WeBook Pitch
The WeBook pitch begins with the claim to be the “next generation publisher” which caught my attention immediately in my interest in anything new and innovative. Her foot was definitely in my door and I opened it!
The presenter took a secondary position in the screen (standing off to the side) in order to allow the predominant logo to be in the forefront throughout the pitch. Yet the presenter spoke confidently, fervently, and quite proudly of the service offered. The identified pain point was the struggle that aspiring authors face when trying to get their work published, and weBooks offered a completely different way to accomplish this. She compared the service provided to authors to be what “e-bay did for commerce, linux for software, and wikipedia for information” which clearly shows the anticipated rewards to authors who join the service. To be one-up on the competition, she outlines the alternative that weBooks offers – collaborative writing (or solo if preferred) and then submission for a voting cycle to see if the book should be published – an intriquing idea for the author that is wary of the rejection letters of traditional publishing. Finally, the ask is stated – 50/50 profit sharing on sales with the potential of $50 billion in the publishing market.
I found that in the very short presentation, I was given all the information I needed to decide whether or not I would investigate further, unlike some of the other pitches that were vague. She was concise, informative and clearly showed how her company was different from all the other publishers.
Posted in: Week 03: Analyst Bootcamp
Deb Giesbrecht 5:45 pm on September 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I saw this pitch as well on youtube. Great concise evaluation of their pitch. It is a great idea and concept as the book market is a competitive niche that not everyone can gain access to. You are right that she appear to be confident and covered all the basic requirements in under 60 seconds – made you want to look into it more.
andrea 7:24 pm on September 19, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I agree with your evaluation! I was really impressed with the presenter’s speaking style – her confidence, clarity, and directness.
jenaca 3:15 am on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hey group member:)
I also saw this pitch on youtube, you did a wonderful job of analyzing it! I also enjoyed her comparison approach and thought it was a great way to draw her audience in even more!!
bcourey 4:08 pm on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
thanks group member!
Julie S 10:16 am on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I too liked the presentation style because it captured my attention but I wasn’t sold on the content after reviewing at it a second time.
If this pitch was targeted to the writer then I would give it higher marks than if it was targeted to the venture capitalist. The financial return she states is for authors and contributors but doesn’t speak to the value for the investor e.g. what does the investor get out of it. The pitch described ‘the what’ and ‘the how’ but didn’t clearly state the pain points in the existing market that justifies why this venture is needed. She states that WeBooks is open where the publishing industry is closed but that seems too vague. She also didn’t mention anything that gives me reason to trust in their core team e.g. is there anyone involved that is a publishing industry guru? Or how about an eCommerce guru? She also throws out a $50 billion dollar number but this is a red herring because their market would likely be a small subset of this. I’m guessing that the $50 billion industry is not just book publishing. I think that this pitch would be better received by the person wanting to publish a book than by a venturist because it tells me what I want to hear as a writer e.g. easy access, high profit potential, but doesn’t do the same for the venturist.
bcourey 10:29 am on September 21, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
I have to agree that the pitch did feel more directed to authors than to a venture capitalist…was that her intent? To build the community of authors to the point where she can then pitch for investors showing the number of authors that have come on board?
David William Price 12:23 pm on September 20, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Wannabe writers struggle for a good reason… there is a huge amount of competition and readers have a huge amount of choice. We naturally go with what we already know (known authors, known series) or what is popular (bestseller lists, books made into movies) or what is recommended by friends.
50/50 profit share likely means 50% of $0. Profits are only what’s left after expenses are paid.
ifeoma 6:00 pm on September 22, 2011 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hi David,
That’s quite interesting. You have actually presented some of the thoughts I had but I must say I like how you put it. I was really taken in by the pitch at once but a closer look threw up questions. I too thought about the quality of writers, editors and reviewers they have, I had actually asked if they were all aspiring or renown.