Used Books Blog

Book readings are a staple of bookstores, so with the explosion in video why haven’t they made the jump online? Why aren’t we seeing a thriving archive of readings from … Dave Eggers? Why isn’t there a Grateful Dead, Phish and Dave Matthews Band like following for certain authors, with old 8mm films digitally transferred and uploaded to the web and traded via BitTorrent? Wouldn’t a live web reading of the first few pages of the latest Harry Potter have been a raging success?

The strength of arguments against video for book readings have all but evaporated.

Argument #1: Video is only for the young, so there’s no appreciable market for video book readings.

Video is not just for the young. Sure, a majority of it is still uploaded by the 18-24 demographic, but uploading is getting easier and easier and that will broaden the age distribution. Recent Pew Internet & American Life Project reports indicate that 57% of Internet users have viewed an online video and 48% have visited a video-sharing site. Using these figures and the Everett Rogers Technology Lifecycle Adoption model, online video has reached a critical mass and is somewhere between the Early Majority and Late Majority. It’s no longer just Peanut Butter Jelly Time!

And about that live Harry Potter reading, who exactly would have tuned in? Your 43 year old Harper’s reading urbanite? No. Droves of tweens would have logged on and likely brought down the servers.

Argument #2: Video is expensive, both to film and upload, as well as to host and present.

Not anymore. Pure Digital Inc. has developed Flip Video. This palm sized video recorder retails for about $100 and makes uploading a breeze with a built in USB arm. Really, your grandmother can do it! (No offense to grandmothers intended). And the other side of the equation can be solved with a solution like Fliqz. They provide the whole package, from easy upload to your own customized, branded player to hosting the videos. Integration is easy, and I should know since I use Fliqz to power videos on Santa.com.

No one is really doing anything like this on a large scale. There is iReadNet, but they don’t have the built-in traffic to make it attractive to publishers, authors or booksellers. So, who could or should do video book readings?

Amazon could but, despite a return to their books, movies and music roots, I think something like this might get lost and wouldn’t be a priority on their product road map.

Barnes & Noble could particularly with the sheer volume of readings they could film and upload. But they still seem focused on the their brick and mortar operations.

Borders might be interesting since they’ve terminated their agreement with Amazon and will operate their own eCommerce destination site in 2008. They don’t strike me as the most forward thinking organization though, so this might be a stretch.

The Goliaths of the industry might not be the right fit, but what about the Davids? Alibris, Abebooks and Biblio might be good candidates. All three could benefit from the viral distribution of these videos and the added sticky value it would provide their sites. They also have access to thousands of booksellers who would be able to provide a continuous supply of new book reading videos.

Of course, any publisher could jump in and do this for their own stable of authors. Though generally allergic to technology and change, publishers should see the benefits to a video book tour: reduced costs and increase visibility of new releases. A few might do this but their sites aren’t well trafficked and it will still only cover their authors.

So perhaps it’s one of the new social reading sites like LibraryThing, Shelfari or GoodReads. They’re definitely tech-savvy and are building substantial traffic for this niche. It’s populated with users who have already invested in the site by uploading their library, rating and reviewing books. It may not be such a stretch to have these same users strike out with video camera in hand to film a reading. Or perhaps this is where social reading sites and publishers really create synergy?

Am I barking up the wrong tree? Is there simply not enough demand for this type of video? I think I’m on the right track only because I’ve missed numerous readings that I’d have liked to have attended but simply couldn’t fit into my schedule. In a society where time may be the most precious resource, book reading videos make sense. It’s time for book readings to get a Web 2.0 treatment!

What do you think? Are you be interested in online book reading videos? If so, what’s the best venue for them?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 10:15 am and is filed under Book News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.