I just thought of an interesting delivery mechanism that could help people actually get through an eBook (or any longer electronic text for that matter). Basically the idea would be that rather than throwing the whole book at someone and leaving it up to them to read it, you would deliver it piece by piece so that they only had to consume small chunks at a time. There are 2 ways that I’m thinking this could work; email and RSS.
For either delivery mechanism, the user would go to the site, purchase a book, then select their options for how and when they’d like it delivered. Some of the important bits would be:
- Delivery Schedule: Daily? Weekdays only? at 8am? at 8pm?
- Amount per Delivery: 1 page? 500 words? 1 chapter?
- Format: Full text in email/RSS? Link to current location in online version, with their “quota” highlighted somehow?
Once you have those options configured, you’d get your periodic email (or feed, via a customized URL that would point to your specific delivery configuration) containing the current portion to read, and you would want some options in each payload I think:
- Give me more next time
- Give me less next time
- Give me more right now
- Put my deliveries on hold
This probably isn’t a business, but it’s a feature that would be pretty cool for existing eBook retailers to offer. I’d be happy to make it for someone if they want it 🙂
UPDATE: DailyLit