Quillp: "Where Books Find Friends"

(MoneyWatch)  Another intriguing experiment about how to exploit the web's search, networking, and publishing technologies to help authors, readers and publishers all find each other is on the scene. Quillp (Beta), a Berlin-based startup, aims to circumvent the "traditional limitations" of the publishing industry by providing "an integrated platform for readers and authors."
The site's goal is not modest: "Together with you we can revolutionize publishing."

Readers rate books, using the usual five-star scale. They also can build their personal e-libraries and discover new books and manuscripts from well-known and unknown authors alike. By establishing a virtual community of people with similar tastes in books, readers can use Quillp as a digital salon.

Quillp hopes to leverage "the wisdom of crowds" to discover the next, say, J. K. Rowling, by aggregating thousands of reader-supporters, which should then allow that author to attract traditional publishers to his or her work.

Like other startups I've covered recently -- Smashwords, for example, and Wordhustler --Quillp has been created by writers who are clearly frustrated by how difficult it is to get discovered by the book industry. While it's much too early to say which of these companies will survive to challenge the badly broken business model represented by entrenched publishers, it's obvious that these writers are all angry as hell and they're not going to take it any more.
Besides, as Quillp's pitch notes, plenty of great writers see their work rejected, rejected, and rejected again. Even J.K. Rowling had to endure 12 rejections before placing her "Harry Potter" series, which as of last June, had sold over 400 million copies, more than any book except the Bible and The Quotations of Chairman Mao!