LibraryThing in the Guardian!
LibraryThing was written up by Andrew Brown in the Guardian's daily email digest "The Wrap." The Wrap is subscription only, but apparently reaches some 40,000 people, and not a few have since stopped by.
The article is long and, as stated, not free, but I can share the opening paragraph:
Brown is optimistic about the business possibilities. I think he's wrong: the internet produces much more value than it captures. But I intend to make some money (2-4 memberships/day?) and that money will pay for the new server I'm getting this week, and some of the time. At the current rate, LibraryThing is adding 150,000 books/mo. That kind of database isn't free.
Comments suggest that $10 isn't a big barrier for people. I may raise this a little in the future, or switch to a yearly rate, but "free or cheap" will always be the deal, and, of course, current paid members are locked in for life.
Meanwhile, I'm still working on features. The "Add Books" page changed a little. If the LC has just one match it no longer automatically adds it to your library, but shows you the cover and lets you try Amazon. There are a few other such tweaks.
Keep the suggestions coming. I have a backlog, but expect to work continuously on this for some weeks to come.
The article is long and, as stated, not free, but I can share the opening paragraph:
"Almost every day someone comes up with a use for the internet thatBrown's weblog notes Bibliophil and Reader2, who also had similar ideas (and Bibliophil had it first). Brown's opinion that Bibliophil has "rotted" is a bit strong—the webmaster wrote to me that he's in the process of a major upgrade.
makes you wonder why no one has thought of it before. Once a year,
maybe, one of these good ideas gets built. Last week, one of these
simple, brilliant ideas got built, and it's good news for anyone who
owns the books they read."
Brown is optimistic about the business possibilities. I think he's wrong: the internet produces much more value than it captures. But I intend to make some money (2-4 memberships/day?) and that money will pay for the new server I'm getting this week, and some of the time. At the current rate, LibraryThing is adding 150,000 books/mo. That kind of database isn't free.
Comments suggest that $10 isn't a big barrier for people. I may raise this a little in the future, or switch to a yearly rate, but "free or cheap" will always be the deal, and, of course, current paid members are locked in for life.
Meanwhile, I'm still working on features. The "Add Books" page changed a little. If the LC has just one match it no longer automatically adds it to your library, but shows you the cover and lets you try Amazon. There are a few other such tweaks.
Keep the suggestions coming. I have a backlog, but expect to work continuously on this for some weeks to come.
posted by Tim at 4:48 PM
4 Comments:
$10 is very good value - I don't know at what point you would have enough people to make any money at it. I would have thought you're more likely to make money (a tiny bit at a time!) through Amazon as people find books in other people's catalogues that they want to buy. Good luck anyway - you deserve some financial reward. PS I will now go back and upgrade my account to paying!
Thanks for the support.
I think the financial calculus is pretty easy to figure. People tend not to upgrade until they hit 200. The top 25 start are all payers, and a few more (the 25 starts at 356). But there are a few non-payers. (I did, however, manage to get my brother to pay twice. I told him I needed to "test" PayPal.)
All in all, I'm making a killing!
$10 is more than reasonable and you can't resist the lifetime subscription offer. I plan on living forever, so that should work out nicely. ;)
Hmm... why can't you add multiple coauthors? Very confusing when I tried "lastname, first and lastname, first".
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