The Literary Life

From the staff of BookSwim.com

Category: VIDEO CLIP!

ABC 6 Philadelphia: “Save by renting all sorts of things” by Amy Buckman

See the video and read the full article at 6ABC.com

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August 13, 2010 (WPVI) — “The more expensive an item is, the more money you’re going to save by renting.” So says Rental Industry Expert Eric Ginsburg.

Planning a camping vacation? You could buy a Base Camp 4 tent for $349, or rent it from REI.

Once you pay a one-time membership fee of $20, the tent can be yours for $25 the first day, and $15 for each day after that.

There are similar deals on a $299 REI XT-85 backpack and a $259 REI Halo +25 sleeping bag. Both rent for $15 the first day and $10 each day after that. Whether renting makes sense for you depends on how often you’re going to use the item.

“People who go camping all the time, you’re better off buying it,” Ginsberg explains. “But for people who do it once in a while or who want to try it, definitely rent before you buy.”

You can even rent books to read while you’re camping.

Ginsberg says, “You can rent everything from paperback classics up to hard-cover new releases from BookSwim.com.”

“Bookswim.com works a lot like NetFlix does. You have no due dates and late fees. You add all the books that you want into the pool and they send them to you in the mail and you send them back whenever you’re done.”

Plans start at 10 dollars a month.

And if you’re more into music than literature, check out Guitar Affair.

“If you go to Guitar Affair.com you can rent some VERY nice guitars,” Ginsberg says. “A lot of them are custom-made for a fraction of the cost (of buying).”

Everyone’s heard of rental cars, and traditional services are great if you need a car for several days. But ZipCar.com allows members to rent cars by the hour — and they don’t have to be returned a central location.

“You can become a member of ZipCar.com and then rent a car for as little as $11, depending on how long you need to rent it for,” Ginsberg says.

And just about anything else you would want to rent is available through RentCycle.com.

“Rentcycle.com is a really great aggregator of the things you can rent,” Ginsberg explains. “You can punch in your zip code and/or whatever it is that you’re looking for and they’re going to find a number of online and local solutions for you.”

You can rent formalwear for a special occasion by going to Rent The Runway. And you can even rent pets from animal shelters for the weekend through FlexPetz.com.

See the video and read the full article at 6ABC.com

SunshineRewards: “Win a BookSwim.com Membership at Sunshine Rewards”

Enter at SunshineRewards.com

We’re always excited when we introduce a new merchant at Sunshine Rewards but even more exciting when we can do it with a contest! SR has partnered with our newest merchant, BookSwim.com, to give you a chance to win a membership for yourself AND a friend!

What is BookSwim? It’s often called “Netflix” for books but that’s completely do it justice. BookSwim is a membership based service that allows you to rent books for as long as you want. You simply choose the monthly plan that works best for you and then visit their site to start queuing up your books. They will then send the books to you from your list. Take as long as you want to read them and after you return them, they will send you more. It’s a perfect solution for people who love to read but are tired of paying $10-30 per book. Unlike the library, you won’t be on wait lists for months just to get new releases. And now on with the contest!

The prize: A 2-month membership to BookSwim.com for both you AND your nominee (plan will be the 3 books at a time plan given as a $50 gift card).

To enter:

1) Leave a comment below telling us who you know that deserves a BookSwim membership and why (one entry).

2) Twitter about the contest and leave a comment below with your Tweet (one entry).

3) Post this contest on Facebook and leave a comment below with what you posted (one entry).

4) Blog about this contest and leave your link to the post below (two entries).

Entries must be received by midnight Eastern on July 6, 2010. Open to U.S. residents 18 and older only.

Don’t want to wait for the contest to get a membership? Save even more with BookSwim.com with BookSwim.com coupons and cash back at Sunshine Rewards. Watch our video below to learn even more about BookSwim might be for you.

Enter at SunshineRewards.com

How the Dutch Auction Can Save E-Books

Quietly I’ve been watching the e-book pricing debate and the feuds between Amazon and many publishers.  I’ve seen quite a few interesting articles on the price of e-books from heavy hitters such as Cory Doctorow (via podcasts) and articles such as this.  There are tons of other articles I’ve read lately and all of them seem to be offering perspectives but very few of them (if any) provided an actual step by step solution that publishers can follow to solve this crazy complex question of HOW TO PRICE AN E-BOOK.

