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3 Comments

BooksBites: Would you read a book by email, 10 minutes at a time every day?

Hi everybody,
an idea came to my mind few days ago, because I realized that I'm struggling to find the time to read the books I want but at the same time I spend a lot of time at the computer, reading news, emails, newsletter, etc.
So my thought was: why don't transform a book into a series of email automatically sent to me every morning at a certain time?

I've started from a personal need, because I've thought that an email at a time I would have been able to read some books that are on my shelf since months. But I don't know if it worth it to build develop something for it, maybe the possibile market is too small or a product like this wouldn't last for long in people's email box. I don't know, I have some doubts.

Obviously there would be some limitation because of the copyrights, but in my case the books that I want to read are quite old, some classics of english lecterature, so I don't think there will be any problems at the beginning.

I found some other website that offer the same service, but their website are quite old, the UX is not very good and the books available are few, not very attractive and poorly curated (I tested one of this and received a batch of emails that was simply impossible to read).

What do you think about it? Would you use a service like this?
1 - Register and chose a book between the available ones
2 - The next day at 8.00 am you will received the first pages of the book, that you can read in 8-10 minutes
3 - When you finish, you click a button on the email, confirming that you have read that part
4 - The next day the second part comes to your inbox...and so on until the end.

It could be a subscription model service or maybe a one time payment for each book.

Thanks for your feedbacks!

Would you read a book by email, 10 minutes a time every day?
  1. Yes, I would try!
  2. Not sure...
  3. Not at all!
Vote
  1. 2

    Hey Yuri, I think the idea is neat! I'm probably close to your target demographic. I read pretty consistently and frequently wish I was reading more.

    I voted "Not Sure" because I like to highlight (in Kindle or paper copies) and have that plugged into my Readwise account. So reading via email might not satisfy those needs for me.

    I'd still love to see an MVP of the project just because I think the idea is cool.

    It makes me think of related ideas (no need to take any of these):

    • Readwise sends a snippets of your highlights via email daily and I really enjoyed those for awhile, though I don't read them as much now. So maybe set up a trial of that so you can see what their UX looks/feels like for inspiration.
    • I also use Instapaper for articles and I wish my newsletters and subscription to The Economist went straight there. Potentially a different play would be sending it to someone's read later app? That would solve my highlighting problems.

    Let me know if you push forward with it! I'd be happy to be an early tester for you and give candid feedback.

    Jake

  2. 2

    I voted not sure because it depends how you did it. I'm a voracious reader, go through at least a couple of books a week and reading 10 minutes at a time would frankly annoy me BUT If I was given the opening chapter of a really good book, and I was enjoying it and faced the prospect of only getting it 10 minutes at a time each day, then an option to buy it right there and then would get me a book and you more money off the bat.

    1. 1

      Cool Yes And is maybe the monetization is affiliate marketing?

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