Why Netboox Won't Work
7/3/05 14:29![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eredienThis is a long entry in response to Phoenix' post on the subject of a hypothetical Netflix-like book rental idea.
A few considerations: Weight & Shipping. Time & Returning the Item. Free public libraries. Price points. Means of damage. Deliberate Damage.
I have had some experience shipping books and manuscripts via Media Mail, and have estimated all costs based on my knowledge of the current US prices of postage (via the Post Office) and books.
Netflix is a service that delivers (single) DVDs to your house via the US postal service, in an envelope.
I hope I don't have to tell people that I don't endorse deliberately ruining books. Or accidentally ruining books, for that matter.
Weight & Shipping:
If you ship a standard book by the most economical option (Media Mail, a rate specifically designed for books, CDs, manuscripts, and other media items), it can take up to 9 days to get there, depending on its size (according to the Postal Service website), and will cost at least $2 (according to my best estimates). Books are also likely to get water-damaged in the mail if improperly packed for shipping (package is thrown into a puddle in the back of a truck, condensation from the cargo hold in an airplane drips onto it, etc.) You could pay more to get the book shipped to you faster, via first-class mail, but books are dense and heavy enough that the price difference between shipping a book first-class (probably about $4 for a regular mass-market sized paperback) is half of the cost of buying the book (let's say that same standard novel will cost about $8).
If you ship a CD in an envelope it is light enough to go fast (first-class) and is light enough to be cheap.
Time & Returning the Item:
Any kind of mail service would need to include its own envelopes and be postage-paid if it was going to work, since no one wants to pay money to subscribe to a netflix-type service and then have to pay more money for correct packaging and sending it back. It would be best to have a fast turnaround so once the item came in you could quickly send it back out.
Books are bulky and come in varying sizes: different return envelope sizes would have to be made, and including the bulky return envelope in the original envelope would add more postage costs to the original package. Postage-paid amounts would vary, depending on the size and weight of each book. Each book, therefore, would take a different amount of money to mail (unless you decided to only carry one size of book, which would limit the selection of titles you could offer your audience). It would also take up to 9 days (via Media Mail) to get the book back to the company again, resulting in slow turnaround.
Books also have a slow(ish) turnaround, depending on how fast you read and the size and complexity of a novel. It has taken me anywhere from a single two-hour session (light reading, 200-300 pages) to several hours a day for a month or more (deep/complex/foriegn-language reading/analysis, 500+ pages on up to about 1000) to read a book. And I read pretty fast and don't need to reread for comprehension or analysis.
Let's average it out: 7 days for shipping. 10 days for reading the book. 7 days for shipping back to the facility. 7 days for shipping to the next customer. Total: 31 days. A month.
DVDs are thin and come in a standard size: one standard-sixed netflix envelope fits both the DVD and the return envelope without appreciable extra weight to add to original shipping costs (in other words, each package will take same amount of money to mail, it's a fixed cost). Postage-paid amounts are also the same. It takes maybe one, two days to get the DVD back to the company--resulting in quick turnaround.
Movies, even very long movies, are rarely longer than three or four hours. If you're renting a TV series, you're most likely doing it one DVD at a time, for a total viewing time of maybe 2 or 2.5 hours. Again, averages: 3 days for shipping. 1 day for watching. 3 days for shipping back to the facility, 3 days for shipping to the next person. 10 days.
That means three people could watch one movie in the time it takes for one person to read a book.
Free Public Libraries:
At least in America, people are used to free access to public books. There aren't many library systems now that don't have a feature you can use to request books from other libraries, even occasionally university and college libraries, if your library system doesn't have it.
Libraries give you anywhere between two weeks (the stingiest library system I have been on) to a month (the best library system I have been on) to read your book, which is a time frame in which most people can accomplish a reading. There is usually no shipping delay. And if you don't finish, you can either renew it for another week, or take it out again at no cost.
