Lektu , the new DRM-free ebook sales platform , has finally been launched . I liked the initiative from the start; I think a project like this was needed, and I hope it's a huge success. I loved seeing meetings with publishers I'm a customer of and many others I follow closely.
Overall, and considering they're just starting out and have a long way to go, the impressions are good. They deliver on their promises: DRM-free ebooks , affordable prices, and a very user-friendly platform. There's no need to figure out how to buy; the processes and interface are simple and clear. For now, almost all the publishers are focused on science fiction, fantasy, and horror, as expected, but I'm sure they'll diversify over time.
Platform
The book tabs are also very nice, easy to read and focused on offering relevant information to the user.
I miss the ability to rate books , leave comments , and also a price filter , and a way to easily find free ebooks. But it's not crucial.
If you look to the right, the tabs are complemented with previews of the book, with the cover in high quality, and with a series of external links in which I have found a bit of everything from official pages, to blog reviews, or the tab on Goodreads. I have even seen links to other platforms and this I do not think will benefit them much.
One of the surprises I've had is the ability to automatically send our purchases (if they're in mobi format) directly to our Kindle . To do this, we simply need to link our device in two steps.
Go to My Account > My Devices and add your Kindle-associated email address to Amazon. Then go to Amazon > Manage My Kindle > Personal Document Settings and add @lektu.com to the list of authorized email addresses for sending personal documents.
A very interesting option that publishers should take note of 
The project
At a general level, 2 things concern me:
The first one has a very small catalog . It started with only 200 books, which I think is too few for an initiative of this kind, but I'm sure that will improve over time.
The second issue is the lack of new releases . Will Lektu publish new titles or only backlist releases? Valdemar, which I assume will join soon since they've confirmed it on Twitter, doesn't seem to have any intention of uploading their new releases. Just look at Emilio Bueso 's tweet.
Loud and clear: @ed_valdemar will not be releasing any new titles digitally. Books from the backlist will be available on @lektu , not new releases.
— Emilio Bueso (@e_bueso) April 8, 2014
A shame for his followers. If in Lektu we do not see news, only a catalog fund, even though it is an interesting project, can be quite decaffeinated, it will lack the spark to be a total success.
My slight disappointment has been Gigamesh's "lack of involvement ." The Game of Thrones volumes are great (by the way, only the first one is €6, not all of them ¬¬), but they don't have any other books available. I suppose it's just a matter of time, but I expected much more from them at launch.
He was convinced that Gigamesh was going to be a major player in the project, creating both catalog and traffic volume and serving as a hook and pull for smaller publishers.
We will follow Lektu very closely. I look forward to many improvements and news.