @jenreadsfantasy posted 'Readwise Books is now live' with invite code RCBFL, and @heyitsmagicallysarah posted with TIVMK. Two days later @emilyhlbrk (8,300 followers) added: 'I've been testing a new reading-tracking app since February, and I can finally tell you about it.'

These videos didn't get much play, most in the hundreds; the highest was @charles.chapters' invite-link giveaway at 20k views; @the.devine.archive's was 4,096 and @lostin.fiction's was 3,062 (TikTok, 11-06). It worked through volume of posts, not big accounts.

This coordination wasn't a coincidence. Publishers Weekly wrote it up clearly on Nov 3: during beta, Readwise recruited about two hundred-plus book creators with 5 thousand to 50k followers, gave each a Boox e-ink reader worth about $200, and promised paid partnerships to those who kept using it. One creator said in a video, 'Use my code, it helps me a little,' which suggests the invite codes may also have been tied to user acquisition (inference, unverified).

What it is

One app that handles three things:

Buy books: the store carries ebooks from five major publishers, and you can order print books too (shipped by wholesaler Ingram); currently only buyable in the US, with Canada, the UK, and Europe said to come within six months.
Read: has a built-in reader, can import your own EPUBs, and offers AI voice narration. Kindle books can't be imported, but you can read them in the app via Amazon's web reader.
Log: this is the selling point. The store page says 'every page you turn is automatically logged, like a pedometer counting steps.' Pages roll up into 'reading sessions' showing words read, time spent, speed, and immersion. For print books you log start and end pages manually. Sessions post to a lightweight friends feed: 'no likes to chase, more like a café than a social network.'

The app is free and currently needs an invite code to sign up; existing Readwise paying users get in directly. Money comes from book sales (inference: no chart ranking on the App Store).

How fast it rose, how fast it fell

Date	All-country ratings	Added that day	US Books Top Free chart	Countries charted
10-30	1	—	#10	83
10-31	88	87	#20	76
11-01	149	61	#35	66
11-02	180	36	#64	51
11-06	227	14	#139	35

App Store totals across countries, 10-30 to 11-06. US storefront has 169 ratings, averaging 4.99 stars (11-06). Google Play installs: 4,455.

Ratings suddenly appeared in Oct 31; many five-star reviews say 'been a beta user for three months,' so early ratings mostly came from beta users and the creators themselves. Within a week it fell from #10 to #139, and daily new installs dropped from 87 to 14: launch-day push finished, and organic growth hasn't caught up. The scale is also small, typical of an invite-only beta.

Why this one: the barrier was bought

Reading-tracking apps have crowded in this year; TechCrunch ran a piece in late October on the 'best 5 reading-tracking apps.' StoryGraph, Fable, Bookly, Margins, and SlowRead, which launched in July, are all competing for people unhappy with Goodreads.

They share one weakness: the books aren't read inside their apps, so you log and time everything by hand. Readwise Books can 'log automatically on every page turn,' but only because the book is in its own reader, and that depends on it being able to sell books in the first place.

Selling books is basically impossible for a small company. Co-founder Daniel Doyon told PW that publishers want proof you can sell ebooks before they sign, 'but you can't prove you can sell without the licenses first.' His solution was an acquisition: Paris ebook store Glose had signed publisher agreements years earlier but didn't take off after Medium bought it in 2021. Doyon lobbied Medium founder Ev Williams for 18 months, and bought it at the end of 2024. His words: 'What was really valuable was those publisher contracts.'

The remaining pieces were also built over years:

Existing users: Readwise was founded in 2017, has 25 people, took no outside funding, and survives on subscriptions. Existing users got in directly; early reviews included people writing 'I'm glued to Readwise and Reader every day.' PW says existing users skew male and non-fiction, while BookTok creators skew female and toward romance and fantasy, so the two groups complement each other.
Media: The Verge published on the day of Oct 28, and the author said they had tried it for several days beforehand; TechCrunch followed on Nov 2 and PW on Nov 3. This is reputation built over years in the tech press.
Shareable: session cards, word counts, and leaderboards are naturally suited to screenshots and short videos. Most creator videos showed these off. @han.readsbooks wrote 'come on, so you can beat me on the reader leaderboard.'

What users complain about

Few people are criticizing it yet; the US average is near full marks, which itself suggests the ratings come mostly from beta users and creators' followers. The criticism visible so far is scattered, such as a three-star review from India complaining that each review carries a book-description box. The real test comes after the public release at year-end.

