Publica Book ICO FAQ (for authors)
Frequently asked questions before launching a Book ICO
What is a Book ICO?
ICO is the abbreviation of Initial Coin Offering. A Book ICO allows authors to pre-sell copies of their upcoming works as readable tokens.
During a Book ICO campaign, readers are buying BOOK tokens of a book that will function as an access to a book’s content when an author eventually finalizes their book and uploads it to the platform.
By doing so, authors are able to activate and reward their early supporters, receive the required funds to finish their works, as well as tap into the power of the blockchain (this topic is explained in detail).
Where can I create/start my Book ICO?
To start your Book ICO, create a free account on app.publica.com and fill in all the required fields. We have prepared a guide for authors on how to create a Book ICO.
What if I already have a completed/published book?
The purpose of a Book ICO is to fund the creation of literary works. If your book is written and ready to be uploaded to Publica, you don’t need to start a Book ICO campaign. Instead, you can fill in this form and submit your book to be published in Publica’s online catalogue straight away!
How much does it cost to publish my book on Publica?
Nothing! It is absolutely FREE to publish your book on Publica. Publica makes its money by taking a 10% fee from every book purchased on the platform.
Can I sell books on Publica for a traditional currency (USD, EUR)?
Currently, Publica only supports PBL Tokens as the native currency to purchase books on the Publica platform. We do plan to implement an option to buy books with other currencies, including fiat money (USD, EUR, etc.).
How are authors and readers protected from potential fraud?
Publica team is implementing KYC (Know Your Customer) procedures to verify the identity of authors and make sure that a person behind a Book ICO campaign is a legitimate author of a book.
Publica is leveraging blockchain technology to bring trust and transparency into the ecosystem. All transactions on the platform are managed through smart contracts, thus ensuring transparency and protecting both authors and readers from possible scam attempts. All funds collected during the Book ICO campaign are stored on smart contract addresses till the end of a campaign, and are then automatically transferred to author’s wallet only in the case of a successful Book ICO campaign (if the fundraising goal is achieved).
Contributors can claim a refund and get their contributions immediately in case a Book ICO campaign didn’t meet its fundraising goal.
What format is required from an author to upload a book?
The required format is ePub. Other formats are not supported by the platform.
Would it be an issue that I’m already selling my book on other platforms, or have existing contracts with a publisher?
Not from Publica’s side! Publica doesn’t demand any exclusivity from the author, you keep full control of where and when to publish as far as Publica is concerned. You must, however, refer to your terms with your current publisher.
Remember, if you have a published book already, there’s no need to run a Book ICO campaign. You can submit your book to Publica’s catalogue and sell it for cryptocurrency straight away!
How does Publica make money?
Publica makes its money by taking a 10% fee from every book purchased / every contribution to a Book ICO.
Can my readers purchase books on Publica with FIAT (traditional currency like USD or EUR)?
Currently Publica only supports PBL tokens as the currency to purchase books on the Publica platform.
We do plan to implement an option to buy books with other currencies, including fiat money (USD, EUR, etc.).
How is my work protected from piracy?
Here’s how the Blockchain is protecting your book:
The reader can only access the book file using Publica’s e-reader app.
It is required to have a BOOK token to access the book.
It is impossible to copy or falsify BOOK tokens.
Books are cryptographically protected and it is not possible to download a book from the app.
Does Publica protect my books copyrights?
From a legal perspective, the copyrights of a book is author’s responsibility, Publica ensures that the registered author is who he/she says he/she is and has the right to sell the existing book. The blockchain upon which Publica is built only allows access to the book to those who have purchased an access key (BOOK token).
When will Publica be available in other languages?
At the moment the Publica platform is only available in English.
We are planning to add more languages in the future. You will still be able to publish books in any language, regardless of the native language of the platform.
Will I have the flexibility to set up a Book ICO any way I want?
It is totally up to the author how they choose to run their ICO. You can choose your own business model — set up a Book ICO campaign launch date, duration of the Book ICO campaign, price of the book during the ICO period and after (Price of a book must be greater than the ICO price, to provide incentive for people to support your project at the early stage and to be able to raise funding for your book).
You can also select how many copies will be sold during the Book ICO campaign and how many book copies will be available in total (for example, you can set a maximum of 100 books to be sold during the Book ICO and sell up to 1000 books after the Book ICO).
Finally, you can decide at what conditions your Book ICO campaign will be considered as successful or not. You can define so-called Soft Cap (the minimum amount of sold book copies during the Book ICO campaign to consider your Book ICO as successful) and Hard Cap (maximum amount of book copies available for sale during the Book ICO).
