In an industry long shaped by intermediaries, delayed payments, and opaque reader data, STCK is positioning itself as a transformative force for Indian publishing. Helmed by Co-Founders Ritesh Mehta and Samir Patil, the platform is redefining how publishers and authors can build sustainable, direct relationships with their readers.
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Ritesh Mehta
Ritesh Mehta is the Founder & CEO of Stck.me. Before starting Stck, Ritesh spent over 16 years at Google and Meta, working across product policy, community operations and global partnerships. He is also the COO of Scroll.in, one of India’s most respected digital newsrooms, and the founder of Factivo, an AI-powered content transformation platform used by publishers around the world.
Samir Patil
Samir Patil is the co-founder of stck.me. He is also the founder of Scroll.in, one of India’s most widely read and respected independent news outlets. A former Associate Partner at McKinsey & Company in New York, he holds a master’s degree in Engineering and Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
STCK is trying to solve a fundamental imbalance: those who create and curate books are often the last to see revenue or insights. With its direct-to-fan infrastructure, transparent economics, and end-to-end technology stack, STCK aims to give publishers and writers control, visibility, and ownership. Here, Ritesh Mehta, and Samir Patil
Co-Founders,, STCK share more.
The inception…
“We have spent most of our working life around media and publishing. One thing has always bothered us: the people who do the hard work of publishing a book – the publisher and the writer – are usually the last to see the money and the last to see any data about their readers, “ tells Ritesh.
“Most small and mid-sized Indian publishers today are dependent on a few large online retailers and distributors. You get a thin margin, you wait months for payments, and you rarely know who actually bought your book. You are in the book business but your direct relationship is often with an algorithm, not a reader. Stck was born to fix that.,” adds Samir. ”We built Stck as infrastructure that lets publishers and writers sell directly to their fans, from their own branded site and our reader app, while keeping most of the revenue and 100% of the IP. There is no exclusivity – you can continue on Amazon, Flipkart, offline stores – but you finally have your own “direct line” to readers.”
So What differentiates Stck? To which Ritesh replies, “Stck is different in these four aspects:
Direct-to-fan focus: We are not a marketplace; we are the rails under your own store and your own brand.
Business model that favours publishers and writers: On our Pro plan, you keep 75% of net earnings from printed books and 90% from e-books. The same model applies whether you’re Speaking Tiger Books or a single self-published author.
Transparency: You see who bought your book, you get your earnings every month, and you can talk to readers directly.
End-to-end stack: Website, catalog, ecommerce, global print-on-demand, payments, reader app, email notifications – all in one place.
In short, we’re trying to give Indian publishers and writers the kind of control and economics that only the very biggest global houses historically enjoyed.”
On target audience…
“Our first audience is Indian publishers – especially independent houses, university presses, language publishers and specialist imprints who have strong lists but limited direct-to-consumer infrastructure. Our second audience is individual writers who want to own their brand and their reader relationships,” shares Samir.
“For publishers, Stck does three things:
Turns your list into a direct business: You can put your whole backlist and frontlist on your own Stck-powered site, offer paperback, hardback and e-book versions, and sell to readers in India and abroad.
Improves margins and cash flow: With our Pro plan, you keep 75% of net earnings on printed books (after print cost) and 90% on e-books, with the same pricing and revenue share for publishers and independent authors. Payouts are monthly, not after long settlement cycles.
Gives you reader data and loyalty tools: You see who bought which book, can email them, send updates via our app, and build a base of repeat buyers instead of one-time “units sold” on a marketplace.,” shares Ritesh
“For writers, the same engine powers their own branded microsites and stores. Many start with a single book; others move entire catalogues and fan communities to Stck over time. But the principle is identical: one fair model for both publishers and independent authors,” he adds.
Technology changing the publishing ecosystem…
“Technology has done two contradictory things to publishing. On one side, it has opened the world to Indian publishers and writers: global payments, print-on-demand, online discovery, audiobooks, and the ability to reach a diaspora reader in Toronto or Singapore as easily as in Thiruvananthapuram. On the other side, it has concentrated power in the hands of a few platforms. A single recommendation algorithm can make or break a title’s visibility. Your revenue share is fixed by someone else, your reader data lives in somebody else’s database, and pricing decisions are influenced by discount wars you don’t control. The result is that many Indian publishers feel both empowered and trapped at the same time,” says Samir.
He further adds, “The next phase of technology in publishing, in my view, is about rebalancing this:
Moving from “only big platforms” to a mix of platform plus direct.
Using technology not just to distribute content, but to own relationships and data.
Using tools like print-on-demand, analytics and AI to give even small publishers the capabilities that previously only the largest houses had.Stck sits in this second wave: not replacing traditional channels, but giving publishers their own levers.”
How STCK works?