The solution is simple – Dutch Auctions. (wikipedia entry)

For those that are unfamiliar with a dutch auction and don’t feel like reading here’s a short summary

1) The seller sets a quantity of an item to sell, the description of the item, and a time to keep the auction open
2) Bidders get to select a price and quantity they wish to buy at.  For example, they can say they are willing to pay $50 each for 10 units.  Their bid is a contract and should they be a winner, they must pay and will receive the item.  (The second part is key to getting people to be honest in their perceived value).
3) When the auction is over, starting with the highest price, quantities are matched until the quantity is met and that is the price that the top bidders get.  (Ok, this is a mouthful, see the chart below)

EXAMPLE:
Stated Quantity: 80
Bids:

Bid Quantity Bid Price
10 $100
20 $80
50 $50
100 $25
1000 $20
10000 $15

In this case,the quantity level would be met at the price of $50 (10 + 20 + 50), so the 80 people who bid $50+ would be sold the item at $50.

Got it?  Good.  Cause now comes the fun part.

If you have ever taken econ 101 or had to sit into a business meeting with a CFO, you’ve seen this before.  Its the supply/demand curve.  Most of the articles that have talked about e-book sales have mentioned that publishers need to figure out the supply and demand curve for e-books so they can solve the pricing problem.  Well, I’m about to explain how dutch auctions will solve that problem, and how to make the data work.

The Information a Dutch Auction Provides
1) The number of people willing to pay a given price for e-books
2) The distribution of people at a given price
3) How scarcity effects price

To keep this discussion short(er) and focused, I will NOT touch upon hardcover/paperback releases or pricing.

How Does a Dutch Auction Solve This Problem?
If you look at the chart above with bid quantity and price, as you see, your quantity increases as your price decreases.  In actuality, there will be a cutoff where a reduction in price will not yield a significant gain in quantity.  To save on time and screen space, I will use the above table in the rest of these examples.  From the data, we’ve learned that we have a demand of 11,180 from the sample size of people who knew of the auction.  Based on this data, if we know 10% of our addressable market saw the auction, then we have potential sales of 111,800 (assuming that we sell it at $15).  We also see that we have a potential of 11,800 if we sell it at $20.  With this, we can actually plot out that supply/demand curve.  (I will address data quality issues later).  I’ve addressed facts #1 and #2 above.  As for scarcity, based on the quantity defined in the dutch auction, you will have different price distributions (which can help address limited editions)

How Can This Be Done With Statistical Accuracy?
I have a reasonable schooling in mathematics and have held quite a few positions being “the stats guy” so I understand the importance (and irrelevance) of limited/bad data.  Below are the steps to gather enough data so that the information gathered will be statistically relevant and will provide a reasonable cross section of information.

Providing Diversity Within Data:
1) For all of the following lists, they will need to be repeated for the following groups (Suggested min 5 authors per group):
a) Mass market (high recognition) authors such as James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Stephanie Meyer
b) Niche market (high recognition within a niche) authors such as Neil Gaiman
c) Mid-market (medium recognition) authors – this would be a multi-published author with some popularity
d) Debut authors.  For best results, ignore previously well known figures
e) Celebrities.  It seems their putting out books in greater frequency and you can’t ignore them.

How To Collect The Data:
There are a few rules that need to be followed for any of this to work.  A failure to follow any of these rules will compromise the data and provide less accurate results
1) There needs to be a limited quantity that will be provided during the dutch auction.  This quantity should be less than the total demand (60% or so).  Prior sales can be used as in indicator.
2) This must be the only channel in which the e-book can be purchased.  There must be at least 3-4 months delay before the e-book will be available outside of this dutch auction.
3) No pricing data should be available in the auction description.  Bidders must not be given starting points for comparison with such immediacy.
4) Traffic must be driven to the auction site.  Quantity being sold during the auction should be driven by the expected traffic that will make it to the auction.
5) The auctions should be run during the month or two leading up to the release of the book and should end on the day the book is released (so that winning bidders can receive their e-book on the day of release)
6) Bid quantity must be fixed at 1 unit and bidders only allowed one bid.  This will keep out people trying to fix results or bulk buyers.  The goal is to find out what consumer demand is.

