BookSwim: Sometimes, What Happens Offline Should Stay Offline
09/05/2007, 11 months 4 weeks ago
There are some days when I have to buy into the idea posed by a recent commenter that Web 2.0 is a joke. Not everything needs to be online, but there are some folks who apparently think everything from writing letters to blowing your nose needs to be 2.0-enabled. Apparently, this was the driving force behind BookSwim, which is positioning itself as a Netflix-type service for books.
BookSwim follows a similar pricing structure to Netflix's, with 150,000 titles available 3 at a time for $19.99 a month, 5 at a time for $23.99 a month, 7 at a time for $27.99 a month, 9 at a time for $31.99, or 11 at a time for $35.99 a month. As with the video rental services, you can take as long as you'd like to read the books, and the next one on your queue is shipped as soon as you return one. If you like a book, you can notify BookSwim, and they will allow you to purchase it at a discounted rate and then send you the next book in your queue.
There's only one problem with this business plan: Netflix and its cousins that have sprouted up like Blockbuster Total Access were replacing or supplementing rental services that already existed in a brick-and-mortar version. BookSwim's brick and mortar competitor is called a library, and last time I checked, it was free.
My husband was kind enough to point out that there are some people who constantly return books past their due date at the library and they may look at this service as a way to pre-pay those same overdue fees (I'm not sure what he was insinuating there), but in reality, between the library and book community/exchange sites like Bookcrossing, I'm not entirely sure this is a sustainable business model. Are there that many people out there willing to pay to borrow books?
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Yes! I would! You are forgetting the people wo don’t live in a town/city big enough to support a library, or those like me who ive in one in which the library sucks. This would be cheaper than driving an hour to Barnes and Noble or ordering books I want online - I could pick and choose books I *really* want to own for the price of a hardback.
not to self: spell check/typo check comments. gah
Sure, but that’s a pretty small segment of the population. You aren’t going to make money (especially considering what shipping this stuff costs… can’t use media rate when you have customers relying on fast turnaround) if you aren’t dealing with a large customer base.
Thanks for the coverage of BookSwim, but I want to say that the idea is simply ease of distribution cross-country of a physical product; a product that we feel should NOT be on the web — a book. I wouldn’t call this web 2.0. We just feel it’s a good way to save money on the reading material that maybe you can’t find at a library because it’s too new, or there aren’t enough copies, or it’s a rare title, or you’d have to add your name to a waiting list. BookSwim is about getting the book you want when you want it. Period.
-George Burke, CMO of BookSwim
Yes! I am willing to rent books. Time is more valuable to me than money at this point in my life. And with this service, I can come home from work (long after the library has closed) to books on my doorstop. No errand to run; no downtime involved.
I enjoyed the George Burke comment about getting the book you want when you want it. I bought the service as a gift for my girlfriend thinking it was a great idea. Libraries are safe!! Poor service, blame for slow delivery placed on the USPS or their addresss label machine. Their responce was to ask me to spend more money for more books since the turn around time was so slow. Its been over 5 weeks since putting books in her pool and to date she had received 3 books. She sent back two books over two weeks ago. She, my girlfriend asked me to get my money back after realizing this service could not be counted on. She has Netflix and I Blockbuster and both use USPS with little to no glitches. If you received your 3 Blockbuster movies two weeks after putting them in you que, sent two back and over two weeks have gone by, still no movies show up then what do you do? Save your money for now! Librarys 1, Book Swim 0
Jim, thanks for stopping back at the article and letting me know how it works in practice. Just a question; how are the books being sent? Boxes or other packaging? Media rate or first class?
Cyndy, the books are in packaging. Media rate of course. I wrote and told them I wanted to cancel. They gave me a credit towards the first two months and said if I still was’nt happy after the next couple attempts they would refund my money. We will see, funny how both my girlfriend and I have lowered our expectations now.
The media rate is the kicker, since it’s so low priority. I’m guessing they aren’t interested in making money on a volume of subscribers, but rather, on an unfavorable-to-the-consumer price to value ratio. Media rate costs next to nothing (say $4 on the high side for a hardcover).
I’m going with “better value to buy the darn book” right now unless I hear about speed increases (like Netflix’s regionalization a while back) or a price drop in subscription rates.