Review: Pothi.com

Abhishek told me yesterday about some of our seniors floating a new venture...was tempted to look at the site...idea is quite compelling. Basically, this is about people who want to publish a book but can't find a publisher or books for which audience is too niche. So, this website would actually work as a mediator between author and readers, which will give authors a lot more independence with better profit-sharing deal. As for readers, if they find the book interesting enough, they can order the book and book will be digitally published and shipped to the reader.

• At one place, the website that author won't be bound by any legal binding with the pothi.com and if they want to publish book somewhere, they would be free to do so. (Non exclusive , non binding contract. Pull out your book anytime or publish at another place simultaneously self). Now, this can be an infringement issue. What if author gets into legal binding with other published then book publication at your web goes for a toss. I guess, it can be taken care by some legal document but not really a good idea.
• At another place, it writes the book will be only technically reviewed, not the content. That means, one can actually copy from some other book and publish in the name of himself, it could create a problem. Also, designing cover and all could be a bit difficult for an author as a good writer might not be a good designer. The site should do this themselves of course at a price.
• The PowerPoint presentation for the authors is just not up to mark. It looks like one made for academic projects. That needs a lot of improvement, better some professional touch. Even site deserves something better. But given they are still in process, I guess that would be okay.
• Since, nothing is set as on practical level. It's difficult to comment on that. But, just putting books won't help. Books need to be reviewed by experts, and put somewhere as top 5 or favorites or books most read, no one would go through whole list to find which book is good.
• Now for kind of books, it is suggested that books written on Technical book in regional language or a travelogue. Now, travelogue is fine but who would risk reading a technical book by an immature author. My feel is that, it is most suitable for bloggers with aspirations of turning into an author writing random, abstract, mostly about their experience. I cannot say what kind of books can come when everything goes live, but surely someone writing light stuff like Chetan Bhagat is possible. There are plenty of such on web writing pretty interesting stuff. On the lighter note, dabblers who think they are good writers, can order plenty of books and show that to their relatives and friends... :)
• Most crucial requisite for its success is proper marketing. Since, such idea would really hit young people than anyone else. Its ads must be at places like rediff where most of the youngsters new in job many times a day (out of boredom or lack of work whatever :). Recently, a book library librarywala.com flashed their so many times on rediff that once I guess by default, I just checked. It was renting books in the city; you just pay the monthly rental and read many new costly books. I filled a form and they called up. Putting something in college fest may help too.
• While going through its site, one idea stuck my mind. Once a book becomes a hit and you start getting a lot of printing a lot of orders, then rather than trying to stretch infrastructure, it would be a lot better to sell the book to a bigger publication house for a premium. They would have a lot more expertise and infrastructure including cheap publication and marketing and sale & distribution. Now, there you would need rights of the book.

Overall, the idea is good. But, it would need a lot of patience and persistence.