The Red Room, a new online community for authors and readers, launched in test mode on Tuesday.
The site is open to invited authors and investors only, but a public launch is planned in about 60 days.
“We’re going to actual authors and asking them what do you want on your site?" Red Room founder and CEO Ivory Madison said. (Ms. Madison is also an author. Her novel, Huntress: Year One, is being published by DC Comics.)
While other social media sites such as Goodreads, Shelfari, and LibraryThing are focused on readers sharing reviews and bragging about the size of their libraries, the Red Room gives web-shy authors an easy place to promote their work, list book tour dates, blog, post podcasts and videos of readings, and communicate with fans and other authors.
The San Francisco-based startup has already attracted literary heavy hitters Maya Angelou, Amy Tan, Alice Walker, James Patterson, and Salman Rushdie. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer approved his membership before his death, and widow Norris Church Mailer plans to create a memorial page on the site.
Rather than going back and forth with a webmaster, the Red Room is an easy way to put the word out about new work and participate in an online literary community, said Ben Fong-Torres, an author and former Rolling Stone magazine editor.
Mr. Fong-Torres said he enjoys sharing a “connection with people involved in books, whether readers or writers. It’s great to do this online through the Red Room,” he said.
The site also gives authors complete control over their member page, including what booksellers they want to use. Mr. Fong-Torres, whose book The Doors By The Doors was listed erroneously on Amazon, said that this level of control was another reason he signed on to the Red Room.
The Red Room was so overwhelmed by membership requests from authors that it had to limit the initial launch to invite only.
The startup has raised $1.25 million in angel funding. Investors include Craiglist founder Craig Newmark, Chronicle Books CEO Nion McEvoy, and author Robert Mailer Anderson. The site has gone through two rounds of funding, including an initial round of seed funding, and plans for a third round in the spring.
The Red Room plans to unveil book clubs and pages for literary journals in the future. “We’re not all about celebrity authors,” Ms. Madison said. “This is for educators, students, journalists, and aspiring authors as well.”
Angel investor Wendy Bolton, managing director at JMP Group, believes the site will appeal to a wide audience. “Everyone reads,” she said.