Summary:
1) Publishers should run 20-25 dutch-auctions to gather data on the supply/demand curve of books
2) Publishers should control the supply of those e-books to get an accurate idea of demand distribution
3) After data is collected, a reasonable idea of what specific types of books with different marketing spends/author recognition look like will be gained

I realize this is a blog post, and I’m speaking to a general audience, but I will be available via comments and e-mail (nruffilo@bookswim.com) if you have further questions about this.

-Nick

RaisingSmallSouls: Box Opening (video) by Ellen C. Braun

Read the full article and watch the video at RaisingSmallSouls.com

If you’ve been around RaisingSmallSouls for even a short while, you’ll know that I love to read and highly encourage children to love reading.

Today, I am thrilled to tell you about my new best friend- BookSwim!

I was SO EXCITED when my first BookSwim package arrived this morning, that I took this video of myself opening it:

Rent books for children, for yourself, textbooks, and MORE!



Read the full article and watch the video at RaisingSmallSouls.com

WFSB-TV Better Connecticut: “If you didn’t get what you wanted — Rent it!”

See the article at WFSB.com

Watch the video segment for Better Connecticut

Why don’t you rent the items you didn’t get for Christmas? Kara talks about renting designer bags, dresses and even books! Rent Books Netflix style!

NY WPIX 11 Morning News: “Gifts for under $50″

Watch the video and read the article at WPIX.com

Keep it under 50 bucks. We’re sticking to a holiday shopping budget. Danielle DeMarne from Modelinia and supermodel Selita Ebanks were here with a few gift ideas for everyone on your list.

For Women
- Beautiful Bling Watch ($49.90) by Curations
- 40’s Faux Fur Scarves ($39) by Curations
- Leather Gloves with Faux Trim ($49.90) by Curations
- Metal Mesh Clutch ($49) by Express
- Beaded Clutch ($44.50) by Express


From Modelinia
- Jewelry (all under $50) Grayce by Molly Sims
- Elle Make Better DVD|starring Brooklyn Decker ($19.95)

For Men
- Cufflinks ($39.50) by Banana Republic
- Wool Scarves ($50) by Banana Republic
- Big Papi Hot Sauce ($10.99)

For Teens
- Fingerless Gloves by Express or Curations
- BookSwim.com

For Children
- All Items from Moomah ($8 – $22)

Click here to read the full product details.

Watch the video and read the article at WPIX.com

ABC News: “Netflix for Books”

Watch the video at ABCnews.go.com

Some websites now let you rent books the same way you rent movies.

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Watch the video at ABCnews.go.com

WHAS 11 Louisville: “Consumer Watch: Ways around the high price of college textbooks”

Watch the video and read the full article at WHAS11.com

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(WHAS11) – This Consumer Watch takes a closer look at the high price of college textbooks. After tuition, housing, and meal plans it’s a cost that many students aren’t prepared for.

Since 1980, the cost of college textbooks has risen at twice the level of inflation. Jacqueline Hingle spent $248 on books this semester. Timmy Alexander spent more.

“$265.26. Every dollar I had in my wallet. It’s completely empty now,” said Alexander.

Like a lot of students, Alexander is getting them as he goes. A bag of books on campus is like a bag of gold.

$200 or $300 is what Michael VanSickle has spent on books at the University of Louisville.

VanSickle has spent six years at the University of Louisville. Vansicle was asked if he’s ever considered renting books.

“No, I didn’t know that you could do that,” he answered.

You can, and Eric Ginsberg says you should, at an average savings of 60%.

“Very few people are going to go through college without taking calculus and this book is going to cost you over $200. But you can save up to 75% by renting text books online,” claimed Ginsberg, VP of Marketing for Bookswim.com.

There are no due dates, no late fees, and books are returned with pre-paid shipping when you rent from BOOKSWIM.com. Other options in the book rental business are COLLEGEBOOKREADER.com and CHEGG.com.

