The secret wish of every author is perhaps to bypass the publishers, agents, distributors and other intermediaries who take a cut, and sell directly to their readers. While Kindle, Nook and other e-book apps have made it easier to self-publish, some sites are democratizing the e-book publishing scene by giving writers the power to create illustrated, interactive books with a few drag-and- drop moves.

Best suited for children’s book at present, the user interface of Moglue promises to pack a punch with a variety of illustration and animation possibilities.

“Telling stories is both universal and eternal; the only change has been the way in which they are told. We intend to build an open community where media is shared, and any creative, imaginative person will be able to use the platform to build and share fun, engaging apps”, declares Moglue, whose motto is ‘Create. Play.  Share.’

Using Moglue Builder, authors can incorporate imaginative illustrations to their books, even without much programming know-how.  Moglue Builder’s user-friendly drag-and-drop user interface allows you to use your own photographs besides its own set of stored vector images.

(I downloaded the interface and played around with it. See image. Still wondering what the storyline should be!)

Writers using Moglue’s one-click publishing tool can directly publish and sell on Apple’s Store, Google Play, Amazon’s App Store and Android. This means a wide variety of audiences and potential buyers who use  iPads, iPhones, iPod touch, Android tablets and Android phones.

Besides the MoglueBuilder desktop publishing platform, the startup also has an iOS-based ebook store for readers to browse and buy the books.

Moglue’s founding team of designers, developers, strategic planners and marketers from the US, France and Korea,  developed the prototype in three days during a 2010 Start-up event in Seoul, South Korea.

The startup, led by Taewoo Kim, has raised $450,000 besides the $540,000 seed fund.
Kyobo, Korea’s largest book distributor, is using Moglue Builder as its interface for interactive e-books.

Soon Moglue hopes to expand its reach into books in education, graphic novels and information brochures.