Small Demons (Probably) Shutting Down

Small Demons, one of the flashiest, and most highly-touted of the book discovery sites to launch in the past few years, appears to be in big trouble. From The Bookseller:

Small Demons, headed by chief executive Valla Vakili, cross-references people, places, songs, books, films, food, drink and gadgets mentioned in books, allowing users to make connections between texts, and buy related goods. Last year Random House UK became the first UK publisher to place books onto the service. This year Small Demons embedded links to iTunes and Spotify, meaning readers could download related songs. The company was also looking into how it could integrate with an e-reading and e-commerce service, a development that would have facilitated a sale.

However, in a letter sent to publishers over the past 24 hours, Small Demons said that this acquisition had fallen through. It revealed that it will cease operations on 25th November, unless it can find an alternative buyer. The company had raised more than $2m in funding since its founding, but indicated that the ongoing sale negotiations left it without alternative funding sources.

That’s really unfortunate, since it was such a fun site to play around with—and because the amazing Richard Nash was involved—but it points to some big issues with monetizing a book discovery site and how people use these.