The book retailers say they would prefer that you don’t write in the books, but many renters do off alternatives.

“We do ask that you don’t write in a book or dog ear it. But we give you bookmarks and we give you little post-it’s and we do ask you don’t drop it into a lake somewhere but other than that we do accept average wear and tear,” explained Ginsberg.

The only way to guarantee the true lowest price is to compare prices at your bookstore with prices online.

And renting isn’t just a trend that’s catching on for college textbooks. With a simple GOOGLE search you can rent entertainment like DVD’s and video games as well as necessities on many college campuses like laptop computers and those expensive calculators.

Watch the video and read the full article at WHAS11.com

WFMZ 69 News: “On-line Company Offers College Students Rental Of Text Books”



Watch the video at WFMZ.com

College students often find themselves with plenty of homework, but not too much cash. Our guest on 69 News at Sunrise this morning was Eric Ginsberg. He’s a rental industry expert and vice president of marketing for Bookswim who has a way he says will put more money in students’ pockets.

    

Watch the video at WFMZ.com

Forbes.com: “‘Boost Your Business’ Semifinalist”


Click to vote for BookSwim at Forbes.com

BookSwim.com rents books like Netflix rents movies, with the convenience of free home delivery and best-sellers guaranteed in stock. An estimated 12% of Americans (36 million) read one or more books each month, one-third of which read at least three books, monthly. The largest single segment of BookSwim members is women (80%), ages 26 to 40 (36%).

To date, BookSwim has delivered books to nearly 12,000 members. In BookSwim’s rental model, members pay a monthly fee of $15 to $40 for unlimited use. Books are reused, spreading the initial purchase cost over multiple members and creating net profit. Launched in 2007 with a $6,000 investment of personal cash, BookSwim is now funded by reinvested operational cash flow, boasting $900,000 of revenue in 2008.

BookSwim’s only purported competitors (Booksfree.com and Paperspine.com) don’t stock hardcovers, the medium in which new releases and best-sellers are almost exclusively available, whereas these titles make up the bulk of BookSwim’s rentals. Even public libraries often have difficulty keeping new releases in stock, offering waiting lists for the few copies that a tight budget allows. BookSwim guarantees new releases and bestsellers to be in stock and imposes no due dates or late fees.

BookSwim co-founder George Burke has grown BookSwim from an idea to a thriving enterprise in the past two years. He has added to his management team officers with over a decade of experience each, including restructuring Scholastic at Home; managing four successful start-ups exited for a combined total of $200 million; former COO of BMG ($1.1 billion company); executive vice president of BookSpan ($700 million company).

The next level for BookSwim is to increase year-on-year membership by 50%, growing community and enabling additional revenue streams. BookSwim will use $50,000 of advertising to sell Forbes.com readers discounted holiday gift cards. Since most Forbes.com readers are not in BookSwim’s target demographic, the space is best used to enable readers to help make members of friends and family who are.

The $50,000 cash prize will be used to hire a new junior developer (at $40k/year) charged in the first year with developing and managing added-value and new-member-generating projects, including: Applications for Facebook, iPhones and other smart phones, mobile version of BookSwim.com; member points/rewards program, book buy-back program, Platform enabling book clubs to rent in bulk and an interface to manage book clubs; Twitter functionality to search and request titles in BookSwim’s catalog, Twitter contest giving away an iPhone (or comparable gadget) each day for one month to tweeters who help build BookSwim awareness through hash tags and deep-linked URLs, other community-building imperatives.

BookSwim will also spend money on prizes for aforementioned Twitter contest, ad space on GoodReads.com (the preeminent social network for readers), $400, victory dinner; the small staff deserves a token of appreciation for all they do.

Click to vote for BookSwim at Forbes.com

NBC 16: ‘”Transumerism”: more people renting instead of buying’

Watch the video and read the article at WNDU.com

What is being called “transumerism” by the rental industry seems to be on the rise. Some say you can save hundreds of dollars by simply choosing to rent instead of buying certain items.

