could send a copy of Nantucket in 100 Objects, for example, to each of its clients or customers as a welcome back to the island or as an end-of-year thank you). The possibilities are great for marketing and selling a book with its contents tied to a special location. We’ ve already talked to two large local hospitality companies about this concept, and both reacted favorably.
BooksNearby. com for early revenue and to drive sales
After waiting nearly three years, I acquired BooksNearby. com in an online auction for what was a reasonable price, after the previous owner let it lapse. As I did, the previous owner and auction competitors saw the potential of the name.( I already owned most of the other related urls: net, biz, org, etc.)
Think about the name Books Nearby: is it a book on the table in front of you or at your bedside? Is it a book on a nearby shelf in your home office or at the local library? Is it a new book in the upscale commercial bookstore in your nearby mall, something in a funky used bookstore off the beaten track, or a book as close as your next Amazon click? It’ s all of those.
BooksNearby. com will invite browsers and contributors to realize their passion for books in all places books are found. It will be a community of book lovers who write passionately about their favorite book or beloved bookstore, who find inspiration for their next read, or who come in search of likeminded lovers of books and the printed word.
The website can be a promotional billboard for new books and bookstores, an engaging point for learning about books, and a social community of passionate readers. Advertisers pay for that. Productive links will produce income. Donations can help support the site. Eventually, there might be special content reached through paid subscriptions. Similar, well-developed sites that started out small are earning tens of thousands of dollars annually for their creators( Brainpickings. org comes to mind).
Marketplace competition
As noted early in this proposal, these are not new or out-of-the-blue concepts for each of our first three books. These formats are already tested by major cultural institutions and publishing companies, with successful sales. I would adapt them to interests of local and regional readers where the concept has not yet been used.
Here on Nantucket, Nantucket Historical Association is publishing a book called Collecting Nantucket, connected with their 2017 exhibit featuring items from their collection. In one blurb, they mention it features 100 objects, though that’ s not part of the title and doesn’ t appear on what is an otherwise subdued cover.
Rather than a negative competitor, this and Nantucket in 100 Objects would be great companions on a bookshelf or table top. Whereas the NHA book features Nantucket related objects only from their collections, our book ranges far beyond the NHA collections. Of the 100 + objects we’ ve already compiled for possible inclusion, only about 10 % or so would require access to NHA collections, where use of images is available for a fee. In fact, we would promote the NHA publication along with our book as a gesture to them and because the two books would make a well-matched set. BN