> "Can you send the notebook back to me after you've scanned it?"
> Currently our scanning process isn't setup for this yet. Unfortunately our notebooks are cut on the spine as part of the scanning process, so we can’t send the physical copies back. We will send you the digital copies which you can keep forever though! Returning your physical notebook after scanning is something we're looking into adding in the future. "
So, some folks would pay more to have you rebind their notebooks using spiral binding or something, even the cheap plastic binding that school teachers use to turn kids writings into little books.
Even absent rebinding, I'm at a loss as to why the loose pages can't simply be sent back in an envelope. The loss of the spine is unfortunate, but it doesn't necessarily render the originals useless. (And I can imagine cases where it might even be preferable.)
My understanding from a different question I asked on KS is that it's because their scanning partner is setup for scanning business documents and the process builds in proper disposal of the papers afterword (which if you don't want your papers back is a good thing, I wouldn't want my private thoughts floating around for anyone there to read).
I really like your discovery that "paying for a Facebook ad that links to another page on Facebook was much cheaper than linking to something off site."
LiveScribe: A pen that writes on paper and saves a digital copy of everything. Also, records audio. You touch your pen to your writing and it will play back the audio that was occurring at the moment you were writing that word.
You can use the digital copy of your writing in OneNote or EverNote and it can read your handwriting allowing you to search.
My issue on this one, and I emailed them a question about it on KS, is the privacy issues I see here. Before I'm going to trust sending a notebook full of private thoughts or business related content to an unknown company I need a pretty ironclad guarantee that the content is going to be handled appropriately. I love the thought of being able to refer back to my content digitally over time, but I don't dig the thought of some stranger getting their hands on my personal thoughts and being able to blackmail me with it down the road.
They said that their scanning partner is built with security/privacy in mind, but I need details before I'd just stick a private notebook in an envelope and mail it to some strangers, never to be seen again.
I don't think this product is really tailored to a privacy-conscious consumer.
Even if they're safely disposing (recycling) the books, uploading them in an encrypted manner, etc., you're still losing control of your "private thoughts."
I see it as more fitting for sketches, random thoughts, (non-crazy-private) journals, etc.
Awesome idea, I hope you're able to bring it to other countries soon.
I like to keep notes and drafts on paper every now and then but not enough to fill a full notebook a month. It would be great with an infrequent alternative where I receive 2 books and one return envelope in the first batch. When I'm done with the first one I return it and continue with the second book. And when you receive my book you'll scan it and send me a new notebook and return envelope and charge me for it. Basically the same as now but I can keep notes in my own pace.
I asked if they can make notebooks the size of a normal Moleskine (3.5 x 5.5") or, even better, A7 sized (about 2.7" x 4.2"). Unfortunately, they said that they'll "probably eventually expand to more size options if this goes well," which implies that a smaller size isn't on the table at the moment.
Nonetheless I think it's a cool idea and "backed" the project.
Hm... I like that tactic because Apple probably tested tablet sizes like crazy, so they can expect their size to be comfortable. Why does it matter what people will be carrying it with and how many of their notebook-loving customers really have iPad minis?
While they do the syncing for you, I'd have good success with Whitelines. You can buy their notebooks off of Amazon, they have an Android and iOS app, and sync to Dropbox, Gmail, and Evernote pretty nicely.
That's a great idea. I've seen the author's handwriting in the post and OCR may be trickier than they think.
It seems like a neat idea, and I really like this insight into their KickStarter campaign. It feels gently wasteful; I don't think most people are going to do anything like 60 pages per month. I wonder what's going to happen to all the blank pages? (Perhaps this is just my perception though.)
And notebooks sometimes contain historically important bits of information. I'm not sure how the future people will feel about having a scan of the notebook that someone used to design some important thing, versus having the actual notebook.
The realization that a new notebook is on the way in a month would probably prompt me to write more, just to use up the notebook. That would be a great way to force me away from my little glowing screens for a little decompression time.
Just backed. I actually love this idea. I often jot things down on notebooks when planning an app or just need to work through something. I don't always need to refer back to it, but usually when I do it's a month or two down the road and I can never find it in my stack of notebooks. This will be great for that purpose, and I don't really need to keep the old notebooks anyway. Hope you get funded!
Thanks! I sent my own Kickstarter out for official review just last night (http://planetoz.net/kickstarter) but I'm going to give this a deep read as soon as I can.
Also, who provided that character art in the animated example?
So if you want to succeed your crowdfunding campaign you have to basically spend money first. I mean, this whole post is about how they happilly spend $5k to get in a position where they can raise money..
So what's next? Crowdfunding the kickstarter campaign?
This is nothing new. I do comics and publish them through Kickstarter; my working method is
1. spend a year drawing a graphic novel
2. do a Kickstarter campaign
3. profit?
I've spent money on hosting, and hundreds of hours of my time drawing. I've also looked at a bunch of failed Kickstarter campaigns; one thing common to a lot of them is that most of them show no proof of having done any work beforehand beyond making the video.
You can only pull a Double Fine on Kickstarter if you have the reputation and fanbase of a Tim Schafer. If you're just Some Gal, then yeah - do some work, get your thing to the stage where everything is set up for you to tell your remote factory how many copies of your thing you want made, THEN launch the campaign.
It may not work for graphic novel length works, but have you looked into patreon[0] at all? For comics (or any recurring works) it seems like it might be a better business model than repeated KicksStarter campaigns.
Hah, I was just having this conversation on Twitter earlier this morning. Patreon seems to be much more about putting out small, self-contained pieces of content; one page of my GN is not something anyone in their right mind would pay for. If I was doing gag-a-day it might be super awesome, though - especially if I had no interest in ever collecting the strips!
Its a positive thing that someone publishing a crowdfunding project has a personal stake in it. If they spend money great, if they have a working prototype or have an existing business even better.
One perspective might be that you'll get more bang out of your Kickstarter if you show the backers that you've done some work first. I'm more likely to contribute when I see prototypes than vague ideas.
> "Can you send the notebook back to me after you've scanned it?"
> Currently our scanning process isn't setup for this yet. Unfortunately our notebooks are cut on the spine as part of the scanning process, so we can’t send the physical copies back. We will send you the digital copies which you can keep forever though! Returning your physical notebook after scanning is something we're looking into adding in the future. "
So, some folks would pay more to have you rebind their notebooks using spiral binding or something, even the cheap plastic binding that school teachers use to turn kids writings into little books.