E-books, e-library - for your reading pleasure

E-books, e-library - for your reading pleasure (Thinkstock photos/Getty Images)

An online library that also offers a pick-up and drop facility for books, getting to browse through various language newspapers at one site, or mastering the intricacies of math and science at the click of a mouse - welcome to the exciting world of e-books that beckons at the Delhi Book Fair. 

The Sep 1-9 Delhi Book Fair is focussing this year on e-books and e-publishing, and visitors at the fair can now purchase books online. 

The online library hookedonbook.com offersreaders thousands of titles to choose from and also provides pickup and drop of the books. 

Another site, readwhere.com, allows readers to browse through their choice of newspapers,comics and magazines and one can also purchase digitized books online. 

Both these e-sites are another innovative venture - meritnation.com - that provides online teaching material to students from Classes 1-12. The online tutorial has simply written texts, videos and cartoons to make the chapters easy, as well as weekly tests and a forum for asking questions. 

Vikram Khosla, the owner of hookedonbook.com, said he has 40,000 titles in his collection. 

"Subscribers can browse through the collection and list their 10 preferred titles. We will get their top favourite book delivered at their doorstep," Khosla told us. 

Once the person has finished reading, a call or a mail to the site will get a man to pick up the book. "While coming to pick up the book our man will bring along the next book in the subscribers' list," added Khosla. 

How will they ensure books remain in good condition? 

"Our books will be checked and the subscriber will be asked to sign on a slip of paper before the book is given to him." 

The rates begin from a starter plan of Rs.200 a month, for two books per month, and goes up to Rs.1,000 per month for unlimited number of books to be rented in a month. 

Khosla said he hit upon the idea when his daughters, who used to frequent libraries in the US, "started buying books after coming to India and realized there are very few libraries here". 

Those living outside Delhi can also subscribe. Their books will be couriered by Fedex, he added. 

Khosla is also planning to set up leisure reading rooms in south Delhi's Saket area soon, equipped "with bean bags, soft music, and light coffee - where people, including kids, can spend hours enjoying the reading experience". 

The online tutorials site, meritnation.com, is a venture by naukri. 

"We provide all study material online, including through visuals and diagrams," Priti Vajpayee, an official of the site, told us. 

Students can also post their queries online and an expert answers their query. 

"We also host live tests so that students are well prepared," said Vajpayee, adding the site gets "7,000 sign-ins a day". 

The e-tutorials cost Rs.2,200 for a year for two subjects, while a package of all the subjects costs Rs.4,500 a year. Tutorials for attempting the IIT-JEE engineering exams cost Rs.14,000 a year. 

Another interesting site - readwhere.com - offers readers a whole array of vernacular language newspapers, magazines and comics. 

It also allows booksellers to go for e-publishing of their books and has an online bookstore from which readers can order books online. 

"Ours is a free site where readers can access newspapers and magazines," said Arun Nair, an official for the managers of the site. 

"Our focus is getting various language newspapers. We sell e-books too," Nair told us. 

He said the site had developed a software that would prevent copying of paid content. "An e-book can be accessed by the buyer but not downloaded," said Nair. 

The buyer can save the e-book in an app memory, which could be accessed without any internet even while travelling.

Read More News at:  Times of India

How a DU lecturer Nidhi Verma managed to save a lending library by launching its online version

Libraries have long lost the battle to the commuting constraints of a metro city, with people having little time or inclination to visit great distances to borrow and return books. The ease of online shopping hasn't helped either, subsuming even the endearing neighbourhood bookshops. When one such bookshop-cum-lending library in Delhi found itself trapped in this flux, it proved to be the trigger for an online lending library-Book me a Book-in 2007. 

For Nidhi Verma, a lecturer at Delhi University, the idea took root as early as 2004. After teaching English for three years at DU, Verma got married and shifted to Bangalore. Here, again, she took up a teaching assignment at the Bangalore University for a year. "As a student of English, I had always been interested in reading. Then, in 2004, I took a sabbatical after the birth of my baby. It was around this time that I decided on starting an online lending library, which would be the best way to continue my love for books and keep myself occupied," says the 35-year-old. 

However, it wasn't till the end of 2007 that the website was launched. This delay was primarily due to the time and effort it took to select and categorise the books. "I had the basic infrastructure in terms of books, but categorising them for an online library was an arduous task. This, along with the work on the website, ensured that it was almost three years before the project was launched," she says. 

"Instead of setting up a completely new facility in Bangalore, I thought it would be easier to launch the online version of the shop that my mother-in-law owned at Shankar Market, Connaught Place, in Delhi. This way, I could save a lot on the infrastructure cost as well," says Verma. Finally, in October 2007, Book me a Book was launched from Bangalore for readers in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida. 

Verma shovelled up Rs 1.5 lakh from her savings for seed capital, of which almost 90% was spent on the website. For the first two years, Verma handled the company from Bangalore, and then returned to Delhi in 2010. She broke even by the end of 2010 and, since then, has had a steady flow of members. 

How does the library work? Readers need to register at the website, bookmeabook.com. They can then select from nearly 20,000 booksand three plans-regular, casual reader and super reader-with the charges varying from Rs 300-500 per month. Finally, they can select the books of their choice, which are dropped and picked up by the company at the reader's address. The payment can be made via credit or debit card, cheque or cash on delivery, and previously issued books need to be returned in order to place a fresh order. The number of books vary, from two books at a time per month for the casual reader to unlimited number of books per month for the super reader plan. 

Verma employs nearly 10 people and makes Rs 20,000-25,000 per month from the venture. Since last year, she has also started teaching at a college in DU, but her passion continues to be her books.

SOURCE:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/emerging-businesses/entrepreneurs/et-wealth-how-a-du-lecturer-nidhi-verma-managed-to-save-a-lending-library-by-launching-its-online-version/articleshow/13108907.cms