22. Miniature e-books you can touch
Collectible, physical, but also digital. Scan the mini book with your phone to read or download it.
Problem
Many people who read books care about more than just the written words. Avid readers inevitably build up a collection of books.
Physical books outsell e-books. There are many reasons why one would prefer a dead tree over a Kindle. One of those reasons is that you can put physical books in a bookcase, look at them, and loan them out to friends, which just isn’t the same in the Kindle app.
Solution
Miniature books around the size of game console cartridges that can be scanned with your phone. These would have the same cover as the full-cover book, when scanned the e-book can be downloaded.
This could either rely on a NFC tags inside the book, a QR code on the back, or image recognition on the cover (i.e. scan with your camera).
Inspiration
This idea was inspired by a blogpost that linked to this Tiktok video, and it seems to have been catching on with hobbyists making their own miniature books for e-books they have read and audiobooks they have listened to.
Business Model
Direct to consumer sales. Shipping costs should be manageable as it fits in a padded envelope.
There are various popular stories available in the public domain such as War Of The Worlds by H.G. Wells - these could be used for the initial batch of books so you can test the waters without needing to license titles.