New mail order book club follows Netflix
Do innovative sales and marketing ideas for dvds translate well for books?
I guess we’ll find out. Most people are familiar with Netflix: you pick your favorite movies on their website and they send you the dvds via snail mail. After you watch the movie, you send it back and get the next dvd on your list. It turned out to be one of those million-dollar ideas (probably a lot more than that) and has been so wildly successfull it almost brought brick-and-mortar Blockbuster to its knees.
Well now two young and idealistic entrepreneurs are going to bring the Netflix concept to books. It’s called Bookswim. The idea is the same in that for a small monthly fee ($15 to $20) you pick out five books you want to read, they send them to you, you read them and then send the books back in the pre-paid package.
I’m skeptical. First, books are not like dvds in that they cannot be slipped into an envelope for shipping. A book has some bulk to it, not to mention weight. So these guys are going to be paying a butt-load (that’s right, I said it) in shipping costs. And with postal rates on the rise…not looking good already!
Secondly, I’m not sure how big the market is for people who read more than a few books a month. Because if you don’t, then it’s not going to be worth the monthly fee – you might as well go down to your local Borders and pick up your own copy (or order it from Amazon).
Finally, if you want a book that bad without actually having to keep it, there’s something called a library. According to an article published by Startribune.com, the two entrepreneurs have already thought of this:
"The big complaint is most libraries have working hours — they typically close at 5 p.m.," Siddiqui said. And someone may have checked out the book you want.
Well, if I really want to read a book, and the library is closed, then I’ll just go the following day. It would probably still be faster than waiting for your book to be delivered from Bookswim. As far as the book already being checked out, I’ve rarely had such a problem because most libraries nowadays are so interconnected that they share books like crazy.
Don’t get me wrong, I really hope Bookswim is a success, because I’m all in favor of new ways of getting books into the hands of the reading public. My hats go off to these guys for not only taking an idea and applying it to the world of literature, but actually following through with the idea and making it happen.
They’re definitely putting their money where their mouth is!
Read the entire article about Bookswim here:
Bookswim aims to be the Netflix of books
Better yet, visit the Bookswim website for yourself:
Bookswim.com
(Hey, if anyone out there signs up for Bookswim and gives it a test run, I want to hear from you. Feel free to post us a comment and tell us about your experience)
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