How to publish a book by yourself. Publica vs Amazon.
It’s a great achievement to write a book, and it seems that publishing this book can be more challenging than writing a book. Even world famous writers were rejected before they succeeded.
“Lolita” by Vladimir Nabokov was criticised cruelly by American publishers who considered that this story was very inappropriate and one of the publishers even suggested to bury it.
“Lady Chatterley’s lover” by D. H. Lowerns — the novel about the love triangle which is full of erotic scenes was prohibited in Great Britain from 1928 till 1960.
One of the publishers called the “War of the worlds” by Herbert Wells an endless nightmare and recommended never read this book.
For sure there are many others similar stories.
“But we live in a modern world with the internet and Amazon self-publishing service” — you say, and you are absolutely right! Viva nowadays! We have a lot of opportunities; the blockchain technology also creates a new dimension to the whole world of publishing.
Key metrics for publishing platforms
Let’s take a look at a variety of services, and it’s leading qualities which are going to help in decision making.
Publica is a big step forward in publishing
As you may see the Publica project is a first decentralized platform in the publishing industry, at first sight, this service offers the same functions as other publishers, but its highlight is decentralized. It connects writers and readers in one strong alliance without the third party like Amazon or traditional publishers who want to control your actions and earnings for their benefit.
Publica is a new universe for the written word. The ecosystem develops the close relationship between readers and a writer by clarifying the needs of each part.
Free access to Etherium blockchain data enables transparent managing of the whole process and data.
Publica expends range of business models to:
- Crowdfunding
- Online storefronts
- Scholastic and scientific institutions
- Patronage
- Serialization
- Collaboration
- Peer reviewed
- Pay-as-you-read
- Public libraries
- Non — profits
- etc
Another interesting thing is that Publica proposes the freedom of expression. Strong resistance to censorship it’s in deep in the nature of blockchain-based storage. Completed work is automatically dated and fixed, no matter how many editions it had.
As soon as a book becomes public, the society will always be able to access it because the ownership is transparent, indicated in the blockchain and couldn’t be lost through time and other changes.
Publica’s protocol reveals new ways to authors by replacing license agreement which use centralized publisher like Amazon, Rakuten/Kobo etc. to control ebooks.
Publica’s token usage
Publica uses Ethereum blockchain to run its operations and is currently looking for a proper solution for zero knowledge distributed decentralised immutable storage (IPFS, Swarm, Sia, Storj, etc).
Publica uses the set of ERC-20 compatible tokens to power it’s infrastructure in terms of purchases, rights, distribution of access.
- Internal currency token (PBL or pebbles).
Token is issued in a fixed supply and used by readers to pay for access to literary works. Authors would be also capable of crowdfunding their works receiving PBL tokens. - Reading access key (READ token).
Authors making the publication are defining business models by issuing READ tokens bound to published work. Readers (buyers) receive those tokens via online stores or after crowdfunding publication via exchange with their PBL tokens. Publica would provide necessary functionality to readers to have a limited time access READ tokens eliminating the necessity of EULA.
Finally, readers (buyers) are able to give away or sell their READ tokens for specific publications. - RIGHTS token
Token will be used to manage intellectual property rights with the smart contract system, providing options to distribute revenues between publication contributors. RIGHTS tokens could also be sold to investors while crowdfunding.
Well, you know what to do! Make your choice and go for your bestseller!
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Co-authors are Igor Line, Nora Kaza, Infographics design by Alina Loseva.
