Booksrific: The Challenge, Goals and Plan

When I came across the One Side Project Challenge, I actually hesitated to think whether it even made sense to commit Booksrific to it, when I had already experienced roadblocks just kickstarting it for over two years.

The Challenge

The idea for Booksrific stems from my personal love for reading books. It started when I had gotten the Kindle in 2012, not to replace printed books (which remains to be my preferred book format), but to get my hands on books in digital form that were otherwise unavailable in bookstores and libraries, a problem common to Southeast Asian countries (I live in Singapore).

Little did I realize what a hassle it turned out to be when I had to figure out a few workarounds to even access and purchase from the Kindle store on Amazon, because I was not born in America.

That can’t be right, I thought.

Out of curiosity, I began to investigate further, only to find out that 3 of the 4 major ebook distributors (Kindle, Nook, Google Books, Kobo) were non-accessible to my country (not without workarounds). In short, if you are not a tech geek, you would be out of luck. Currently, only Google Books and Kobo are truly accessible globally.

Being a digital project manager in the advertising realm, and living in one of the most digitally connected countries in Asia, I simply couldn’t comprehend the lack of accessibility to what I believe is the most basic way of learning and being entertained, therefore I did some further fact-finding by reaching out to people in the literary community and publishing community.

This was what I found out (issues still relevant to this day):

1. Many publishers in Asia have limited access to making their books (printed or electronic) available in the major books distributors (Amazon, B&N)
2. Self-publishing writers and indie publishers, while able to have their works available in the distributors using aggregators, have very limited ways to market themselves, and/or their works.
3. Major book distributors take a substantial cut out of every book (printed and electronic) sold through them, thus leaving publishers with little to spare to fund budding writers. The same applies to self-publishing writers. It is also important to take note that books are often sold at cost price in those distributors, which means that ultimately many writers, being the very bottom in this pyramid, lose out the most.
4. Many publishers, who do have the money and means to invest in the technology to distribute, have to take on additional costs to build their own marketing and technical teams to carry out such distribution and fulfilment services, a role originally taken on by the bookstores and distributors.
5. Books that are in native and localised languages are not readily available worldwide in physical stores (lack of shelf space) and electronic distributors (geographic restrictions), often only accessible in their respective localised country, which means countries with diverse cultures like mine are left out.

The Goals

The idea for Booksrific is really a simple one: to not just re-invent the wheels of what the ebook distributors are already offering, but also allows publishers of all sizes, bookstores (indie or otherwise), and self-publishing writers to:

1. market, distribute their books (printed or electronic) to the public by having their own customised storefront online (web)
2. have their audience read their electronic books via their own customised ebook reader app (iPad and iPhones for now)
3. dictate their own pricing (even in cost prices) models to maximise profits and hopefully invest in more worthy but raw writers.
4. reach out to designers and developers using the Booksrific project, which WILL be released as a open-source project.

The Plan

While the idea seems to be clearcut, bringing Booksrific to fruition is hardly the case.

I have always intended Booksrific to be a team effort rather than a personal endeavour. In the past two years, I have tried to assemble a team to make it happen, obviously to no avail. It had became apparent that book-loving digital geeks who shares the same passion as I do can be pretty hard to find.

Which is why after a few days of confronting myself with the One Side Project Challenge, I decided to take the red pill and see where the rabbit hole will eventually lead me. :)

Being a project manager, I will be taking a methodical approach to managing this side project, while also taking the emotional approach in sharing when delivering Booksrific.

Eventually, these are what I hope to achieve from this challenge:

1. to execute the project plan — quarterly sprints for Requirements/UX, Design, Development, QA (More details to follow)
2. fulfil role as product manager — to understand and ensure the success of the Booksrific product (e.g. analytics, user-friendliness, feasibility, feedback)
3. reach out to relevant audiences — publishers & literary community (primary) and designers & developers (secondary)
4. share my personal experience while undertaking this challenge — It’s been ages since I have touched code, and I have never done a mobile app either. Neither have I ever functioned as a product manager, nor evangelist. Additionally, my current job demands a lot of time from me (I literally work day and night), while married with two young boys, I hope to share how all these will work out in or against my favour in doing this.

To know more about me and the Booksrific project, you may connect with me via:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/booksrific/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/booksrific
Blog: https://booksrific.wordpress.com/
Email: travis.wong@booksrific.com

“If not us, then who?
If not now, then when?”

Let 2016 and the challenge begin!

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