You needn't signup to read books on bubblin. So when you signed up you're mostly looking at it like a "writer/creator" of books. That should explain the internal interface a bit.

But I do agree that user on-boarding or it has to be dead simple.

It also means community aspect, more eyeballs to early writers/freelancers who want wider readership and simpler publishing that works just like blogs. etc. etc.

That's about it.