Remember, once your Book ICO is launched, you will no longer be able to choose the Book ICO campaign’s terms.
Although authors will have the flexibility to set up a Book ICO according to their own business model, we recommend to choose the campaign’s terms carefully and consult with an author-advisor if needed.
Can authors continue selling books on Publica after the end of a Book ICO campaign?
Yes, of course, you can continue to sell your book after the ICO ends, just with a post-ICO price. Please keep in mind that the general practice for ICOs is that you sell tokens for a lower price during the ICO period and after it ends, tokens go to the regular/higher price to provide additional incentive for people to invest early (buy your book during the ICO).
How can I share my page with other people?
When you launch your campaign, click the “Your page” button to open you campaign’s page. This is your campaign’s page that you can share with your supporters.
Is it possible for readers to resell a book after purchasing it on Publica?
Publica’s secondary market is not introduced yet. We are going to implement this functionality in the future, whereby readers will be able to resell their books to other readers within the secondary market.
Why do a Book ICO on Publica instead of sticking with traditional ways of crowdfunding, like Kickstarter?
Publica is purpose-built for books, authors and readers. It’s an end-to-end platform for setting up your Book ICO campaign, engaging your community, raising funds, and distributing your literary work to your supporters.
Publica is the first to offer a secondary market solution, where authors will get a fee from resales of every book. It happens via smart contract on a decentralized book-token exchange.
By virtue of blockchain, we open authors to the whole world and give a peer-to-peer (P2P) rewarding relationship with their audience. No intermediaries. Authors call this direct selling.
What is the benefit of using cryptocurrencies and blockchain?
By using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology we can now introduce immediate and direct transactions between authors and readers, bring trust and transparency into the ecosystem, as well as give authors all necessary tools to set up their own business model by leveraging smart-contracts.
What are PBL and BOOK tokens?
Publica found a smart way of applying Blockchain technology and utilizing ERC20 tokens in publishing.
Instead of selling ebooks, authors are selling BOOK tokens. Tokens are working as an access key to the contents of the book. Smart contracts will work as a decentralized eCommerce store, where authors will sell BOOK tokens and readers will be granted access to their book via Publica’s e-reader app-wallet.
Naturally, we want this eCommerce protocol to run on Publica’s native currency, PBL tokens. PBL is a platform currency, everything happening on the platform should be denominated in PBL and paid in PBL.
When will Publica be available in other languages?
We are planning to do more languages in the future, but currently, the Publica platform is only available in English. You will still be able to publish books in any language, regardless what the language of the platform is.
Please elaborate on the “collectible” idea of a Book ICO
Since every book that is published on Publica is represented with a unique BOOK token, one of the requirements in order to publish a book or run a Book ICO is to define a number of book copies that will be sold (authors can choose themselves the number of BOOK tokens = book copies they want to sell). This is creating a limited book supply (even is an author sells one million copies). Authors can leverage the fact that their book is distributed in a limited supply and create scarcity.
If a book is demanded, and supply is limited, the value of a BOOK token can grow, thus there’s bigger chance that readers will buy the book.
Currently, there’s a new trend of digital collectibles/crypto collectibles emerging, with new services appearing every day. People are excited about collecting rare tokens and Publica is the only platform that is offering books as tokens.
By saying that, we want to inform authors on all the benefits that Publica and blockchain technology as a whole, is providing. This might be an additional “selling point” for authors to find and attract new readers, however, the limited supply by itself is not guaranteeing a demand for the book.
I’m not a tech person, “Smart contracts” sounds complicated.. Is there a way to simplify smart contracts?
Although smart contracts may appear as something new and complicated, authors don’t need to have any technical knowledge in order to set up a smart contract (in fact, you don’t even set up a smart contract yourself).
Before launching a Book ICO campaign, authors will be required to enter information about their Book ICO campaign. For example, authors will be asked to define a book’s price during the ICO and after the Book ICO is completed, Book ICO end date, amount of books sold during the Book ICO and the total amount of books that will be available for sale. When all required fields will be filled, authors can preview their campaign and make any changes they want.
Once the Book ICO will be launched, the smart contract will be automatically deployed, based on the preferences set during Book ICO campaign setup. After launching Book ICO, authors will no longer be able to make changes (blockchain is decentralized and no one has rights to change the records).
Publica.com is the first publishing platform to use blockchain technology to innovate how books are funded, distributed, bought, and read.
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