Building
a Business by the Book
Reading is one of those solitary pleasures that became more
relevant in our stay-at-home lives. But as Book+Main shows, there's power and
profit in assembling and addressing an audience of fiction lovers.
BY HOWARD
TULLMAN, GENERAL MANAGING PARTNER, G2T3V AND CHICAGO HIGH TECH
INVESTORS@TULLMAN
If there is a healthier and happier way to hide from the horrors
of the pandemic than finding a great piece of fiction in which to immerse
yourself, I can't imagine what it is. Getting lost for even a few hours in an
author's imagined and exciting world is a rewarding respite from the awful,
everyday Trump treachery, doom scrolling and fear mongering, and the
ever-mounting body counts.
There is a serious and heartening psychological component to the
entire process as well. In our crazy, cluttered and fast-paced lives, where
time is always scarce, I'm convinced that part of the satisfaction of
buying some good books is the optimistic belief that we're actually buying the
time and the commitment to read them. One can always hope, and stranger things
have happened.
Because I am a rigidly enforced, Covid-19 homebody, I splurged
and bought hardcover copies, which I hoped my kids would eventually read (fat
chance) after which I'd planned to donate them to a neighborhood library.
But those flashy tomes also served as an effective social shield
from interruptions and lectures of all kinds. No one can impose on you or
accuse you of surfing, gaming, emailing or shopping when you've got your snout
stuck firmly in a big book propped up in your lap. This is another virtue of
adopting a physical rather than the digital literary solution. Ultimately,
though, the magic is in the content, not the mechanics of delivery, so the
format doesn't really matter much.
More important than form was the careful selection of the
reading material. We've all come to realize (in our soon-to-finally-end
national nightmare) that some sad and ugly truths are far stranger, scarier,
and even more painful than the most brutal Jack Reacher tale, the latest deadly
disease from Michael Crichton, or an extra frightening Stephen King novel. No
one really needed much more "reality" to help make it through the
tough times.
Trying to read some quickly tossed-together Trump tell-alls and
mea culpas (though they are certainly full of fiction) wasn't going to get the
job done because we're already drowning in the non-stop BS, dramas, threats and
tweets spewed by the Donald every day -- regrettably and religiously parroted
by the right-wing media. Even reading Bob Woodward's take on the Weirdo in
the White House seemed like way too much work and not all that much fun.
So, on to more traditional and satisfying fiction.
Not surprisingly, gender plays a big role in choosing what gets
read. Men generally read their escapist fiction to forget about
their lives and difficulties, since they can't go to the movies and there's
only so much football. Murder, mayhem, mysteries, military, and, of
course, anything about money are sure winners.
Women, I believe, read romance novels to remember the
best times of their lives-- past and present. They see all the feelings,
failings and follies of the characters and they connect, identify and empathize
with them because all of these were once also their own and hopefully may be
again. Men may want to be a woman's first love, but women want to be a man's
last romance.
Before anyone brands me as a sexist Neanderthal, let me be clear
that I don't mean all men or all women. I'm sure there are a million exceptions
to my gross generalizations but bear with me because-- admit it or not-- there
are real and obvious gender-based differences and market segments in the book
biz which create targetable slices, niches, and cohesive and addressable
communities. These core audiences are ripe for the taking and offer
opportunities far beyond just the books they buy. That brings me to a new
startup called Book + Main.
Book + Main is building a safe social network and media/commerce
platform for women, starting with the 200 million worldwide readers of romance
novels -- almost half of whom read more than one book a week. Romance novels
are a $1 billion-a-year industry and account for almost 50% of all mass-market
paperbacks sold in the U.S. each year. This is an audience to die for and its
needs (beyond just the books) are now largely underserved. They represent a
very large, diverse group with a strong set of common experiences and with
expectations and desires that can be facilitated, customized and still met
successfully at scale.
This niche is consistently active (if not obsessed), addressable
and distinct, affluent and engaged, and already powerfully connected with a
predilection for sharing, spending and community. As the saying goes, "one
smart reader is worth a thousand boneheads" and these readers are smart,
sophisticated and control more than 85% of consumer spending. And they're
already there just waiting.
If you have all the money in the world and loads of time, you
can go try to build an audience like this or you can find an existing
population and try to make them your own. Their connections to specific authors
and genres offer unique channels and moats to reach and retain them. The
product and service expansion opportunities are also substantial, including
wellness, beauty and self-care, subscription boxes, etc.
But the risk and the challenge is that you've got to sincerely
believe in the audience, and you can't ever take them for granted. This is a
lesson for every operator and one that needs continual reinforcement. There are
no strike twos in a niche business. Of course, connection and authenticity are
much easier to come by and deliver if your team (like the team at Book+Main)
comes from the industry, has detailed domain expertise, and basically knows how
to talk the talk because they've already walked the walk.
It's too easy for entrepreneurs in the frenzy and excitement of
rapid growth to rely on technology and automation and as a result overlook the
importance of personalized attention. That's especially true in the context of
networks where the participants generate some of the content, much of the
peer-to-peer activity, and a great deal of the positive word of mouth that
helps to drive expansion. Letting your readers, writers, clients and consumers
do some of the work is helpful and often necessary to secure their buy-in, but
it's not enough that a commercial network be aspirational and inspirational, it
also needs to be transactional.
The commercial networks that last-- as opposed to the purely
social networks, which are in an entirely different business, selling mindshare
and ads-- aren't merely communication and sharing platforms although safe,
secure and private conversations are certainly a critically important element.
Strong networks ultimately need to provide real value as well. Saving time or
money. Helping people be more productive and make better, more informed
decisions. Supporting them in meeting their various physical and mental needs.
And most importantly, never looking down on their customers or having contempt
for them.
This kind of arrogance will hopefully lead to the final
comeuppance for the Trump network, and his fellow grifters and scammers, who
couldn't give a rat's ass for anyone but themselves. Yet they are still happy
to take as much money as possible from people who can ill afford it while they
laugh at them behind their backs. Someday, some way, justice will be done. But
I digress.
Bottom line: the near-term future is all about smaller, safer, closer and more personal everything. If
you're lucky, you can find yourself an open and underserved niche in the
marketplace; build a secure and closed network/moat to bring your audience
together and deliver suitable products and services to them; make every effort
to get as close as possible to each and every individual and taper your
offerings specifically for them; and, never take them for granted.
They can be loyal for sure, but these days loyalty mainly means
the momentary absence of something better.
DEC 29, 2020
The
opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of
Inc.com.