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Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

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Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#51

Post by michaelt »

joe_the_user wrote: post #46
mankins wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The machine is so expensive. The lease on it is more than our rent. It works for that store because of its location.

A hacker-publisher friend does "print-on-demand" the simple way; a high-end laser printer plus a high-end perfect binder and cutter. I think they kept their equipment costs down below $10K. The standalone machines don't do much besides print and bind and I believe cost much more. This is a solution for a low print run rather one-of-kind printing but it works for him.

In the realm of thesis printing, you pay 10 to 22 cents per monochrome side, plus about $30 for perfect binding (plus shipping, and any surcharges for fast turnaround). So printing Strousup's 900 page "The C++ Programming Language" costs $130+ and printing something slimmer like "The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4 Fascile 4" costs $40+. New from Amazon those would cost $55 and $15 respectively.

If you can get your prices competitive, there might be an opportunity for you in thesis printing.

If you could get your prices so low that a professor with a ready-to-go textbook in PDF form could get it printed on demand cheaper than going through regular publishers and college bookstores, that would be a big opportunity right there. By all accounts college textbooks in America are very expensive, but neither authors nor publishers admit to making much profit, so presumably there's a lot of inefficiency there. Could be ripe for disruption.

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#52

Post by rogerbinns »

sag47 wrote: post #23

Have you perhaps considered a book scanner? You can then sell books and for an additional fee turn the book into a DRM free PDF the user can read electronically. You don't sell digital copies online just give the reader the book they bought in store. This way the reader can read the book physically or by a tablet.

There is a company that does this. They were very successful in Japan and opened an office in San Jose a few years ago - http://1dollarscan.com - be sure to read the FAQ. They can also do OCR on the book content which makes it searchable and possible to do copy/paste. As far as I can tell what they do is the normal graphical scan of a page, and then underlay that with text. When you select over the page it picks up the text, but when you read you see the graphical original.

Note that they destroy the books in the process of scanning them (spine is cut off) and then they dispose of the books to avoid copyright and similar issues.

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#53

Post by michaelt »

ucr wrote: post #31
sag47 wrote: post #23

Have you perhaps considered a book scanner? You can then sell books and for an additional fee turn the book into a DRM free PDF the user can read electronically. You don't sell digital copies online just give the reader the book they bought in store. This way the reader can read the book physically or by a tablet.

The main advantage of an electronic copy is the ability to search and highlight/copy text. If they are just scanned images, you lose this ability. Plus, Google Books is going to do a much better job than a local book store.

Modern scanners will produce a 'searchable PDF' comprised of two layers - OCRed text below, scanned image on top. So you get the search and copy ability of OCRed text, but not the loss of presentation and formatting that comes with using OCR alone. As with any OCR, you do get occasional mis-transcribed words.

Google Books doesn't let you download an entire DRM free book to your Kindle, does it?

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#55

Post by nicholassmith »

I was chatting with my Dad about how hard it is for indie retailers to compete with the Internet, but its doable. You're not selling a product anymore, you're selling an experience. The product is cheaper elsewhere so focus on giving the customer a reason to come in, book clubs, readings, comfy chairs, group spaces and so on. Books are an important part of our culture but going against Amazon now is nigh on impossible for, but Amazon sucks for discovery and recommendations so there's still scope.

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#56

Post by anonymousDan »

I was in a really cool bookstore in Broadstairs in England recently that doubles as a pub. The building was originally a church (hence its name - The Chapel: http://www.pubsandbeer.co.uk/index.php?ID=P&pub=3021 ), then a bookstore, and now a hybrid bookstore/cafe/pub. During the day it felt like a cafe/wine bar, with people sitting around having coffee or wine & cheese while reading books/newspapers. At night it felt more like a pub (albeit a fairly chilled out one). They had loads of local beers - they even had live music. Could you go for something similar?

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#57

Post by larsberg »

eob wrote: post #35

Trying to think creatively here... Could you try to capitalize on the fact that you're right in between two enormous populations of PhD students and professors who are eager to both give talks and learn more? Maybe you could support micro-publishing of books, or collections of interesting papers, for local distribution around Kendall/Harvard. Kind of like academic blogging but on paper. Or you could host themed night…

> There's no class ring for PhD students, but this would make a similarly nostalgic memento.

While I can't internet-verify it, one of my Spanish co-PhD students told me that in Spain you _are_ given a ring upon completion. It's supposedly to signify your marriage to science. I think my wife would have something to say about that...

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#58

Post by babyburr »

mankins wrote: post #18
evoxed wrote: post #15

I'm in NYC now too, but I'd like to email you when I get home. Can I find your address somewhere?

I emailed you.

Hey... Big fan of LI and a fellow bookseller from the brattle bookshop here. I'd really love to alk with you and try and help Lorem Ipsum stay above ground. A friend sent me the link to this board, and so since ill prob forget about it after I post this please fell free to shoot me an email. I'd love to talk with you, I think its difficult to wage guesses as to how to improve the business without knowing more details about LIs buying policy, storage and more... But coming from a shop that is still highly successful thanks to a very specific and tailor made business plan, I've learned a lot about what makes a second hand bookshop work. Email is animalfoursquare@gmail.com sorry if its poor etiquette to post that.

Ellen

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#59

Post by cwallardo1 »

Hi. I'm interested in meeting you and would like to help you assess the viability of these ideas to create a plan moving forward. I'm a serial entrepreneur/artist/community organizer and I would like to help you transition lorem ipsum. I may be able to take it over, depending on what we learn together. My email is cwallardo at g mail dotcom.

Re: Ask HN: Know of a hacker in Cambridge or Boston who wants a bookstore?

#60

Post by cafard »

In Washington, DC, the independent stores that hang on have a defined community. Kramerbooks at Dupont Circle has the young urban types mostly (I'm probably twice the age of at least a third of people I see in it). Politics and Prose has the settled folk of Chevy Chase and Forest Hills, with their children. Bridge Street Books on the edge of Georgetown--I don't get there often enough to judge, but would guess it to be nearer the Kramerbooks demographic, though the stock makes me wonder. (There are also used bookstores that seem to stay in business.)

So who is your audience? Have you the room to provide a place where people can gather to sip a coffee and use your WiFi, buy their NY Times from you, do the occasional impulse buy? I would emphasize this last. Of the last ten books I've bought, the majority have been unplanned purchases, something on a shelf (Kramerbooks, Second Story) or a table (a local church bazaar) that I didn't know I wanted till I saw it.

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