Lap of Luxury and eBooks

I’ve been promising myself for about three months now that I’d talk about eReaders. And I will. But first, I have a really cool idea to share with you on using eBooks and eReaders to hook new readers. It’s brilliant!
First, read this article in the Washington Post so you know what I am discussing.

Yeah, that’s right. You sign into your hotel and get an ebook on a loaded reader for you to use during your stay. I like it, I like it a lot. Unfortunately, I never pay nearly enough for a hotel to actually be in the leagues of this kind of pampering, but still.

Putting aside the discussion about the exclusivity that takes place with the hotel’s choice of eReader and the partnership between Random House and Fairmont hotels (bloody brilliant marketing, I say!), here’s what I like about the idea:

Access. I love that they are literally putting books into people’s hands. (Some hotels put real books in hand.) Think of it this way, you are staying in a hotel and you start reading a book that they have loaned you. You have to check out, you can’t finish the book… what do you do? At some point, you are probably (but not always, of course) going to find that book, buy it, and finish it. Especially if you liked it. If nothing else, you are probably going to talk about it with your friend.

Two things just happened here. The publisher got a book into someone’s hands while they are relaxed and kicking back. That’s huge. Two, the person either read it fully or partially and are likely to talk it up in some form. (Not a guarantee though.) That author just got access to what could possibly be a new reader. And a possible third thing happened which is a possible sale.

The other thing I like about the access of getting these books into people’s hands is that it opens the doors for word of mouth. I’ve seen a good book sell, sell, sell, by having one person read it. Here’s the scenario. Our book club decided to read “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” based on one member’s recommendation. About half of our group (7 of 14) always buy the books that we read. Right there, 7 sales. I liked the book so much, I went out and bought a copy for myself. Then I recommended it to my mother and her friend while in the bookstore as well as purchased a copy for a friend as a gift. The friend liked it so much she recommended it to her whole family. And she’s got a big family. So how many sales came from that one person recommending the book to our book club? I don’t know because, months later, the chain reaction is still going.

So what would you think if that member had read this book while staying in a hotel? (She didn’t, but the very idea of it is inspiring.)