Is anyone copying it?

No one has been spotted copying 'bookstore + automatic reading tracking.' Tracking apps like SlowRead run UGC ads and ride the same wave with the same BookTok audience, so they count as same-track competitors. The launch has been widely reported, but coverage focuses on 'challenging Kindle and Goodreads'; only one paragraph in PW discusses its creator playbook.

If it were you

One-line verdict: don't chase the product itself, you can't match it; what's worth learning is two things: the product idea of 'turning manual logging into automatic recording,' and the launch method of 'seeding hundreds of small creators for six months, then having them speak together on launch day.'

Who it suits: a small team that already has a scenario where data can be collected passively (listening to podcasts, practicing an instrument, learning a language, meditation, sports beyond running) and can make attractive 'session cards'; and one willing to spend six months in advance finding people in a niche community.

Who it doesn't suit: anyone who wants to run an ebook store or head-on compete in reading tracking. The licenses were bought through acquisition, the existing users took 9 years to build, and media relationships don't come overnight; as a standalone reading tracker, the space is already packed this year.

How to do it:

Find a scenario where users are already doing the activity inside your app, so recording can happen automatically instead of relying on users to log manually.
Make the logs something worth sharing: session cards, weekly reports, friend leaderboards.
Between 4 and 6 months before launch, find one or two hundred creators on TikTok or Xiaohongshu with a few thousand to tens of thousands of followers who actually use similar products, and send them a scenario-relevant hardware item or long-term membership so they really use it.
Unlock everyone on launch day, with a personal invite code each; the invite-only format gives them a reason to share codes.

How it acquires users: hundreds of small creators speaking on the same day trade for a first-day chart spike and a sense of scarcity; the per-creator cost is a hundred or two hundred dollars in hardware plus follow-up partnership fees (estimated from Readwise's approach). Afterward, word of mouth from the friends feed and leaderboards has to take over, and Readwise hasn't yet proven that step itself.

When to act: there's no deadline for learning the playbook. But the 'Strava-style' framing is being taken up across many categories, and the later you come in, the harder it is to tell it as a new story.

What would show you misjudged it: ① after the public release at year-end, Readwise Books doesn't get a second wave and stays outside the top hundred on the US book charts, meaning the creator network only bought one day of buzz and automatic logging didn't retain users; ② followers of similar products find that small creators stop using them after one round of videos, meaning 'real-user creators' are hard to cultivate in bulk.

Data and sources

Ratings and charts: App Store charts and ratings by country, 10-28 to 11-06; Google Play installs, 11-06.
App Store US storefront product page copy: 11-06
Acquisition, creator program, Doyon quotes, book catalog scope: Publishers Weekly, 2026-11-03.
Press coverage: The Verge (10-28), TechCrunch (11-02), Good e-Reader (11-01); TechCrunch roundup of reading-tracker apps (10-25).
TikTok video captions and view counts: public creator videos, check 10-28 to 11-05,11-06.
Revenue, creator count and fees are not public; "invite codes tied to referrals" is an inference.

iOS store page ↗

Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report

Competitors

Name	Where	Launched	Scale	How it differs from this one
Amazon Kindle	iOS	2009	iOS rating about 7.9M, US Books chart #1; about 83% of the US ebook market	Kindle has a store, reader and hardware, but no session-level tracking or social feed
Goodreads	iOS	2007(App 2010)	iOS rating about 1.31M; Play installs about 32.6M	Goodreads only tracks books, not reading inside the app, and hasn't been updated in years; Books can import Goodreads records
StoryGraph	Android	2019(App 2021)	Play installs about 1.89M	StoryGraph has deep stats, but doesn't sell books or let you read, and you log everything manually
Fable	iOS	2020	iOS rating about 128k, best Books chart rank #5	Fable focuses on book clubs and discussion; Books focuses on automatic session tracking plus a store
Bookly	iOS	2016	iOS rating about 83k	Bookly relies on manual timers, doesn't let you read, and has no store
Apple Books / Google Play Books / Kobo	Big-company features	Around 2010	Kobo iOS rating about 165k	These only offer a store plus a reader, with no tracking or social layer
Margins	iOS	2024-11	iOS rating about 40k	Margins: pure logging / tracking
SlowRead	iOS	2026-07	iOS rating 1,368	SlowRead does 3D bookshelves and anti-phone-scrolling, can't read books; running UGC ads on TikTok

