If you are an avid reader, over a period you would have accumulated a lot of good collection of books. Once your collection outgrows your shelving space, you either donate these off or leave them somewhere unattended to keep your shelf space available for new books. Moreover, there are upright costs associated with every new book you add to your collection.
What if there is a way to create value by:
– Airing your collection for other readers
– Getting access to other collections without purchasing the books
Here are some thoughts on how to monetize the book collection by bringing in a flavor of the sharing economy.
Let’s look at some of the Pain points of this reader group:
– Space constraint
– Cost associated with purchase
– Availability of books at that point in time.
– What to read next?
The business objective here is to monetize the books available at home by airing them on a portal (read: virtual library) and making the library accessible to the larger reader group.
Every reader uploads X books (Title photos) to the virtual library and the library becomes a catalog with XXX books that can be accessed by any reader who subscribes to this library.
MVP features (Not exhaustive)
- Ability to upload the book titles (Cover photos) available to a portal
- Enable book issue & return process
- For Every book issue you will require virtual coins (Portal Currency)
- Every month, based on your subscription plan, some virtual coins would get added to your account and those can be spent to get the new books issued.
- Penalty for not returning the books on time.
Typical User Journey:
Upload Scenario-1:
- Take title photos of X unused books in your collection
- Categorize the books into different categories — Self-help, Fiction, Scifi etc.
- Upload it on a portal.
- For each upload, you receive x v-coins
- The coins can be spent to read other books in the library.
Upload Scenario-2
If you have someone who hasn’t uploaded any book but wants access to this library, charge a monthly subscription amount. Every subscription will grant you some virtual coins that can be spent on the portal.
Book Issue Scenario-1:
- As a reader, who uploaded your collection, you get access to the entire collection in addition to some proportionate virtual coins allotted.
- You pick any books from the collection by spending your virtual coins and the book gets delivered to your home (filled in during the registration)
Book Issue Scenario-2:
- As a reader, who didn’t upload any collection, you get access to the entire collection only by subscribing to it by paying $ X / month. The $X would give you access to X virtual coins.
- You pick any books from the collection by spending your virtual coins and the book gets delivered to your home (filled in during the registration)
Business Model:
Subscription model with a Monthly Recurring Revenue of $ X / user.
Recurring Costs associated.
1. Delivery of Books to the issued User
2. Maintenance of the portal