(We originally posted this in 2020. You can read more of our original ideas in our archive.)
Problem: People are more willing to read during lockdown, but it is increasingly difficult to find new books.
Solution: A company that specializes in helping consumers discover new books by curating and advertising digital book tours. This idea came to me when my friend and college classmate Jose Coranado Flores published his first book, “Voyages of an Oceanless Boat.” In our conversation he mentioned how COVID19 canceled his book tour and has impacted his ability to reach new audiences. This got me thinking: why not digitize this marketing platform through connecting with companies to offer book talks during lunch or partnering with college alumni clubs?
As written by Noah Charney in The Atlantic, “In recent years, and especially since the recession of 2008, when author advances shrunk and publishing had to tighten its collective belt, one of the first things to go were book tours (not to mention the all-but-extinct beast called the ‘book release party’).” As currently formulated, these tours are extremely expensive. However, many industry analysts have argued that:
to flourish in an increasingly digital world, publishers need to be more nimble in embracing and adapting some of the behaviours of social media — deploying relationships, a sense of community and — above all — data.
One company that already does this is TLC Book Tours and another is BookTour (now defunct, but raised $350k from Amazon).
The book publishing industry generated an estimated $26.23 billion in net revenue for 2017 (accounting for 2.72 billion units) with 43.2% of those being in print books and 27% being in Ebooks. Most of these sales are in the Trade school, Higher-ed, and education space; however, categories like adult nonfiction, adult fiction, and young adult fiction/non-fiction are also extremely popular. Given the rise of e-books and size of the industry,
Monetization: Proceeds from books sold while on tour or swag sold while on tour. Perhaps publishing companies pay a fee to have the tour organized.
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)