The concept of holding your entire music collection in your pocket has become an ubiquitous reality, mostly on the back of Apple's iPod line of products. It's only natural that technology would be used to make more portable another bulky collection: your books. We've seen dedicated e-readers, most notably in recent years the Kindle, that have enjoyed various degrees of success in creating that portable digital library.
But what about enabling a device most people already have to do the same thing? Why not turn your smartphone into a "library in your back pocket?" Save those hundreds of dollars you'd use on a Kindle for, say, more books?
That's the idea behind Shortcovers, a new initiative breaking out from Indigo Books & Music, the largest book retailer in Canada.
The site launched Friday, Feb 26. The initial products will focus on the iPhone, a crowd that's certainly used to the "try it and buy it" online business model, as well as BlackBerry's line of phones and those with Google's Android OS. Windows Mobile support will follow.
Michael Serbinis, the executive vice-president of Shortcovers/CIO of Indigo Books & Music, thinks they will. HispanicBusiness.com sat down with Mr. Serbinis, who gave us a guided tour and offered insight into the business strategy behind this soon-to-launch service.
It's easy to see the value proposition of this service -- it saves on buying yet another piece of hardware, like the near $400 Amazon Kindle. Most available books will offer one chapter free, subsequent chapters for 99 cents, and full books, according to press materials, "will be priced at a discount off of publisher list price -- up to 50% off." Fiction and non-fiction, including business books, are available.
The question that remains to be answered, however, is "will people read entire books on such small screens?"
Mr. Serbinis assured us that reader habits weigh heavily into Shortcovers' plans.
"One thing we know for sure," Serbinis said, "there is already a ton of reading taking place on phones."
He cited magazine and newspaper articles and blog entries, all of which will be available on Shortcovers, along with books, as being natural fits for a phone, due to the digestable nature of such pieces.
Further, the company believes there is room for adaptation: both for readers to different devices, and content to suit those devices.
"Whether or not it makes sense to break things up into chunks, people still read in chunks," he told HispanicBusiness.com. "Some of our focus groups said they would never read a novel on an iPhone; days after trying it, they indicated otherwise, and finished a book in 10 days by reading in the train."
The pricing strategy acknowledges this "chunky" reading. Again, 99 cents gets you a chapter, and the price of any chapters you've bought will apply as credit if you end up purchasing the whole book. Of course, there are times when one chapter will do. Serbinis offered the example of just grabbing the chapter of a travel guide that covers where you'll be.
What struck us in the course of our conversation was the integration between the Web interface at your desktop and Web or App interface on your phone. Shortcovers keeps track of where you are in the story; read a chapter on the train, your computer once you're back home knows where you've left off.
Other features include the ability to create and distribute your own electronic books, either for free or in pursuit of getting paid. Users can also browse and subscribe by author, topic and popularity. There will also be some editorial guidance from staff. And what would a Web business be in the modern era without social media tools? Assigning ratings, leaving comments, sharing via a favorites list or one of dozens of Web-based services (Digg, Yahoo!, Facebook, MySpace, more) can be done with a couple clicks.
Out of the gate, Shortcovers' books will support text plus images. Mr. Serbinis hints that more interesting display options are on the horizon.
"We're already working on more graphic-rich content," he said. He offered that "comics are an example," and referred to the popularity of Japanese commuters and their pocket-sized Manga. He also said that some books with lots of distinctive imagery, like "how-to" series, were in the works. "Far more graphic-rich content will be something we make available," he promised.
Mr. Serbinis mentioned that the core platform is multilingual, and "new versions of Shortcovers in other languages," are definitely in the works.
Of course, Shortcovers (being that a major retailer is the parent company) has not forgotten the value of old-fashioned, physically bound books -- the service can be used to buy those as well. Still, the chance to try chapters for free, and buy them for cheap, before committing to a retail sale is appealing, even if you wouldn't read the whole thing on a screen.
