Sink or swim? StarTribune.com of Minneapolis reports that BookSwim is just days away from its big dive into e-commerce. The company, founded by twenty-somethings George Burke and Shamoon Siddiqui, has been in business since March. (Presumably the “beta” tagline after their logo on the home page means they’re still testing the waters.) BookSwim will be up against Booksfree and, indirectly, Simply Audiobooks, in the like Netflix, but for books department. For $23.99 a month, you can pick three books at a time and shipping is free. Take as long as you want to read them and return them when you’re done. The company’s web site claims more than 150,000 titles. Booksfree, which has a six-year head start on Bookswim, boasts 88,000 audio and paperback titles, and rental plans starting at $9.99. Booksfree President Doug Ross told the Fairfax Times that the company has “13,000 customers in all 50 states.” “We’re growing 30 to 50 percent per year,” he told the paper. Compare that to Simply Audiobooks, launched in 2003, that “expects sales of around $6.5 million in 2007.” [In the irony department: Among Booksfree’s board of directors is Marilyn Quayle–yes, wife of former Vice President Dan Quayle, the man who could not spell “potato.”]
Over at Booksquare, you’ll find a bit of chortling, some snark, and a good amount of thinking beyond the book. Kassia Krozser reports on the Book Industry Study Group’s “Making Information Pay 2007” conference, and Kirk Biglione asks publishers to share their creative new media efforts. All of this chatter about distribution and new media led me to finally break down and test eBooks.com. I purchased Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and had it downloaded in both eb20 (eBooks’ web-based reader application) and Acrobat Reader in seconds. While I can’t see myself printing out 300+ pages to read the thing on paper, I’m not sure I can adjust to reading an entire book online. My book-loving vernacular will have to change, for one thing. Does “I couldn’t put it down” become “I couldn’t stop scrolling”?