Today we're excited to be announcing a major partnership, and unveiling the biggest product evolution in Tablo's short history. We've partnered with State Library Victoria—one of the greatest libraries in the southern hemisphere—and created something that we believe is going to be the future of how writers and readers connect online. It's called Communities.

Communities is a world-first initiative that allows libraries, publishers and other groups to host their own writing and reading space, all inside Tablo. Authors will be able to connect with events, industry experts, and new publishing opportunities from some of the best writing institutions in the world.

We couldn't have asked for a better development partner than State Library Victoria. Joining State Library Victoria's community will allow authors to tap into workshops, events, and campaigns from one of the world's greatest literary hubs. We're working closely on campaigns that could even make your work eligible for publishing in the library archive. "Join Tablo, live forever" somebody once quipped in a meeting.

Library Communities are promoted to you based on your location so you'll always see a space that's relevant to you. Communities will be an exciting and dynamic way for libraries to connect with their members in the future, and we have dozens of great library partners to announce in the coming months. Having a community on Tablo (we hope!) will soon be as important as having a page on Facebook.

Beyond libraries, we'll also be building a space for every key interest group on Tablo. You can expect Communities for genres like LGBT or Science Fiction, and for events like NaNoWriMo. We handpick a Tablo user to moderate every community (someone who's shown an incredible passion and commitment to their genre in the past) to make sure the space is lead by someone who loves writing as much as the users they'll connect with.

Communities are a great discussion tool. You can create and join discussions, discover events, meet likeminded users, and share your books to seek feedback. It's going to open up so many opportunities for your work, and add a whole new dimension to the publishing experience.

There's a longstanding belief in the world of publishing that 'digital' is threatening the traditions we know and love: the growth of eBooks is hurting print, self-publishing is damaging the publishing model, libraries are becoming less relevant... We don't feel the same way.

At Tablo, we've been fortunate enough to be a strong player in the digital publishing revolution. We've created a home where authors in over 150 countries have published their work, and where millions of books have been read. Our focus has always been on making it easy for anybody to write their story and connect with readers. The next big revolution for Tablo (and the next step forward for the publishing industry) is to make it easy to connect with libraries, publishers, and likeminded authors around the world.

We think it's a big statement for our 4-year-old company to be partnering with a 160-year-old library to create the future of online writing communities. We can't wait to share more with you all in the coming months.