private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
online book rental service, offering rental-by-mail of both
hardcover
A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occa ...
and
paperback books
A paperback (softcover, softback) book is one with a thick paper or paperboard cover, and often held together with glue rather than stitches or staples. In contrast, hardcover (hardback) books are bound with cardboard covered with cloth, lea ...
. The company was launched in 2007.
History
George Burke co-founded BookSwim with friend Shamoon Siddiqui in April 2007, in Shamoon's basement for the first ten months of the company's existence. The company branched out, briefly moving to
Aberdeen, NJ
Aberdeen Township is a township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. The township is located within the Raritan Valley region and is a part of the New York Metropolitan Area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the township's popula ...
before establishing headquarters in
Newark, NJ
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Pennsylvania.
Rental Service
BookSwim provided unlimited rental-by-mail of
hardcover
A hardcover, hard cover, or hardback (also known as hardbound, and sometimes as case-bound) book is one bound with rigid protective covers (typically of binder's board or heavy paperboard covered with buckram or other cloth, heavy paper, or occa ...
and paperback books on a monthly subscription basis. Subscribers add books to their online reading list, called a Rental Pool. When the subscriber returned finished books, the next books in the Rental Pool would ship out. The similarity to Netflix's business model led to the website informally being called the 'Netflix for books.' BookSwim's plans began at $9.99 per month and included only hardcover and paperback books.
Recognition
BookSwim entered and won Rutgers University’s Business Plan Competition in 2008 and an accompanying cash prize of $20,000. The company was named a 'Startup to Watch' by Entrepreneur Magazine, and the New Jersey Technology Council.
Market Conditions
BookSwim's subscribers tended to be high-income avid readers who read over forty books a year; roughly 80% of them were female. As "the core of hebusiness is in bestsellers," BookSwim cited its rental of hardcovers as its main competitive edge over competitor Booksfree.
Relationships with Libraries
Though libraries’ reactions to BookSwim included anxiety and resentment, BookSwim claimed to not see itself as competition with libraries. The company expressed interest in taking libraries on as customers and its co-founders appeared at the 2008 Colorado Interlibrary Loan Conference to speak about potential partnerships with them. In October 2008, BookSwim donated an extra 13,000 books from its inventory to the Newark Public Library near its new offices.