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By David Rothman

Dear AuthorHere’s something for the romance-lovin’ ladies at Dear Author to chew over. What if e-books were sold like Tupperware, with parties to explain the reader hardware and maybe even loan out units with sample titles loaded on them?

The idea comes to mind from a headline in today’s Wall Street Journal–Selling TV Like Tupperware, a tactic that AT&T is using against the cable companies. With Tupperware, novices would at least know the basics such as how to turn a page. Sounds duhish, but it’s better to err in this direction, given all the technophobes out there.

The interactivity angle: The good ladies at the tupperbook parties could annotate books while they were reading them and exchange notes. Later they could get together in person, book club fashion. Oh, and yes, it would be a good idea to given discounts to the tupperbook participants buying machines and perhaps book subscriptions in volume. Hello, Harlequin? Hello, Ellora’s Cave? Hello, general publishers? Hello, Sony and iRex and Pepper and ETI and eBookWise? This one’s for you.

The library angle: Perhaps Friends groups could team up with publishers to organize activities like the above and meet in public libraries.

The IDPF angle: This–and I’m not being sarcastic–is the kind of activity at which a marketing-oriented group might succeed. Spin off the bleepin’ standards work and focus on the IDPF‘s strengths if the organization wants to justify its existence. Needless to say, if IDPF let an OASIS-related approach end the Tower of eBabel for real, the Tupperware strategy would be much more successful than otherwise.

 
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