One business that could create a nice Facebook application and make some money out of it: Wowio.
Any major publisher could pump the long tail into Wowio and catch a windfall in Facebook. At this point in time I severely doubt a PDF version of a book is going to dissuade any reader from buying a paperback for that long holiday weekend coming up at the end of November. But a PDF... might be handy to try out those couple dozen titles that always seemed really interesting in the bookstore, but just never on payday. Know what I mean? Or maybe test drive a few books on the ole notebook on the transcontinental flight home on break.
Now, in this paragraph, if it wasn't clear above, I clearly exhibit signs of smoking crack (aka thinking outloud with the mute button disabled): A link to Wowio downloads on librarything.com book pages. For instance:
A link to the Wowio download on Google Book Search or Windows Live Book Search. A link on publishers' book store pages for every out of print book. (Why not list them? Even if POD pays somebody's salary, couldn't Wowio buy that guy a sushi lunch every week? I think so.)
What Wowio lacks: 1. better site search and 2. much better browse functions. (It's almost like they don't want people to see everything they've got.)
3. Dreamy content. They lack it. (Example: Computers & Internet category.) They've got some good stuff, but not awesome stuff. It's like a used paperback store in some small town north of Tampa, FL. Everything is a dollar, but it's hard to find what you're looking for, and it's all kinda ho-hum. Like it left the shelf of someone who never really cared what they read... and then died... then someone had to get rid of it, but couldn't throw it away... 4. A social network of readers. Maybe not enough people actually read the titles they download...dunno. Wonder if they keep stats on that. Then maybe they could really do something in Facebook. Oh, wait, Facebook could provide the social network... hmmm. Now you see how I got to the top of this blog entry.
Any major publisher could pump the long tail into Wowio and catch a windfall in Facebook. At this point in time I severely doubt a PDF version of a book is going to dissuade any reader from buying a paperback for that long holiday weekend coming up at the end of November. But a PDF... might be handy to try out those couple dozen titles that always seemed really interesting in the bookstore, but just never on payday. Know what I mean? Or maybe test drive a few books on the ole notebook on the transcontinental flight home on break.
Now, in this paragraph, if it wasn't clear above, I clearly exhibit signs of smoking crack (aka thinking outloud with the mute button disabled): A link to Wowio downloads on librarything.com book pages. For instance:
A link to the Wowio download on Google Book Search or Windows Live Book Search. A link on publishers' book store pages for every out of print book. (Why not list them? Even if POD pays somebody's salary, couldn't Wowio buy that guy a sushi lunch every week? I think so.)
What Wowio lacks: 1. better site search and 2. much better browse functions. (It's almost like they don't want people to see everything they've got.)
3. Dreamy content. They lack it. (Example: Computers & Internet category.) They've got some good stuff, but not awesome stuff. It's like a used paperback store in some small town north of Tampa, FL. Everything is a dollar, but it's hard to find what you're looking for, and it's all kinda ho-hum. Like it left the shelf of someone who never really cared what they read... and then died... then someone had to get rid of it, but couldn't throw it away... 4. A social network of readers. Maybe not enough people actually read the titles they download...dunno. Wonder if they keep stats on that. Then maybe they could really do something in Facebook. Oh, wait, Facebook could provide the social network... hmmm. Now you see how I got to the top of this blog entry.
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