Price Points:
A lot of people are willing to pay $8 to own a book. A lot of people are willing to pay $8 to rent a video. Fewer people are willing to pay $20 to own a video. Fewer people still are willing to pay $40 or more for a boxed set or a special edition, unless they really like the movie.
Means of Damage:
Books can be damaged in multiple ways. Covers and pages can be ripped off, content could be blotted out with a marker. Liquids can be spilled on them. Bugs can infest them. The pages can crumble into dust or be eaten away by the oils on your hands or acid in tape. They require no special equipment to enjoy, so people carry them around and are therefore occasionally likely to lose them, while reading on the subway or wherever. If you carry a book around, you probably don't use a case, or even a plastic baggie.
If you are running a netflix-type book service, all this means that you will have a harder time keeping the books you ship at readable quality because people are somewhat likely to scribble margin notes, dog-ear pages, spill their tea on it, and accidentally toss it in the trash at the cafe because they forgot it was on their tray. If the book you ship is not readable, and the customer wants to ship it back to you for a replacement, both the turnaround time and the extra cost and time of shipping begin to be prohibitive--plus there's the chance the book might be damaged in transit (both of these as previously discussed above).
DVDs may only be damaged if the plastic is damaged (whether you melt it in your car, scratch it, or fry it in your microwave, it all boils down to the same thing). They reqire special eqiupment, which is not generally portable (unless you can afford portable stuff). Therefore they are not as likely to be carried around, and less likely to be lost on a train. If you do carry DVDs around, you likely use a case or sleeve to minimize the damage to the disc.
Deliberate Damage:
There is also the chance that some well-meaning misguided person might take it upon themselves to go at Harry Potter and blot out all references to witchcraft, and ship it back to you (again, at your cost), rendering the book unusable. The damage isn't obvious because it's on page 305 of a 500-page novel. Are you going to hire someone to reread all the books to make sure this does not happen? Do you screen subscribers and have "standards of readability"? Do you have to go back through all the books that that customer read to make sure they didn't deliberately destroy any others? If you do, and there is damage, what constitutes "deliberate" damage? (Blotting out pages with a marker is pretty obvious, but what about spilling white-out on a page? What about spilling tea?) A scenario: One of your best customers has returned a mystery novel to you. They have no previous history of deliberately damaging books. There is a tiny ketchup stain on page 243 that obscures the name of the culprit, rendering the book unreadable. Another good customer with a good history returns a historical romance novel. There is a tiny ketchup stain on page 150 that obscures the book's one reference to Oscar Wilde's sex life; it is not an important plot point. Whose account do you suspend, and why? Who do you charge for a replacement copy, and why? What if they ask for an explanation of the "deliberate damage: replacement costs" charge on their bill? If you tell them the truth you risk offending them and losing their business.
Any option means that someone has to go through the books, meaning that more time and money is spent.
People are not likely to scribble margin notes on DVDs. If you spill tea on it, you can wipe it off. You cannot dogear it. And if you are a well-meaning person who rents Harry Potter and deliberately destroys the disc, rendering it unusable, you simply charge the person's account for replacement costs because either they failed to return it at all or the damage to the returned product is obvious. Plus, you might be able to sue them for various things and bar them from subscribing to your service before they ruin any more DVDs.
Finally:
What does this mean? There is a bigger market for DVD rentals due to the higher cost of ownership. People are less likely to have opportunities to ruin or lose DVDs. It is faster and cheaper to ship them. If the DVD does get scratched, lost, or broken, it is easier to figure out why it was done and charge for a replacement.
There is a smaller market for book rentals due to the lower cost of ownership. People are most likely to have opportunitues to ruin or lose books. It is slower and more expensive to ship them. If the book gets damaged or lost, it is harder to figure out why it was done and charge for a replacement.
Interestingly, "It's hard to carry around a DVD player and easy to carry around a book" is a drawback to a Netboox-type business model, but it's a plus for traditional publishing--could this be why e-books really haven't caught on?
