www.readers-guild.com/press
Pre-launch. Facts current 6 September 2026ReadersGuild press kit
Fabio Jonathan Arifin, fabio@echoforge.to.
Fact sheet
- App
- ReadersGuild. One word, no space, capital R and capital G.
- What it is
- A social reading app for iPhone. One tap starts a timer that runs while you read, and up to twenty friends can read alongside you in the same room.
- Price
- Free, with ten books open at a time and no limit on the ones you have finished. Premium is a monthly or yearly subscription, or a one-time lifetime purchase. Final prices land with the App Store listing, and I will send them the moment they are set.
- Platforms
- iPhone, iOS 15.5 or later
- Release date
- Not yet announced. Email for the date before it is public.
- Press access
- Email for a build and you will have one the same day. No store link yet, so this is the way in.
- Developer
- Fabio Jonathan Arifin, working solo, under EchoForge. Based in San Francisco.
- Book coverage
- Search runs live against Open Library and Google Books, so effectively any book in print is already there.
- Get the app
- www.readers-guild.com/get
- Website
- www.readers-guild.com
- 53readers on the first ReadersGuild, all returning as Elders
- 238words a minute, the real silent reading speed190-study meta-analysis, 2019
- 20readers in one fire, each with their own book
- 0leaderboards
Description, in three lengths
Use whichever fits. No attribution needed, and no need to ask.
One sentence
ReadersGuild is a social reading app for iPhone. A timer runs while you read, and up to twenty friends can read their own books in the same room as you.
One paragraph
ReadersGuild is a social reading app for iPhone. You start a session with one tap and the timer runs while you read, so your hours come from real reading instead of what you remembered to log. Open a fire and up to twenty friends drop in with a six-character code, everyone bringing their own book. It is free, with ten books open at a time and no limit on the ones you have finished.
The full story
Reading trackers ask you to remember. You finish a book, you go and log it, and the record is only ever as good as your memory of a thing you did three weeks ago. Every number in that kind of app is an estimate wearing the clothes of a fact.
ReadersGuild starts from the session instead. One tap begins a timer, it runs while you read, and when you stop, that is the entry. Nothing is reconstructed. The hours are hours you actually sat there, which is the only version worth being proud of.
The second half is that reading alone is the reason most people stop. A fire is a room you open with a six-character code, and up to twenty readers sit in it at once, each with their own book and their own pages. It works like a silent book club with nothing to organize: no club to found, no schedule, no assigned chapters.
Around that sit the parts a reader keeps: a daily deck of ten picks that each name the book of yours they came from, a reading path that breaks a book into named stops rather than due dates, and a wrap in the spirit of Spotify Wrapped. Your Goodreads export brings your ratings, your dates read, and what you were reading, finished or still meant to get to.
Key features
- A fire is a reading room. Share a six-character code and up to twenty readers sit down together, each with their own book, reading their own pages at the same time.
- Sessions are timed, not logged. One tap starts the clock, so the hours in your profile are hours you actually read rather than a number you estimated afterwards.
- On Premium a deck of ten book picks lands every day, and each card names the book of yours it came from. Free readers get one deck to try.
- Every book you are reading is broken into four to seven named stops sized to its length, so progress is a place you have reached rather than a schedule you are behind on.
- The Reading Wrap recaps a month or a year in books, every hour and every genre, ending on a single card built to share.
- Your Goodreads export brings your ratings, your dates read, and what you were reading, finished or still meant to get to.
- Reading earns shillings, a soft currency spent decorating a shelf that is yours to show off. There is no way to buy them.
- There are no leaderboards ranking readers against each other, by design.
Images
Full device resolution, no marketing frames and no captions burned in, so they can run as editorial images. All PNG at 1170 x 2532, except two at 1179 x 2556. The zip holds these plus seven more.
Launch artwork2400 x 1350, PNG. For the top of a post.
FeedSessions from the readers you follow.
A fireUp to twenty readers, each with their own book.
Timing a sessionOne tap starts the clock.
The reading pathNamed stops sized to the book.
Crossing a stopWhat reaching one looks like.
Next readTen picks a day, each naming its source.
LibraryReading, finished, TBR and set aside.
ProfileIdentity, shelf and reading rhythm.
The globeWho is reading right now, once enough readers are on it at once.
The shelfDecorated with shillings earned by reading.
The Reading WrapA year in books, built to share.
Share cardWhat a finished session posts as.
Motion
The fire filling is the one thing a still cannot carry. These are cut from real capture, not staged, and they sit outside the zip so nobody downloads video to get a screenshot.
- A fire fillingGIF, 420 x 909, 8 seconds
Readers arrive one at a time, each with their own book and their own clock.
- A fire filling, videoMP4, 720 x 1558, 8 seconds
The same moment at full capture resolution.
- The daily deckGIF, 420 x 874, 5 seconds
Ten picks a day, each naming the book of yours it came from.
Press release
Free to run in whole or in part, with no need to ask.
ReadersGuild puts twenty friends in one reading room, each with their own book
The app times your reading instead of asking you to log it. Free on iPhone, with a paid tier for the rest.
San Francisco. ReadersGuild is a social reading app for iPhone. Open a fire and up to twenty friends drop in with a six-character code, everyone reading their own book at the same time. It works like a silent book club with nothing to organize: no club to found, no schedule, no assigned chapters.
The other half of the app is that sessions are timed rather than logged. One tap starts a clock that runs while you read, and when you stop, that is the entry. Reading trackers ask you to remember instead, and every number in that kind of app is an estimate wearing the clothes of a fact.
It is the second time the app has been built. An earlier version had 53 readers on it who kept their books, their sessions and their year in it, and Arifin shut it down. Every one of them comes back as an Elder when this one opens.
Around that sit a daily deck of ten picks that each name the book of yours they came from, a reading path that breaks a book into named stops rather than due dates, and a wrap in the spirit of Spotify Wrapped. A Goodreads export brings your ratings, your dates read, and what you were reading, finished or still meant to get to.
ReadersGuild is free, with ten books open at a time and no limit on the ones you have finished. Premium is a monthly or yearly subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase, and it requires iPhone with iOS 15.5 or later.
“I shut the first one down while people still had their books and their years in it. That is the part I have not gotten over, and it is why everyone from that version comes back as an Elder.”
Fabio Jonathan Arifin
“My friends are a thousand miles away and I still wanted to read in the same room as them. That is the whole app.”
Fabio Jonathan Arifin
ReadersGuild is a social reading app for iPhone, built by Fabio Jonathan Arifin in San Francisco under his studio EchoForge. It runs on iPhone with iOS 15.5 or later. readers-guild.com
Brand assets
Use the white mark on dark backgrounds and the ember mark on light ones. Please run the icon as it is, without recolouring it or adding effects.
App iconPNG, 1024 x 1024PNG, 512 x 512
Logo markSVGPNG, 1040 x 1040
Logo mark, whiteSVGPNG, 1040 x 1040
About the developer
ReadersGuild is built by Fabio Jonathan Arifin, working alone in San Francisco under EchoForge.
This is the second time he has built it. An earlier version had real members who kept their books, their sessions and their year in it, and he shut it down. Everyone who was on the first one comes back as an Elder when this one opens.
Contact
Fabio Jonathan Arifin, fabio@echoforge.to.
San Francisco, Pacific time, and I reply the same day. Happy to answer questions, send you a build, sit for an interview, or pull the numbers a different way if it is useful. A headshot is available on request.