For Indian publishers, Stck supports a few practical work models:
Direct D2C store for your entire catalog: You set up a branded site (e.g. speakingtigerbooks.stck.me or kalachuvadupublications.stck.me), list your backlist and new titles, offer print + e-book options, and link this store from your existing website and social handles.
Campaign-based launches and pre-orders: For certain titles, you can run focused campaigns – pre-orders, signed editions, special bundles – and market them directly to your own mailing list and social audiences.
Clubs, memberships and bundles: Some publishers are experimenting with “book clubs” (e.g. curated bundles, series, or themes) where readers get a set of books or essays directly from the publisher every few months.
Author-led stores under a publisher umbrella: If you have strong house writers, they can have their own branded pages on Stck that still route revenue through the publisher’s account, so you maintain financial control while giving them more visibility.
“Commercially, the model is deliberately simple. There is a free tier, where we keep 25% of every transaction. There is a Pro subscription at US$19.99 per month (or US$200 per year), where we keep 10% of digital sales and 25% of net physical sales (after print cost). Critically, publishers and independent writers are treated identically. The same subscription options, the same revenue shares, and no separate or hidden publisher fees,” adds Samir.
The clients…
“In India, we’re proud to work with a growing set of independent and mission-driven publishers like Speaking Tiger Books – a leading independent list in English, across non-fiction, literary fiction and children’s writing; Zubaan Books – a pioneering feminist publishing house, now reaching readers globally through Stck; Kalachuvadu Publications – a major Tamil publisher using Stck to take important Tamil literature, from Perumal Murugan to Bama, to readers around the world; Hyderabad Book Trust and its English imprint SouthSide Books – publishing critical social, political and literary work in Telugu and English, with better access for global readers; Jadavpur University Press – extending university press publishing beyond campus and city limits; and Moving Words and Chowringhee Press, which focus on literary translations and collections,” shares Ritesh.
“Internationally, we also support niche presses, documentary and non-fiction projects, and individual authors – for instance, Pure Nonfiction and authors like theatre historian Ron Fassleruse Stck to sell their books directly to fans. But our centre of gravity is very much India. That’s where the most exciting experiments are happening: language publishing, political non-fiction, feminism, translation, regional literatures – all going global via direct-to-fan models,” he adds.
On technology trends in the next 5 years…
“A few trends feel especially important for Indian publishers:
Owned audiences and first-party data: Depending only on marketplace algorithms is risky. Publishers will increasingly need their own email lists, first-party data and direct channels (web + app) to survive changes in platform policies.
AI as a co-pilot, not a replacement: AI will quietly sit inside workflows – copyediting aids, blurb generation, metadata optimisation, A/B testing of covers and descriptions, targeted marketing. The key is to use AI to make human editorial work more powerful, not to replace it.
Print-on-demand and localised printing: Global and regional print-on-demand – including in India – will become standard. It reduces inventory risk, improves cash flow and allows experimentation with more niche titles without big print runs. Platforms like Stck already price earnings on a “net after print cost” model, which is aligned with this future.
Fan-commerce around books:Readers don’t just buy books: they buy belongings. Expect more direct sales of signed editions, bundles, special formats, and access (online events, workshops, communities) offered by publishers and authors themselves.
Multiformat publishing by default: Text, audio, short video, and interactive formats will increasingly sit around a book. Technology will make it easier for publishers to spin a single IP into multiple formats without huge additional investment.
Publishers who build capabilities in these areas will be far more resilient than those who stay only within traditional distribution,” shares Ritesh.
On promoting sustainability with technology…
“Sustainability is not just “good PR” for publishing; it is also good business. Technology helps in at least three ways:
Reducing overprinting and pulping: With reliable print-on-demand and better data on real demand, publishers can move from “print big, hope to sell” to “print closer to actual demand”, which cuts waste, storage costs and pulping.
Printing closer to the reader: As global and regional print-on-demand networks mature, you can print in or near the country where the reader lives. That reduces shipping distances, carbon footprint and customs complexity.
Right-format, right-quantity strategies: For some titles, digital-first or digital+print bundles will make more sense than big print runs; for others, high-quality printed editions supported by strong direct pre-orders will reduce returns and unsold stock,” tells Samir.
Message for our readers…
“If you are an Indian publisher or writer reading this, I’d say just one thing: don’t give up your direct relationship with your readers. By all means, continue to work with Amazon, Flipkart, distributors, bookstores – they are important partners. But also build your own home: your own site, your own app presence, your own mailing list, your own store. Start small. Put 5–10 titles on a direct-to-fan channel. Watch who buys them, talk to those readers, run a few campaigns, experiment with new formats. You’ll be surprised by how much goodwill and revenue is unlocked when a reader knows they are buying “from the publisher” or “from the author.”At Stck, we simply want to give you the tools so that, in the digital era, you don’t just survive – you lead,” conclude Ritesh and Samir.