Where users come from

Verified BookTok micro-creator network: PW: during beta they recruited several hundred creators with 5K to 50K followers, each sent a Boox worth about $200, with paid partnerships promised; TikHub shows dozens of videos from 10-28 to 11-05 on one message, each with a personal invite code (e.g. @twinmomandmore with 29K followers, @charles.chapters giveaway video with 20K views)
Verified Migrating existing Readwise paying users: official blog: current subscribers are eligible directly; many of the earliest store reviews came from long-time Highlights / Reader users
Verified Invite-only + waitlist referral loop: readwise.io/books collects a waitlist, users can send invite codes, and creator videos are all distributing codes
Verified Tech and publishing press: The Verge 10-28 (tested in advance), TechCrunch 11-02, Publishers Weekly 11-03, Good e-Reader 11-01
Inferred HN / Product Hunt: HN had only one post with 11 points; no Product Hunt launch this time (hackernews / producthunt libraries)
Verified E-ink hardware community: natively supports Android e-ink devices like Boox / Daylight; covered by Good e-Reader

Why Readwise Books (iOS id 6502848368) took off

Research date: 2026-11-06. Data sources: our appstore / googleplay / hackernews / producthunt libraries (as of 2026-11-06), TikHub TikTok search, public web pages (sources cited in the text).

Bottom line

Readwise Books isn't a wild-card hit. It's the third product from Readwise, an established reading-tools company that's been around for 9 years, has 25 people, and is self-funded. Its first 10 days of traction came from three things stacked together: (1) It acquired Glose, which gave it e-book licenses from five major publishers, so it could build a bookstore, reader, and tracker in one. That's a bar other reading-tracking apps can't clear. (2) Before launch, it spent half a year cultivating "hundreds" of BookTok micro-creators with 5K to 50K followers. Each got a Boox e-reader worth about $200, and those who kept using it got paid partnerships. On launch day, this group posted videos and invite codes together. (10-28) (3) Existing paying Readwise users were automatically eligible. Invite-only scarcity and referrals kept the momentum going, and The Verge, TechCrunch, and Publishers Weekly covered it at the same time. The product hook is "the Strava of reading": every page you turn gets logged automatically, rolls up into reading sessions, and gets pushed to your friends' feeds.

1. Data: a fast start and a fast fade, with very small numbers overall

iOS rating counts (all storefronts combined, appstore library app_day): 10-30 was 1,10-31, 88 (+87), 11-01 was 149 (+61), then daily additions of 36, 18, 15, 18, 14,11-06, cumulative 227. The US accounts for 163 of the ratings.
US Books free chart (appstore library): 10-30 #10,10-31, #20,11-01, #35,11-02, #64,11-06, #139. Countries on the chart dropped from 10-30 83 to 35. The best current rank is #25 on the Netherlands Books free chart. No Top Grossing rank at all: Books is free, and revenue comes from selling ebooks through channels other than Apple's in-app purchase (inferred).
Google Play (googleplay library, package com.bookwise): 10-30 installs 1,153,11-02 3,676,11-06 4,455, with 38 ratings in total.
The library records the iOS first-release date as 2026-10-20 (bundle io.readwise.bookwise, internal codename Bookwise); the public launch was 10-28 (blog, The Verge and X on the same day). Ratings only clustered from 10-31, likely due to Apple's rating-stats delay. Many five-star reviews in the review table are tagged 10-28, and many say "beta tester for 3 months" or "I have been reading here for a while": most early ratings came from beta users and creators.
For comparison: the same company's older product Readwise Highlights has only 481 ratings across all iOS storefronts, and Reader has 47 (appstore library). Readwise's users mainly read on the web and desktop and pay by subscription, so App Store rating counts badly understate its base. Books' 227 ratings have already passed the older products, but absolute volume is still small, the size of an invite-only beta.

