A year to the date that we hosted Hawai'i's top book publishers at The Advertiser to talk about a new Web site for our local literary scene, we proudly launched www.HawaiiReaders.com on Wednesday, giving local authors and publishers a place to meet and talk about what they love most.

Full credit goes to Makana Risser Chai, an author, speaker, consultant and attorney, who approached us with the idea of using our Web site to create a space for the latest news about local books and authors.

Risser Chai enlisted the help of a dozen publishers and four author-bloggers from the Hawaii Book Publishers Association to get us started. Ron Cox, the association's president, also was invaluable in getting the site launched.

As someone who has long advocated for more space in The Advertiser for news and reviews on books, Risser Chai saw the power of our Web site and the communal success of www.HawaiiMomsLikeMe.com as a template to start a site for readers to talk passionately about books. Like us, she has always wanted to do everything she could to promote local authors and publishers who are barely breaking even in this economy.

"In most cases, a publisher doesn't publish a new book because readers want to read it, but because an author wants to write it," she said. "Publishers often have to guess what people want. Hawaii Readers.com is designed to get readers talking with one another about what they have read. Perhaps more important, it will get them talking about what they'd like to read in the future, so publishers and authors might better meet those needs. "

As we explained to our publishers, we would set up the site through WordPress, develop automated feeds of book-related headlines from the Advertiser and news services and provide a best-seller list and a calendar for book events. The bloggers -authors Chris McKinney, Michael Little, Roger Jellinek and Thomas Cummings — signed up to provide their insights and the publishers posted information about their latest offerings as well as the latest literary events around town. We have more author-bloggers in the wings willing to add their insights to www.HawaiiReaders.com.

The site will only be as successful as those who join in and get involved in the discussion about books. We have already met with Bamboo Ridge Press, Bess Press, Island Heritage, University of Hawai'i Press and Koa Books, and others such as Mutual Publishing, Bishop Museum Press and Kamehameha Publishing have joined in to help. We welcome any publisher, author, book store, educational institution or book lover to get involved and make this site as impressive as we know it can be.

It is still a work in progress and we welcome your feedback. We hope that you find the site useful as a gathering place for all things literary and it is our hope that you will make it your own and have fun with it.

Mark Platte is senior vice president and editor of The Advertiser. Reach him at 525-8080. Or follow his Twitter updates at www.twitter.com/markplatte.