A few considerations: Weight & Shipping. Time & Returning the Item. Free public libraries. Price points. Means of damage. Deliberate Damage.
I have had some experience shipping books and manuscripts via Media Mail, and have estimated all costs based on my knowledge of the current US prices of postage (via the Post Office) and books.
Netflix is a service that delivers (single) DVDs to your house via the US postal service, in an envelope.
I hope I don't have to tell people that I don't endorse deliberately ruining books. Or accidentally ruining books, for that matter.
Weight & Shipping:
If you ship a standard book by the most economical option (Media Mail, a rate specifically designed for books, CDs, manuscripts, and other media items), it can take up to 9 days to get there, depending on its size (according to the Postal Service website), and will cost at least $2 (according to my best estimates). Books are also likely to get water-damaged in the mail if improperly packed for shipping (package is thrown into a puddle in the back of a truck, condensation from the cargo hold in an airplane drips onto it, etc.) You could pay more to get the book shipped to you faster, via first-class mail, but books are dense and heavy enough that the price difference between shipping a book first-class (probably about $4 for a regular mass-market sized paperback) is half of the cost of buying the book (let's say that same standard novel will cost about $8).
If you ship a CD in an envelope it is light enough to go fast (first-class) and is light enough to be cheap.
Time & Returning the Item:
Any kind of mail service would need to include its own envelopes and be postage-paid if it was going to work, since no one wants to pay money to subscribe to a netflix-type service and then have to pay more money for correct packaging and sending it back. It would be best to have a fast turnaround so once the item came in you could quickly send it back out.
Books are bulky and come in varying sizes: different return envelope sizes would have to be made, and including the bulky return envelope in the original envelope would add more postage costs to the original package. Postage-paid amounts would vary, depending on the size and weight of each book. Each book, therefore, would take a different amount of money to mail (unless you decided to only carry one size of book, which would limit the selection of titles you could offer your audience). It would also take up to 9 days (via Media Mail) to get the book back to the company again, resulting in slow turnaround.
Books also have a slow(ish) turnaround, depending on how fast you read and the size and complexity of a novel. It has taken me anywhere from a single two-hour session (light reading, 200-300 pages) to several hours a day for a month or more (deep/complex/foriegn-language reading/analysis, 500+ pages on up to about 1000) to read a book. And I read pretty fast and don't need to reread for comprehension or analysis.
Let's average it out: 7 days for shipping. 10 days for reading the book. 7 days for shipping back to the facility. 7 days for shipping to the next customer. Total: 31 days. A month.
DVDs are thin and come in a standard size: one standard-sixed netflix envelope fits both the DVD and the return envelope without appreciable extra weight to add to original shipping costs (in other words, each package will take same amount of money to mail, it's a fixed cost). Postage-paid amounts are also the same. It takes maybe one, two days to get the DVD back to the company--resulting in quick turnaround.
Movies, even very long movies, are rarely longer than three or four hours. If you're renting a TV series, you're most likely doing it one DVD at a time, for a total viewing time of maybe 2 or 2.5 hours. Again, averages: 3 days for shipping. 1 day for watching. 3 days for shipping back to the facility, 3 days for shipping to the next person. 10 days.
That means three people could watch one movie in the time it takes for one person to read a book.
Free Public Libraries:
At least in America, people are used to free access to public books. There aren't many library systems now that don't have a feature you can use to request books from other libraries, even occasionally university and college libraries, if your library system doesn't have it.
Libraries give you anywhere between two weeks (the stingiest library system I have been on) to a month (the best library system I have been on) to read your book, which is a time frame in which most people can accomplish a reading. There is usually no shipping delay. And if you don't finish, you can either renew it for another week, or take it out again at no cost.