2. Competitors: who else does the same thing

Competitors	Platform	Launched	Scale (our library / public data)	How it differs from Readwise Books
Amazon Kindle	iOS/Android/hardware	2009	iOS US rating about 7.9M, US Books chart #1; about 83% of the US ebook market (TechCrunch citing Good e-Reader)	Has a store, a reader and hardware, but no session-level tracking and no social feed; since 2025-02, purchased books can't be downloaded
Goodreads (owned by Amazon)	iOS/Android/web	2007(App 2010)	iOS rating about 1.31M; Play installs about 32.6M	Only tracks "which book, finished on which day"; no reading inside the app; little meaningful updating for years, and it has gone down 11-05 times
Apple Books / Google Play Books / Kobo	Big-company feature / iOS / Android	Around 2010	Kobo iOS rating about 165k	All are "store + reader" with no tracking or social layer
StoryGraph	iOS/Android/web	2019(App 2021)	Play installs about 1.89M	Deep stats, but tracking only: can't sell books or let you read; social is very weak
Fable	iOS/Android	2020	iOS rating about 128k, 7-day change +667, best Books chart rank #5	Focused on book clubs and discussion; reading and selling books aren't the core
Bookly	iOS/Android	2016	iOS rating about 83k	Manual timers and reading-time stats; doesn't let you read, and has no store
Margins	iOS	2024-11	iOS rating about 40k	Pure tracking / logging
SlowRead	iOS/Android	2026-07	iOS rating 1,368, 7-day change +40	3D bookshelves and anti-phone-scrolling; can't read books; running UGC ads on TikTok (@jess_ugc5 tagged "ad")
Everand(Scribd)	iOS/Android	2023 brand	iOS rating about 47k	Subscription unlimited reading, different model
Glose (now part of Readwise)	iOS/Android	2014	Play installs 100K+	This is Books' predecessor asset; Readwise acquired it from Medium at the end of 2024

Bottom line: the "reading tracker / Goodreads alternative" space is crowded, and TechCrunch even wrote about a "reading tracking app boom" 2026-10. The indie company that can buy, read, and track in one app, with licenses from five major publishers, is, by its own account (and per PW and TechCrunch), the only one of its kind in the US right now: Readwise.

3. Growth tactics (evidence)

BookTok micro-creator matrix (confirmed, the main driver): Publishers Weekly (2026-11-03) spells it out: during beta, Readwise recruited "hundreds" of book creators with 5K to 50K followers, each sent a ~$200 Boox e-reader, with a promise of paid partnerships for those who keep using it. Searching "readwise" on TikHub turns up dozens of posts from 10-28 to 11-05, from accounts with 1K to 30K followers: @twinmomandmore (29K), @bailiea (18K), @samanthasreadingchair (19K, 3,035 views), @the.devine.archive (13K, 4,088 views), @charles.chapters (invite-link giveaway, 20,217 views), @emilyhlbrk ("testing since February"), @kadija.b62 ("THE SECRET IS OUT"). The copy is highly uniform: "finally I can talk about it," "invite-only," "use my code/link." Many include a personal invite code (DZNKM, RCBFL, TIVMK, FZAJJ) or a "creator code." Individual posts get hundreds to a few thousand views; it works on volume, not on big accounts.
Existing-user migration (confirmed): Current paying Readwise users are directly eligible (official blog). Some of the earliest reviews came from long-time Highlights / Reader users ("I live in Readwise and Readwise Reader"). PW says the existing base skews male and non-fiction; the creator crowd skews female and toward romance / fantasy. The two groups complement each other.
Invite-only + waitlist (confirmed): readwise.io/books runs a waitlist, and people who get in can send invite codes. The effect is scarcity, and it gives creators a reason to hand codes out.
Tech and publishing press on the same day (confirmed): The Verge's David Pierce (10-28; the article says he "tested it for a few days," so it was arranged in advance), TechCrunch's Sarah Perez (11-02), Publishers Weekly (11-03), Good e-Reader (11-01), plus overkill.wtf, Shopifreaks and others. Official posts went out on X and Bluesky at the same time.
HN / Product Hunt (weak): HN had one story at 11 points and 5 comments (hackernews library, 10-30); this launch did not go on Product Hunt (Readwise's most recent launch in the producthunt library was 2022-12).
E-ink hardware circle (confirmed, niche): Native support for Android e-ink devices from Boox, Bigme, Daylight and others. Good e-Reader covered this specifically.
Riding a platform event (weak): Goodreads went down 11-05 (downforeveryoneorjustme, DesignTaxi), and some rival founders used it to recruit users, but there's no sign it drove traffic to Books.

