Idea Simmering in My Head

[ViktorH]

Hello,

I was wondering if I could get some input on an idea that's been simmering in my head for quite some time.

I am thinking of starting a small business called "book quilts". The idea is to create bed quilts that have classic novels printed to cover the entire surface of the quilt. I first came across the idea after a classmate of mine started a company called Postertext - where a novels content is used to form an entire poster. Then I came across Spinlessbooks - more or less the same premise as Postertexts except that the entire novel is used each other - resulting in some rather large posters.

In the meanwhile, I purchased a cheap bed quilt here for the coming winter that happened to be covered in random letters of the alphabet. This got me to thinking - if an entire classic novel can fit on a larger poster, it maybe be possible to have it printed on bed quilts as well. I would just like to get some opinions on the idea. I have the feeling this adds to the bedtime reading atmosphere - literally wrapping yourself up in a favourite book of yours. Please let me know what you think.

I know there may be issues with printing that small (and legibly) on a quilt, as well as copywrite (I can only use pubilc domain books) but strictly speaking about the idea - what do you think?

I think it would be really cool to have a Hobbit one.

[kindlekitten]

A. I think that classic linesffrom classic novels would be more of a draw, and even with that, only having text on two out of four squares or so.

B. I think you need to have a target audience which would have to be something like Ronald McDonald house, st Judes, or something like the wounded warrior foundation. This would make it non profit and I don't know how that may fit into your business plan

[Bilbo1967]

You would need a hell of a size quilt to fit the entire The Hobbit on and my guess is that it would end up looking like a mess of tiny illegible characters.

I'd agree with kk - probably best to print up a quilt with a few selected pages in separate squares, or even a single page of a well known book being a whole side of a quilt (perhaps one with pretty drop caps or an illustration?). That might sell as a novelty item I guess.

[ViktorH]

Thank you for the honest replies.

An Odyssey quilt would definitely be one of the books I would like to use.

I do not believe I can patent this - but I could definitely build a brand around it and trademark the name.

The print size is a problem - but not in the sense of legibility. The manufactures I have spoken too have already informed me - printing on these materials - the fonts can only be so small -much larger than standard size 12 Microsoft Word text. The text has to be large enough to be printable, and withstand possible shrinking after washing. This of course limits the amount of content I can find on the cover as well.

It seems the business would have to cater to individual needs - thus customizable (to a certain degree). Therefore the quilts would be more expensive - but also of a higher quality. I believe quality is the way to go in this situation. People may be willing to pay more for a quilt that is unique to their selection.

The problem with this is finding the right manufacturing and what kind of selection I can offer for customization. Perhaps "Odyssey" could be offered in a selection of materials, templates, pictures/non pictures, text styles, text selection, etc...

Otherwise, trying to sell a single version quilt of a single book to everyone could be very difficult. Customization has it's own problems though.

I did not think to do a "kids version" up to this point either. Perhaps not a bad idea...

[kindlekitten]

Ummmm... I don't want to offend, but I also don't like to see people lose money. I don't think this is a great commercial money making idea. Ymmv