Price Points:
A lot of people are willing to pay $8 to own a book. A lot of people are willing to pay $8 to rent a video. Fewer people are willing to pay $20 to own a video. Fewer people still are willing to pay $40 or more for a boxed set or a special edition, unless they really like the movie.
Means of Damage:
Books can be damaged in multiple ways. Covers and pages can be ripped off, content could be blotted out with a marker. Liquids can be spilled on them. Bugs can infest them. The pages can crumble into dust or be eaten away by the oils on your hands or acid in tape. They require no special equipment to enjoy, so people carry them around and are therefore occasionally likely to lose them, while reading on the subway or wherever. If you carry a book around, you probably don't use a case, or even a plastic baggie.
If you are running a netflix-type book service, all this means that you will have a harder time keeping the books you ship at readable quality because people are somewhat likely to scribble margin notes, dog-ear pages, spill their tea on it, and accidentally toss it in the trash at the cafe because they forgot it was on their tray. If the book you ship is not readable, and the customer wants to ship it back to you for a replacement, both the turnaround time and the extra cost and time of shipping begin to be prohibitive--plus there's the chance the book might be damaged in transit (both of these as previously discussed above).
DVDs may only be damaged if the plastic is damaged (whether you melt it in your car, scratch it, or fry it in your microwave, it all boils down to the same thing). They reqire special eqiupment, which is not generally portable (unless you can afford portable stuff). Therefore they are not as likely to be carried around, and less likely to be lost on a train. If you do carry DVDs around, you likely use a case or sleeve to minimize the damage to the disc.
Deliberate Damage:
There is also the chance that some well-meaning misguided person might take it upon themselves to go at Harry Potter and blot out all references to witchcraft, and ship it back to you (again, at your cost), rendering the book unusable. The damage isn't obvious because it's on page 305 of a 500-page novel. Are you going to hire someone to reread all the books to make sure this does not happen? Do you screen subscribers and have "standards of readability"? Do you have to go back through all the books that that customer read to make sure they didn't deliberately destroy any others? If you do, and there is damage, what constitutes "deliberate" damage? (Blotting out pages with a marker is pretty obvious, but what about spilling white-out on a page? What about spilling tea?) A scenario: One of your best customers has returned a mystery novel to you. They have no previous history of deliberately damaging books. There is a tiny ketchup stain on page 243 that obscures the name of the culprit, rendering the book unreadable. Another good customer with a good history returns a historical romance novel. There is a tiny ketchup stain on page 150 that obscures the book's one reference to Oscar Wilde's sex life; it is not an important plot point. Whose account do you suspend, and why? Who do you charge for a replacement copy, and why? What if they ask for an explanation of the "deliberate damage: replacement costs" charge on their bill? If you tell them the truth you risk offending them and losing their business.
Any option means that someone has to go through the books, meaning that more time and money is spent.
People are not likely to scribble margin notes on DVDs. If you spill tea on it, you can wipe it off. You cannot dogear it. And if you are a well-meaning person who rents Harry Potter and deliberately destroys the disc, rendering it unusable, you simply charge the person's account for replacement costs because either they failed to return it at all or the damage to the returned product is obvious. Plus, you might be able to sue them for various things and bar them from subscribing to your service before they ruin any more DVDs.
Finally:
What does this mean? There is a bigger market for DVD rentals due to the higher cost of ownership. People are less likely to have opportunities to ruin or lose DVDs. It is faster and cheaper to ship them. If the DVD does get scratched, lost, or broken, it is easier to figure out why it was done and charge for a replacement.
There is a smaller market for book rentals due to the lower cost of ownership. People are most likely to have opportunitues to ruin or lose books. It is slower and more expensive to ship them. If the book gets damaged or lost, it is harder to figure out why it was done and charge for a replacement.
Interestingly, "It's hard to carry around a DVD player and easy to carry around a book" is a drawback to a Netboox-type business model, but it's a plus for traditional publishing--could this be why e-books really haven't caught on?