4. Why it took off

The gate was bought: 2024 year-end acquisition of Glose. Doyon spent 18 months persuading Medium's Ev Williams; in his words, "the real asset is the publisher contracts" (PW). With licenses from the big five publishers in hand, the "bookstore + reader" layer is something a typical reading-tracking app can't build.
The product hook is easy to film: Books are read inside the app, so every page turn automatically logs word count, pace and immersion. "Strava-style" session cards are a natural fit for short video and screenshots. Creator videos are mostly showing off sessions, word counts and leaderboards.
Found the right audience: Readwise's original users skewed male and non-fiction. BookTok is exactly the crowd most annoyed by Goodreads and most keen to flaunt stats. Hardware plus paid partnerships grew a set of "real user" creators who all spoke up at launch.
Brand and press relationships: Readwise has long had good reputation in tech circles (the older product was on HN and PH), so The Verge and TechCrunch were willing to write about it.
Timing: Reading-tracking apps are multiplying and people are broadly unhappy with Goodreads. Readwise also framed reading as a new "health / wellness" category (the long passage in the official blog).

5. Differentiation, and whether it's really why it grew

The differentiation works on two levels:

(a) Buy, read and track in one app, with five major publisher licenses. Because the books are read inside the app, page-level automatic session tracking is possible. StoryGraph, Fable and Bookly all require manual logging or after-the-fact check-ins.
(b) Session-level data + lightweight social activity ("ambient co-presence": everyone reads on their own, but can see who else is reading).

Is it the reason for the growth? Partly, and the two parts need separating. The volume in these 10 days came mainly from distribution (the creator matrix, existing users, press). The differentiation gave creators something to film and a reason to switch off Goodreads. Whether people stay depends on whether the tracking keeps them reading and buying inside the app. Right now Books has dropped from #10 to #139 on the US Books chart within a week, and daily new ratings fell from 87 to 14, which suggests organic growth under invite-only hasn't taken off yet.

6. How many people have seen it

It has been widely covered by tech and publishing press (The Verge, TechCrunch, PW, Good e-Reader), and dozens of creators have promoted it on BookTok. Revenue is not public; Readwise has not disclosed ARR at the company level. So it has been widely discussed, but the conversation centers on the "taking on Kindle" narrative, with little on how the creator matrix was run.

7. Copycats

I haven't seen anyone copy the "bookstore + automatic session tracking" combo. SlowRead (2026-07) and The Understory, tracking apps competing for the same BookTok audience through paid acquisition or trend-riding, count as rivals in the same space, not copycats.

8. What others can learn

Before launch, spend 6 to 8 months recruiting a few hundred "real user" micro-creators: send hardware, promise paid partnerships, unlock everything on launch day, and give each a personal invite code. The cost is manageable (a few hundred devices at ~$200 each), and the result is a flood of posts on day one plus a chart push.
When you hit a hard gate like publisher licensing, buy a company that already holds the licenses but never got traction, rather than negotiating from scratch.
Upgrade "check-ins" to "automatic sensing": for activities that can be captured passively (reading, listening, practice), build a "Strava-style session + friend feed," which spreads naturally through short video.
Invite-only plus priority for existing users gives distribution a reason to exist.

9. Still unclear

How many creators there actually are and how much they were paid; whether "creator codes" pay out on referred sign-ups (PW only says "promised paid partnerships").
E-book sales and revenue (Books is free, whether book purchases happen on the web or in-app is unverified; no bestseller rank data).
Retention under invite-only, and whether a public December release can spark a second wave.
Books cannot be purchased outside the US for now (rolling out outside the US within 6 months), so chart positions in other countries come mainly from the tracking features and existing users.

Sources

Official blog: blog.readwise.io/readwise-books/ (2026-10-28)
The Verge:www.theverge.com/tech/1020264/readwise-books-launch-ebook-st… (2026-10-28)
TechCrunch:techcrunch.com/2026/11/02/readwise-takes-on-amazons-kindle-a…
Publishers Weekly:www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/retailing/artic…
Good e-Reader:goodereader.com/blog/digital-publishing/readwise-books-is-no…
TechCrunch roundup of reading-tracking apps: techcrunch.com/2026/10/25/5-best-apps-track-reading-discover…
X:x.com/readwise/status/2115491393812697219
TikTok (TikHub search "readwise", 2026-11-06): @twinmomandmore, @bailiea, @samanthasreadingchair, @the.devine.archive, @charles.chapters, @emilyhlbrk, @kadija.b62, and others
Our libraries: appstore (app_day / app_profile / review), googleplay (com.bookwise), hackernews (story 50308759), producthunt

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.