And Also

Juggernaut came to the Indian market as the first ever electronic publishing house (available both on Android and iOS); a place for book-lovers to browse, preview, buy and gift titles handpicked by the ex-Penguin Random House publisher Chikki Sarkar, all accessible on one’s smartphone.

Its claim to fame was, of course, its ‘first-ever’ move, and its ‘Indianness’ and inc­lusiveness of choice. From in-the-loo short stories to long commutes, Juggernaut is made keeping in mind the att­ention span of an average reader on a small device. Sarkar has also managed to create a new category in literature—one of ‘phone length’. The app’s clean interface helps, and so does the easy find bar, the trending, and the selection based on story length.

But, the price points offered are costly (though they do have cheaper, one-day buys) when compared to others like Kindle. Sure, you can’t buy books on Kindle directly, but does that matter? And lakhs of titles are available on Kindle, contrary to the few hundreds on Juggernaut.

But if the model takes off, it is likely that other biggies would crush Juggernaut with their low price points and wide selection. But kudos on the concept, and the literary hound’s attitude of finding ‘new talent’—hell, Sunny Leone’s erotica is a sure read!