Business Idea #4: Ungluing eBooks

It's been a while since I blogged a business idea for Gluejar. There have been at least three reasons for this hiatus.

1. Blogging has been fun. Every article generates a bunch of ideas for me to pursue and I just love exploring new ideas and learning about new things. Not to mention the dialogue with readers which has been very stimulating. I've learned a lot.
2. Since January, I've been working with architects and contractors on an extensive home renovation, which takes up a lot of time and mind share. This work is almost done, so it's time to think about new projects.
3. Previous ideas smoldered and the heat dissipated. Same with a few other opportunities I looked at.

On the other hand, my recent series of articles on acquiring ebooks into the commons has led me to seriously consider making this into a business. The more I consider the possibilities and the details, the more convinced I become that the job is both viable and important. It's been over 2 months, and the hallucination has not worn off.

For your reference, here are the relevant articles:

• A Library Monopsony for Monographic eBook Acquisition?
• Can Libraries Work Together to Acquire eBook Assets?
• Aggregating Deep Discount Readers of eBooks
• Bounty Markets for Open-Access eBooks

The business model for this venture is simple- build, run and promote an ebook bounty market, and charge 5%-ish of closed transactions. The hard part is winning over mass markets of consumers, both individual and institutional. The first step, perhaps the hardest step, is explaining and advocating the concept to people who are only just getting a feel for what ebooks are. "Stealth" is just not going to get that done, so I've decided to be as open as possible about what I'm doing.

So here's a first draft of a home-page pitch/explanation. Let me know what you think.

Unglue Your eBooks!

Have you noticed that your eBooks are stuck inside your proprietary reading device?

Have you noticed that the printed books on your shelves are stuck there, instead of being available on your nifty reading thing?

Have you noticed how hard it is to lend an ebook to someone or to give it to your friends?

Have you noticed that you can't get the ebooks you want through your library?

The problem is glue. Not the kind of glue that binds paper together, but the legal kind that sticks intellectual property to its owners and licensees. Authors need a paycheck so they can devote time and effort to writing books; publishers need income so they can refine those books and make them beautiful. Their problem these days is that the book publishing industry is stuck on an old model of selling individual copies.

Gluejar offers a new way for people who love books to support the people who create books without putting all sorts of licensing glue and restrictions glue on the digital copies. We bring large numbers of book lovers together to financially support the ungluing of the books that they love.

Here's how it works:

1. Decide how much you want to spend on ungluing your books. The amount is totally up to you; but how about 10% of what you normally spend on books?
2. Visit our partner sites to decide which books you want to support; you can pledge support for any number of books! Or browse our catalog of books on offer.
3. You can visit your Gluejar Boookshelf at any time to see the current support level for each of your books.
4. We won't charge your credit card until supporters have pledged enough money so that rights holders agree to unglue the ebooks you want.
5. When an ebook is unglued it will appear automatically in your favorite ebook reader account. Once that happens, you can give the ebook to all of your friends and your library can make it available to all of its patrons. 100% legal, anywhere.
6. Many ebooks come with bonuses for supporters; you might win a dinner with the author, a signed print copy, or maybe just a simple thank you note. We'll email you with details.

As you can see, I've tied the name of the service into the pre-existing Gluejar name for now; at least it's not horrible.

If you want to suggest an alternative pitch, put it in the comments. The best suggestion will win $100 to spend on the Gluejar ebook bounty market!

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