About Literature Web

Please give us a short summary of your website?

Literature Web is a classic literature repository with one of the largest collections of purely classic literature. The website doesn't attempt to collect anything other than classic literature (unlike many other websites) and specializes on classic literature more than most others. Compared to websites of similar nature that deal with no other genre of literature except classic literature, Literature Web boasts of one of the largest collections of best classics that exist today.

What inspired you to launch your own website?

I personally love reading. I also like to breath fresh air, and the amount of tree-cutting that goes on around me is something that I hate (as much as I hate the American habit of using Toilet Paper and not switching to water instead). When I came to know from a friend that Google Earth has started to show several great forests of the world to have developed GRAY patches and yet paper is being used more than ever before, I felt motivated to pitch in with whatever little I can contribute. I realized that with my computer skills, I can effectively leverage the existing digitized public domain classic literature books to be catered to people from that one single site which caters to only classic literature and which is still missing. I collected what I thought to be enough amount of digitized literature to launch the website Literature Web. Then I realized that I have crossed the critical mass easily, and more than that, I have hit a point of being the biggest online classic literature collection much before I knew it. Today although I don't have any quantitative measure, but I know Literature Web, with its great collection of literature, is capable of saving millions of dollars of paper and trees. And Mother Earth is going to remain greener than I could have made it by only planting trees.

When did you launch your first website, and what was it?

WebLiterature.Net happened to be my first website, and I had launched it in March 2008. Till that point, there was no other big reason or motivation that had ever come up for me to launch a website to do business, so far. That has changed over time, but the passion for literature and green Earth has not. Hence, Literature Web was launched using the baseline of the older WebLiterature.net in March 2024.

How did you decide on a name for your website?

This was rather industry-driven than my personal wish-driven. I wanted to give it a more pointed name such as http://www.literature.something but when I realized that the world of internet is already suffering from a name crunch I had only a few options. However, I love what I could get, it precisely represents the purpose of this site. I would probably be a happy person that I had the privilege of ever attempting to do something more than eating, drinking, destroying oxygen and making merry to make the world a better place - that too, driven by my own motivation. Maybe that can justify a life.

What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?

The value that Literature Web brings in to its readers is the unique experience of a state-of-the-art classic literature repository with a dynamic effort to keep growing all the time. The reader doesn't have to give away any identity such as email or contact details, not even a login (which can and does lead to hints to the persons activities in the internet) or membership, and can still continue to enjoy reading public domain books for free as many times as (s)he wants to: all free of cost. And this all on a website which doesn't mix anything else with purely classic literature. That is nearly unmatched today: there are sites with pure classic literature but often smaller than Literature Web, and there are sites that have good stocks of classic literature (though not always this big) but have logins and memberships - so Literature Web is unique in its own way. The reader, in addition, can request over email to add books of their choice, and I make every effort to add it if the request stays withing the websites limits (such as the literature has to be classic, it has to be in public domain etc). Additionally, readers can also submit their own collection of digital classic literature and expect to see that added within a few working days (again subject to compatibility criteria including the ones mentioned above). All of this makes this website unique and valuable.

What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)

Goes without saying, my current target is to spread awareness among teachers, students, researchers and all other classes of readers that such a website exists and that it is a great treasure that would save them all the money of buying books, all the effort and time to buy books, and at the same time keep the earth greener (create a winning situation for every single person involved without involving any money at all). In the longer run, I may love to die as the owner of Literature Web and live forever, even beyond my death, as the founder of Literature Web.

How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?

I made the website Literature Web as a passion and not a profession. So, the balancing act doesn't even arise. But of course, I would personally still need to recover costs through some means such as advertising, since the costs are expected to escalate too much for me to maintain this from my money that I earn from profession. Beyond that, I only care for the website to be successful and the other balances come much later if at all.

If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?

Most probably I would not change, except that I would offer some good reward to every reader who would send some legitimate classic literature book (digitized) which would be novel to my site (not yet added to my site till that time). Today there is no option for that, given my budget is virtually zero. But since I am creating value for my readers (who in the world offers free products with literally nothing in return? -- this is exactly what we attempt to do today in Literature Web) I hope I can get to a stage some day where I can afford that budget. It would be a very happy day for me and hopefully also for my readers. But to reach there, I would never charge a single cent/dollar from my reader, even if that means Literature Web never makes it. I am sure in that case some other site, which might be my follower, would reach that and I would welcome that.

If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?

Yes. Don't ask me how today. But when there is a will, there is a way. I know I shall, and I know my reader won't be affected (unless affected positively) by that. End of the story.

What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?

So far, nothing.

What has been your biggest challenge?

Reaching out to people. Making the website is a technical challenge, and I personally can work to solve it. Reaching out to people is a social challenge - a challenge where I need to move the society. Moving the mass is difficult, especially when people don't know you and don't yet have a reason to trust you. Gaining that all-overcoming trust is the biggest asset to have, and any asset one makes comes from overcoming one or more challenges. I wish I could have some assistance from the media to reach out to the people, and tell them the amount of free resources they have here - impossible to guage how much to an exact detail but the approximate worth is $25,000 as a rough estimate. That is the money an average-earning American might make in 3-5 months today on an average. If every household used such websites as Literature Web to educate their children about the human culture and values (selecting the right books for the right age-group) then I am sure we would have a more improved society that is more open, more aware of history and culture, more accepting of other cultures, more receptive of others ideas and more progresive.

What method has been most successful for promoting your website?

Nothing much. I have done some social network promoting and social answering to book-related questions, and some nice websites have accepted to include my website as a free link, but nothing yet so compelling method has distinguished itself from the others. Media would be a great resource, but since I don't have the budget, I am not getting much forward, since not too many people really care for a non-business activity - activity that doesn't generate a heap of money to fill pockets.

How has running your website differed from your expectations?

There has been virtually no difference. It has been running exactly as expected in terms of number of people visiting the website and reading and coming back to it. But if you ask me, Literature Web is doing fine and we are seeing a good growth, just that I need my readers' co-operation to spread the message among other readers at every level - student, teacher, literature-lover, university-goer, everyone.

How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?

The website has been up since March 2024. With the best of our sincere efforts and reader-focused model, we hope it is going to stay with me long, outlive me (what a dream!), and stay in the memories of people hopefully even longer.

How do people not interested in books benefit from this effort?

Remember, the website is "green" - it can make a difference of many millions of dollars of paper - potentially even billions of dollars worth paper. This means millions of trees saved. Love books or hate them, if one wants to live, then one has to breath, and breath oxygen. Literature Web tries to carve its own niche in the world of books through its selected route of classic literature, which results in an indirect provision of more oxygen, and maybe more life span for more people.