One book and a hundred co-authors? Wouldn't this be a world record of sorts?
Two freshly-minted (March 2008) IIM-Indore graduates Dhruv Bhushan and Anubhav Jain are attempting to do just that. Their two-month old Web site ourownbook.com is a platform where anybody can add a sentence to a story line they have provided and get their name as the co-author of the book when it gets published.
What's more they started the entire business with a seed capital of just Rs 3,000! Yes, you read that right. Rs 1,800 for registering ourownbook.com domain name and the rest for treating friends who helped these young entrepreneur design a user-friendly Web site.
The plot, as they say, is very simple. Ourownbook.com will do to wannabe writers, its owners claim, what Wikipedia is doing in the business of information dissemination. They give a story line and users develop it to make it into a readable whole.
Both Dhruv, 22, and Anubhav, 23, always wanted to do something on their own. They were closely observing how the Internet and Wikipedia were bringing people together.
"Throughout our business school we were determined to do something on our own. We were thinking about the power of the Internet to bring people together. While most of us -- including Anubhav and I -- like writing it is not possible for every individual to write a book, become an author and get a book published. We realised that the power of Internet can make this happen."
It just somehow clicked with them that they should bring people together and ask them to write a story on a subject. As teenagers they played that popular game where people would give them a story idea and they would add their bit. That Dhruv explains was how ourownbook.com was born.
Interestingly, both these youngsters have got plum job offers -- Dhruv's got a job with a leading management consultancy firm and Anubhav with a financial service major, both in Delhi's National Capital region -- which they have kept on hold till mid June because they want to pursue their dream before joining the job bandwagon.
Equally interestingly Anubhav's company has no hassles with him continuing with both the jobs (working with them as well as looking after ourownbook.com) and Dhruv is pretty confident that he will have no difficulty in convincing his company to let him pursue both the things.
"Though I have not talked about it with my company I don't see any reason why I would also not get the same freedom as long as I am fulfilling all my duties assigned to me to the best of my capacity. However, ourownbook.com will be my first preference," says Anubhav during a telephonic interview with rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.
What's your USP? Why would a person write stories or continue a story on ourownbook.com?
Anubhav: Apart from being technically simple and easy to write I would say we are promising our readers/contributors something that is different and a unique experience. You can just get your name as a co-author of a book just by writing a single line. They would have a mention of their name in the published version of the book.
We are in talks with a couple of publishers to include the names and addresses of all the people who would be contributing even a single meaningful line to a story/book. This would be a world record of sorts where there would be five-six pages dedicated to the names of co-authors. Till today (May 12) we have got almost 200 co-authors working on a story line.
What we are also promising is those who contribute more creatively to a story or book will get special recognition for their efforts. For example, we could have an entire page talk about such writers. Plus we also have prizes for people contributing the most to a book and doing it at regular intervals as well as for spreading the word about the website.
Dhruv: The website itself is a unique concept. It's a first book of its kind that allows collaborative book building. Till now short stories are written by various authors and then combined into a book. What we are doing is that we have given a story line and are allowing any number of people, anywhere in the world, to develop this story line. When we will have published our first novel it would be a novel way of writing a novel.
But wouldn't too many cooks spoil the broth? How will you maintain cohesion and continuity of such kind of a book?
Anubhav: Both of us will play role in doing this. We have given basic guidelines of writing/developing a story ensuring that nothing abusive, no spam or absurd, obtuse deviations to our given story lines creep in into any of our stories.
As and when people keep entering their contributions we keep compiling them into chapters. Plus we keep getting suggestions from our users -- we are in touch with many of them. Once we successfully compile a book, obviously, our publishers will be sending in their own professional editors.
Has anybody come forward to publish such a book? Are you talking to any publisher/s?
We are having talks with three publishers based out of Delhi. Though nothing is finalised yet all of them have shown a keen interest in our unique concept. They have asked us to get a manuscript ready and promised to support our venture. There is absolutely no doubt that we will not be able to get this published.
How many people visit ourownbook.com daily and how many of them actually post/contribute their stories?
Anubhav: In the last two months since we started ourownbook.com we have had 2.2 lakh hits till May 11. Ever since we started we have been able to increase our page hits by 4 per cent day after day.
Currently, we have around 650 registered users and out of these 210 have posted at least one line and some 11-12 users contribute on a daily basis. These are people whose contributions have been included in the final draft approved by us. We have very strict quality control guidelines to maintain the books continuity and structure.
How will you earn money from ourownbook.com?
Dhruv: when we started this venture we never looked at it as a money spinner because we wanted to give this unique concept a shot and make it happen.
However, our revenues will come from book sales and online advertising on our Web site. We have both an online and offline revenue model. For those who contribute substantially and rank topmost in the making of a book they will be given royalties on book sales as well.
How much was your seed capital to start this venture?
Anubhav: (laughs): The only money that we spent to start ourownbook.com was for registering the domain name. And that takes just about Rs 1,800. The development and designing of our Web site was done in house with help from our friends. We didn't pay anything to our friends. Kabhi treat ho gaya, kabhi small gift de diya (sometimes we treated them and sometimes gave them small gifts for designing ourownbook.com). Both of us also contributed in the design.
Even if we count those expenses the total cost till now for starting our business would not be more than Rs 3,000!
How soon do you think will the first book hit the shelf?
Anubhav: So far the reader response has been good. We have already completed almost half the book that we had planned to.
When we started we gave ourselves three to six months to get the book completed online and another six months for it to get published. From the response that we are getting we are sure to have the complete book in another two months. This will help us to reduce our product development cycle from 12 months to around six months.
What challenges did you face when you set out to form ourownbook.com?
Dhruv: We first tried to outsource the design for our Web site but that did not materialise. We wanted a simple, user-friendly design but the people who we talked to bombarded us with Web 2.0 jargon. So we decided to use our own resources. With help from friends we managed to build a Web site that is user-friendly and simple in its design.
Secondly, when we tossed the idea of starting on our own to our friends and family a lot of them were not sure if the idea would click. They discouraged us a bit but when we actually made it happen we were able to win them over to our side. These same people helped us a lot in spreading the word. Also, keeping the site clean of all spam, abusive and offensive languages and getting scores of people come together on a common platform and write a meaningful story. Constantly monitoring user-inputs and putting them into a readable whole was yet another challenge.
Anubhav: The most interesting, and my most favourite (laughs) challenge we have yet faced was in getting a domain name that was not already used. We came up with hundreds of different names that would give people some idea about what the Web site was all about. But every time we tried to register it we found somebody already squatting on it (laughs).
We hit the jackpot only after more than 1,500 names were thought about but couldn't be registered. This is what we think is the most difficult part of starting a Web site-oriented business today.
What offers did you get during your campus interviews?
Dhruv: Both of us have got good offers but we have kept them on hold right now. I have got a plum job offer from a world-renowned management consultancy firm with a good package.
Anubhav: I have an offer from a financial service major and my package would be a little less that what Dhruv's got. Our joining date is sometime mid-June and by that time we would be able to think about what to do next.
Dhruv: Given the Web site and the business model that we have chosen we might be able to take our jobs as well as look after our business.
Anubhav: My company is pretty ok with me doing both the things simultaneously.
Dhruv: Though I have not talked about it to my company I don't see any reason why I would also not get the same freedom as long as I am fulfilling all my duties assigned to me to the best of my capacity. However, ourownbook.com will be my first preference.