Idea Drunk

Because my ideas suck sober

How to Grow Amazon’s Tail

Posted on April 9, 2008 - Filed Under ideaDRUNK's ideas

Blurb is a website that lets you publish your own bookstore-quality books. What does this mean? That means that you can take that your manuscript, photos, or witty comics and make your own book. For cheap. You can get a single book printed for as little as $12.95.

Okay, so now I sound like I’m a shill for a random website. But no, I just have an idea that came to me as I was visiting the Chapters by my house. Amazon should buy Blurb.

Think about it. Blurb allows individuals to create and publish their own books. It’s the ultimate long tail. It allows people to create an infinite variety of books. Books that maybe only themselves and a handful of friends will buy.

But that’s the beauty of Amazon. It doesn’t cost them anything to list one extra book. And once the books are ordered, they could be printed on demand (as they are currently at Blurb). So, even if only 5 people buy the book, Amazon will make money.

This idea lowers the barriers to entry to the book market for millions of potential authors. Anyone can write a book and have the chance to sell it to millions of potential customers.

- Christian

Comments

5 Responses to “How to Grow Amazon’s Tail”

  1. Adam on April 9th, 2008 3:26 am

    Amazon is already one step ahead of you. Check out http://www.createspace.com

  2. Christian on April 9th, 2008 8:34 am

    Hahaha… or I’m one step behind.

  3. Tien on April 9th, 2008 9:04 am

    I’m totally gonna start writing, write now! er…right now!….does the website have an editing feature?

  4. Nish on April 9th, 2008 10:02 am

    i expect you to buy at a min 20 copies of my book. thank you. long tail and nish(es) rule.

  5. Christian on April 9th, 2008 11:02 am

    @Tien:

    It’s actually pretty cool. You can put photo books, or instructional manuals and they look professional. So you could throw all of your photos from Nationals into a “Furious vs. Goat” book. Or you could write a book titled “Kapueta: Confessions of a Hip Hop Dancing/Kung Fu Fighting Bad Ass”

    @Nish:

    It depends what it’s about. If it’s about marketing and ideas, than probably. If it’s about sarging, I’m out. Blurb also has software that lets you import your blog and publish it as a book.

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