Getting started as a reader
For readersUpdated 3 min read
The first hour with a reader account: the five-step onboarding, where Home, Discover, Circles, Early copies and Library are, the search in the middle of the bar, what to do first, and where your settings and Help live.
The short answer
The first five minutes: onboarding
A new reader account opens in a five-step wizard. Every step has Skip for now; the wizard ends with Finish and a feed that already has something in it.
- How should we introduce you? Your name and photo, as other readers will know you.
- What do you love to read? Ideally pick three genres.
- Which tropes pull you in? As many as you like; they tune your feed and your early copy matches.
- Anything you'd rather avoid? Content you would rather not be recommended; it is flagged with content warnings elsewhere.
- A running start for your feed. Follow a few authors and shelve a book or two.
You can change every answer later under Settings › Profile (see Setting your reading preferences).
Where things are
The top bar has five places, with the search in the middle:
- Home: your feed. Following is the people you follow; For You adds recommendations from your taste (ranking is documented, never a black box); Free early copies lists open campaigns that fit you.
- Discover: the search, a shelf named for your taste (Because you love a genre and a trope), the open campaigns, Trending now, New releases, and authors worth following. See Finding books.
- Circles: Reading Circles you can join, and yours. See Joining a Reading Circle.
- Early copies: the page with Free early copies and My early copies. See Requesting an early copy.
- Library: your five shelves and your progress. See Shelves and progress.
The search box in the middle of the bar finds books, authors, series and readers; press / from any page to jump into it. The Booklabria AI chip inside the box turns a typed question into a question for the assistant. New post (right of the bar) writes a Reading Life post on your profile: see Reading Life posts. The bell is your notifications; your avatar opens the account menu: Your profile, Reading insights, Wraps, Goals, Settings, Help center, Ask Booklabria AI, Log out.
Charts is not in the signed-in bar: reach it from the footer's Read column or from Home's side rail. See How the charts work. Help is never a tab either: it lives in the footer, in the account menu and behind the Booklabria AI launcher at the bottom right of the help pages, the home page, For readers, For authors, Pricing and Settings › Support.
On a phone the same five places sit in a bottom bar (Home, Discover, Circles, Early copies, Library), the search opens from the magnifier at the top, a floating compose button writes a post, and your profile is in the avatar menu.
A good first hour
- Shelve the books you are reading and the ones you want to (Want to Read, Reading): the feed and Discover get better with every shelf.
- Follow a few authors; their Journal entries and announcements appear under Following.
- Look at Free early copies on Home or on the Early copies page: the reasons each campaign fits you come openly from your genres, tropes and language.
- Join a Reading Circle that reads what you read.
- Set a reading goal if you like one (Goals in the account menu).
Your settings
Settings (in the account menu) has Profile (name, photo, bio, language, the content you avoid), Privacy (who sees what, blocked people, your data export), Notifications, Teams (invitations to work on an author's pen name), Billing (which says readers never pay), Support (your messages to the team) and Account (e-mail, password, sessions, closing the account).
Where this lives
Related
- Creating your account and profile: Sign up with an invite code, an e-mail address and a password; the code decides whether the account is a reader or an author account; then fill in the profile readers see (name, username, photo, bio) under Settings › Profile.
- Setting your reading preferences: Your genres, tropes, language and the content you avoid shape recommendations, your feed and your early copy matches. Set them in the onboarding wizard (every step skippable) and change them any time under Settings › Profile.
- Shelves and progress: Your Library has five shelves (Want to Read, Reading, Completed, Did Not Finish, From authors); a book lives on one at a time, and a copy an author handed you keeps its mark wherever you move it. Books you are reading carry a progress percentage; reaching 100 % or tapping Finished moves them to Completed and offers a review.
- Requesting an early copy: When an author runs an active campaign, the book page shows Request this copy and the **Early copies** page lists it under **Free early copies** with the reasons it fits you; a request carries a short note, waits for the author's decision, and can be cancelled while pending. There is no waitlist.
- Joining a Reading Circle: A Reading Circle is a group reading together. Circles are public (listed), unlisted (reachable by link) or private (members only); joining is instant, by request (Request sent while the owner answers) or by invitation link, sometimes with a question or two to answer first.
- Finding books: Search from the header, browse Books and Authors with filters, let Discover recommend, reach the wider catalog for books not published here, or import a Goodreads or StoryGraph export.
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