5 ms·

>Monthly subscription for science fiction and fantasy books Isn't that the public library?

dragonwriter 9y ago
Or, http://www.booklender.com http://www.booklender.com for those who want delivery, a wider selection than many public libraries, etc.
civilian 9y ago
I think that the curation aspect of it is also a big thing. Think of this as a "loot crate" for but for books. I think the service should also have _two_ services. One is for great sci-fi fantasy books of all time-- obviously that's going to be cheaper. The more expensive service would be for books that have come out in the last 2 years. For myself, I often look at the winner & nominees for the Hugo and the Nebula for the last two years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winners_and_nominees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winn... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winners_and_nominees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Novel#Wi... Keep in mind that media mail is like, $2.60? If I was making this service, I would want to ship 3 books quarterly, rather than 1 book monthly. There ought to be economies of scale by buying hundreds of books from a publisher. What do book retailers pay for books anyway? One benefit is that you also won't be returning books, like brick-and-mortar bookstores do. An additional awesome feature would be if it connected to your GoodReads account and never sent you duplicates.
- jogjayr 9y ago
  > I think that the curation aspect of it is also a big thing. The librarians at my public library are great at making suggestions. They also have themed book displays that they rotate every week (eg. physical fitness one week, high fantasy another etc.)
  - gricardo99 9y ago
    I agree curation is value-add. A good librarian is probably as good as it gets. Also, the internets are filled with curated lists. Book lists have come up here on HN a number of times [1][2][3], even Sci-fi specific[4]. But I get it, push button services are very appealing, and can save a lot of time. Just click subscribe and get a constant supply of books you'll love at a reasonable price. It's a business model that can work surprising well[5]. 1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13117521 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13117521 2 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11229312 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11229312 3 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12556160 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12556160 4 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9056319 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9056319 5 - https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/ https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/
    - jogjayr 9y ago
      In that case, something that works with your local public library's catalog might be just the thing (and indeed something I've wanted for a while). You set up a reading list and it orders/puts on hold whatever books or movies you want one after another. You return one, the next one is ready to go. If the library doesn't have it, it will request an Inter-Library Loan for you. Unfortunately my local public library doesn't expose any sort of API to allow this sort of thing. Only way to do it seems to be by writing a screen scraper.
      - civilian 9y ago
        I think the path to take would be to add this feature into the library CMS systems out there. Sell it to libraries as an add-on plugin as a way to drive engagement with the library.
        gricardo99 9y ago
        That's an interesting idea. Some quick googling and I found there seem to be a number of CMS systems for libraries, some open source, some vendor/closed. That got me thinking that another angle on this would be to write the curator part (e.g. some ML model trained on reader preferences), and provide that as a SaaS to end-users. But I see that something similar already exists[1]... of course. 1 - http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/ http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/
jogjayr 9y ago
Came here for this comment. Agree 100%. Also to suggest that DemandRush allow people to comment on projects (maybe moderated by the original poster) so that they can say stuff like this.
driverdan 9y ago
Or Audible if your public lib doesn't have an inflow of new audio books.
tzs 9y ago
I'd suggest magazines, such as Analog, Asimov's, or Fantasy & Science Fiction. Each issue will give a mix of short stories, novelettes, and novellas, and they also serialize a novel or two a year. Mix of newer and established authors. I suppose technically Analog and Asimov's no longer meet the monthly requirement, because they recently switched to 6 issues per year, but each issue is now double-sized so it is the same amount of material as they published before the switch. (That wasn't actually quite monthly either. It was 10 issues a year, with two of them double-sized). Subscribing to two of these magazines would be under the $8 month people said they would pay (that's for the ebook edition...paper I think is a little more).

Or, http://www.booklender.com http://www.booklender.com for those who want delivery, a wider selection than many public libraries, etc.

civilian 9y ago

I think that the curation aspect of it is also a big thing. Think of this as a "loot crate" for but for books. I think the service should also have _two_ services. One is for great sci-fi fantasy books of all time-- obviously that's going to be cheaper. The more expensive service would be for books that have come out in the last 2 years. For myself, I often look at the winner & nominees for the Hugo and the Nebula for the last two years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winners_and_nominees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winn... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Novel#Winners_and_nominees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebula_Award_for_Best_Novel#Wi... Keep in mind that media mail is like, $2.60? If I was making this service, I would want to ship 3 books quarterly, rather than 1 book monthly. There ought to be economies of scale by buying hundreds of books from a publisher. What do book retailers pay for books anyway? One benefit is that you also won't be returning books, like brick-and-mortar bookstores do. An additional awesome feature would be if it connected to your GoodReads account and never sent you duplicates.

jogjayr 9y ago
> I think that the curation aspect of it is also a big thing. The librarians at my public library are great at making suggestions. They also have themed book displays that they rotate every week (eg. physical fitness one week, high fantasy another etc.)
- gricardo99 9y ago
  I agree curation is value-add. A good librarian is probably as good as it gets. Also, the internets are filled with curated lists. Book lists have come up here on HN a number of times [1][2][3], even Sci-fi specific[4]. But I get it, push button services are very appealing, and can save a lot of time. Just click subscribe and get a constant supply of books you'll love at a reasonable price. It's a business model that can work surprising well[5]. 1 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13117521 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13117521 2 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11229312 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11229312 3 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12556160 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12556160 4 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9056319 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9056319 5 - https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/ https://www.dollarshaveclub.com/
  - jogjayr 9y ago
    In that case, something that works with your local public library's catalog might be just the thing (and indeed something I've wanted for a while). You set up a reading list and it orders/puts on hold whatever books or movies you want one after another. You return one, the next one is ready to go. If the library doesn't have it, it will request an Inter-Library Loan for you. Unfortunately my local public library doesn't expose any sort of API to allow this sort of thing. Only way to do it seems to be by writing a screen scraper.
    - civilian 9y ago
      I think the path to take would be to add this feature into the library CMS systems out there. Sell it to libraries as an add-on plugin as a way to drive engagement with the library.
      - gricardo99 9y ago
        That's an interesting idea. Some quick googling and I found there seem to be a number of CMS systems for libraries, some open source, some vendor/closed. That got me thinking that another angle on this would be to write the curator part (e.g. some ML model trained on reader preferences), and provide that as a SaaS to end-users. But I see that something similar already exists[1]... of course. 1 - http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/ http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/

jogjayr 9y ago

Came here for this comment. Agree 100%. Also to suggest that DemandRush allow people to comment on projects (maybe moderated by the original poster) so that they can say stuff like this.

driverdan 9y ago

Or Audible if your public lib doesn't have an inflow of new audio books.

tzs 9y ago

I'd suggest magazines, such as Analog, Asimov's, or Fantasy & Science Fiction. Each issue will give a mix of short stories, novelettes, and novellas, and they also serialize a novel or two a year. Mix of newer and established authors. I suppose technically Analog and Asimov's no longer meet the monthly requirement, because they recently switched to 6 issues per year, but each issue is now double-sized so it is the same amount of material as they published before the switch. (That wasn't actually quite monthly either. It was 10 issues a year, with two of them double-sized). Subscribing to two of these magazines would be under the $8 month people said they would pay (that's for the ebook edition...paper I think is a little more).