Eric Ginsberg, vice president of marketing for “BookSwim.com,” says transumerism is the “common desire to get beyond paying the high premium of ownership and just have what you need when you need it.”

Ginsberg says you can rent just about anything you can think of; just by doing some quick searching online. He says especially right now with a new school year, students can save money by renting text books instead of buying new or even used. Ginsberg says students can save an average 60% on books each semester by renting through websites like BookSwim.com.

To learn more about “BookSwim.com”, click on the big red bar.

Fox 6 News AL: “Back to Campus Savings”

Watch the video at MyFoxAL.com

Eric Ginsberg, a rental expert, joins us with details on how you can save the most on your college expenses.

Watch the video at MyFoxAL.com

NBC 41: Daybreak Friday: “Save Money by Renting School Supplies”

Watch the video at 41NBC.com


As college students head back to local campuses, many are looking for ways to save money.

Rental Industry Expert, Eric Ginsberg joined us on Daybreak Friday morning to tell us why renting goods may be a better idea for college students than buying them.

He said students can save hundreds of dollars a year by renting textbooks, video games, laptop computers, even cars.

It’s becoming more popular and works similar to how Netflix works to rent movies.

For more information or to get started renting items, visit www.BookSwim.com.

Watch the video at 41NBC.com

ABC 2 (Good Morning Maryland): “Renting College Books & Equipment” by Dave McHugh

Watch the video and read the article at ABC2new.com

This is it! The week you drive, head to the airport, jump on a train, or kiss your college student goodbye. But it is also a time of the year where spending on the college students certainly increases. But we have some ways you can save a lot of money without losing any of the educational value.

Today on Good Morning Maryland @ 9, Eric Ginsberg, a retail industry expert, sat down with Jamie to talk about how college students can now RENT their books, equipment, and other items in an effort to save them money.

Eric explained how the program works a lot like NetFlix does for movies. You can rent the books you need for the class and just return them in a pre-paid envelope at the end of the semester. You can do the same for equipment like expensive calculators you may only need for one semester of your college career. The advantage? You don’t have to pay a lot of money up-front for something you may not need again in four months.

To hear more of Eric’s examples and get other ideas, just click on the video box to the right of this article and see the segment again. And we have provided links to the left for more information.
Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Watch the video and read the article at ABC2new.com

NJ News 12: “Buck Wild: Be a Transumer!”

Read the full article at News12.com

Hey Jersey bargain hunters,

There’s a new trend in consuming – where you can get all the thrill without the bill.

Folks have stopped shopping and started renting! They’re called “transumers.” The term was coined in the Netherlands and it’s all about the pleasure without the treasure – AND without the tab.

If you still want the lifestyle and the luxury you are used to, but you don’t have that expendable income at reach – start transuming!
Think less cash, less commitment and less clutter. Kind of like retail recycling!

BOOKS

Newark-based Bookswim.com is like Netflix (the online movie rental company) for readers.

You sign up online, you get charged a monthly fee (right now there is a $9.95 special rate for the introductory plan – it goes up from there depending on how much you read), you add all the books you want to read to your rental pool and they arrive in your mailbox.

There’s free shipping, free returns, no late fees, no due dates, and they guarantee new releases in stock.

“People are looking to live on a budget and not give up their lifestyle,” explains Eric Ginsberg, Vice President of Marketing for Bookswim.com. “They want the good feeling of the impulse buy, without that bad feeling of looking at the receipt and saying, ‘I shouldn’t have spent that money right now.’”

The company started up two years ago because the owner loved to read but couldn’t afford the high cost of new books. He decided to start up a sort of Netflix.com for readers. He also realized that once people read a book it just sits on a shelf collecting dust, adding to your clutter. As soon as your done with your books, you send a few back and you get a new batch.

I asked how this is a better choice than libraries – which are FREE!

Ginsberg says they feel libraries are terrific and hopes people will support them. But the bottom line is that they are usually only open until about 6 pm and that is not convenient for working New Jerseyans. Bookswim.com is a mail service and the return postage is pre-paid, so you leave the sack for your mailman. He also says libraries don’t always have more than a few copies of new releases and you end up on a waiting list. Bookswim guarantees new releases in stock at all times……..