A Different Kind of Reading Platform

Companies try, at every turn, to extract as much value from us as possible. Our data becomes a commodity, our attention becomes a resource to harvest, and our communities get treated as markets to exploit. Too many organizations operate on a model of continuous extraction, offering far less than they take. Worm fundamentally rejects this model. We believe that the value created by supporting and uplifting communities through local-first discovery, revenue sharing, and equitable access/transparency tools far outweighs any profit we could generate for shareholders. We know that when our communities are supported rather than drained, they grow stronger, more connected, and more capable of resisting the systems that treat them as resources instead of people. With Worm we hope to reclaim a small part of our digital world from the systems that profit off social disengagement and push us toward doomscrolling and bed rotting.

What Is Worm

Worm is a reading platform built around these values. Values that aim to strengthen the infrastructure of the literary community rather than exploit them for profit. Public libraries, independent bookstores, small presses, and the workers who make all of the former possible. This is who we want to see thrive.
At its core, Worm is a clean and modern way to track what you read, discover new books, and organize your reading life. But the purpose goes further than that. The goal is to support and elevate the parts of the reading world that already care about readers and already serve the public good.
Worm is not designed to keep you scrolling. It’s not built to maximize engagement or gather as much data as possible to sell to the highest bidder. Instead, Worm focuses on helping people read more, connect with their libraries, and support the bookshops in their neighborhoods. It aims to encourage intentionality in attention: choosing a book over a mindless scroll, and a story that sparks understanding over a feed built to keep you hooked.
Worm is designed to feel calm. There are no infinite engagement loops here. Discovery exists to help you find books, not to keep you scrolling for the sake of it. You get your books, your shelves, your progress, and a space that respects your time.

Why Reading Matters

Reading is one of the few spaces left in our digital lives that gives more than it takes. It asks for presence, but it gives us back clarity, imagination, and a sense of connection. It slows the world down just enough for us to breathe and turn the page. It helps us understand ourselves and each other. It builds empathy in a way no faceless algorithm can replicate.
In a culture that rewards constant stimulation, choosing to read is a step away from the noise. A choice to focus, to learn, and to feel something real. Reading doesn’t demand you generate profit for shareholders. It doesn’t track you or try to manipulate your behavior. It simply meets you where you are and offers you a story.
Worm exists because the reading world deserves tools that honor that experience. Apps that respect your attention and support discovery without surveillance; that treat books as more than commodities and readers as more than metrics.

Supporting Libraries and Bookshops

The heart of the reading world has always been local. Libraries, independent bookstores, small presses, community organizers, book clubs, school librarians, volunteer archivists. These are the people and institutions that keep reading culture alive. Worm is built specifically to strengthen that ecosystem. We want to make it easier for people to stay connected to their libraries, to browse what is available, to place holds, and to discover books through the public infrastructure that already exists. We want to help bookshops stay visible in a world that pushes every purchase toward the same monopoly retailer. Small stores deserve modern tools too. They deserve digital support that doesn’t require giving up autonomy.
Our goal is to build technology that lifts up the places where reading truly happens. That means integrations that help libraries reach more patrons. It means tools that help indie shops offer rich book data without relying on massive corporate systems. It means giving stores and libraries more control over how they appear in the digital world.
None of this replaces the work they already do. It amplifies it. When readers, libraries, and local bookshops are connected, the entire ecosystem becomes stronger.

Where Worm Is Going

Worm is still early, and that’s part of what makes this moment exciting. We’re building slowly and intentionally, guided by readers, librarians, booksellers, authors, and the communities we want to support. The goal is not rapid growth at any cost. The goal is to build something sustainable, useful, and rooted in shared values.
In the coming months, we will continue improving the core experience: cleaner tracking tools, better book data, smoother access to library systems, and richer ways to explore books through community recommendations. We are also working on features that help bookshops connect more easily with readers online, and on tools that give libraries more visibility and reach.
Looking ahead, we want to expand what supporting the ecosystem means. That includes giving authors more ways to share their work, connect with readers, and build communities around their books without relying on platforms that take more than they give. Writers deserve digital tools that respect both their labor and their autonomy, and we want Worm to play a small but meaningful role in that.
As Worm grows, our partnerships will grow too. Our vision is a digital space where readers can see what’s available in their local communities, where bookshops can thrive without depending on extractive platforms, where libraries have the digital infrastructure they deserve, and where authors can deepen their relationships with the people who care about their work.
We’re building all of this with transparency and care. Every new feature is shaped by the same questions: Does this support the reading community? Does it respect people’s attention and privacy? Does it strengthen the ecosystem instead of draining it?
The direction is steady and clear: create technology that serves readers, authors, and the institutions that make reading possible.

Join Us

We're just getting started, and this kind of network only works if it’s built together. If you care about reading, libraries, and the spaces that make them possible, give Worm a try! Share your thoughts, and help us shape what comes next.

Thank you for being here at the start. There is a lot of work ahead, and we are excited to build it together.