I see a lot of "don't do this unless..." or "why would you...".
Ignore those. Start by researching books (good, old, paper-based pbooks) that offer exactly this: There are plenty of them out there, usually one or two quotes per page, usually taken from public sources. Some of them are work related, some have a spiritual bent, etc.
Do this research just to satisfy yourself that yes, there are people who buy this sort of thing.
Next, validate the idea: Not with the HN crowd, I can almost guarantee they are not your audience. We tend to be self-starters, independent thinkers, etc. Some of us even mock the whole "motivational quote/poster/speaker" model.
Hell, how many of us would have told the guy who created "bingo card creator" to stick to his day job? Most of us. We are not good judges of the broader market because we all of us live on the fringes.
(Sure, there are one or two or a few people in here who can see into that broader but they are few. If you are lucky, some of the better ones will comment on this.)
Bring up those inspirational quote books with your friends, your family members, and acquaintances from non-tech fields. Do this in small groups and at times when people are more reflective, more willing to consider. Ask what they think of these books. Do they read them? Openly? As guilty pleasures? If they do, say something along the lines of "too bad there is no app for this". Judge their reactions.
As to how to do this, crowdsource the quotes. Create a system where people can submit (and correct) quotes with attributions, where they can upvote them. Whether or not a login is required is up to you, but if you go with a login, make it facebook and/or twitter, maybe pinterest, not google+ or roll your own, etc: My guess is that the people who would use this app will be very comfortable logging in with facebook and/or twitter, sharing their favourite quotes on those platforms, etc.
Make it possible for people to tag quotes, e.g., #spirituality, #productivity, #friendship, #peace, etc.
Have quotes of the day, featured quotes, etc.
There are opportunities for translation into many, many languages. See if you can crowdsource that, too.
Do NOT expect to make money doing this. Not because you won't (hell, I have no idea), but because that will allow you to gauge how much time to spend on it. Unless and until you have a successful kickstarter campaign or VC funding or hit a magical pricing structure that "just works", you will be doing this because you enjoy it, but it will not put food in your mouth or a roof over your bed.
I always appreciate people who forego the "why" and advise "how." Everyone has something they want to do - and for some it's something that wouldn't necessarily provide value for anyone else - but that doesn't mean it isn't worth doing.
Thanks a lot for putting so much thought into this. You have pretty much laid out all the steps for us! I am not looking to make any money of this, so that's not an issue.
Ignore those. Start by researching books (good, old, paper-based pbooks) that offer exactly this: There are plenty of them out there, usually one or two quotes per page, usually taken from public sources. Some of them are work related, some have a spiritual bent, etc.
Do this research just to satisfy yourself that yes, there are people who buy this sort of thing.
Next, validate the idea: Not with the HN crowd, I can almost guarantee they are not your audience. We tend to be self-starters, independent thinkers, etc. Some of us even mock the whole "motivational quote/poster/speaker" model.
Hell, how many of us would have told the guy who created "bingo card creator" to stick to his day job? Most of us. We are not good judges of the broader market because we all of us live on the fringes.
(Sure, there are one or two or a few people in here who can see into that broader but they are few. If you are lucky, some of the better ones will comment on this.)
Bring up those inspirational quote books with your friends, your family members, and acquaintances from non-tech fields. Do this in small groups and at times when people are more reflective, more willing to consider. Ask what they think of these books. Do they read them? Openly? As guilty pleasures? If they do, say something along the lines of "too bad there is no app for this". Judge their reactions.
As to how to do this, crowdsource the quotes. Create a system where people can submit (and correct) quotes with attributions, where they can upvote them. Whether or not a login is required is up to you, but if you go with a login, make it facebook and/or twitter, maybe pinterest, not google+ or roll your own, etc: My guess is that the people who would use this app will be very comfortable logging in with facebook and/or twitter, sharing their favourite quotes on those platforms, etc.
Make it possible for people to tag quotes, e.g., #spirituality, #productivity, #friendship, #peace, etc.
Have quotes of the day, featured quotes, etc.
There are opportunities for translation into many, many languages. See if you can crowdsource that, too.
Do NOT expect to make money doing this. Not because you won't (hell, I have no idea), but because that will allow you to gauge how much time to spend on it. Unless and until you have a successful kickstarter campaign or VC funding or hit a magical pricing structure that "just works", you will be doing this because you enjoy it, but it will not put food in your mouth or a roof over your bed.
Budget your time accordingly.