The concept of NFT is relatively new to the crypto world, but it has a lot of potential, and independent writers may be able to benefit from it too. An NFT is unique, impossible to replicate, and only exists in the digital spheres. For writers, it can be an avenue to sell poetry or books to readers directly while beating the long and complex traditional publishing process. It also allows writers to earn money instantly. So, if you’re a writer who values your creative freedom, the idea of NFTs is an incredible prospect.
What are NFTs?
NFTs are digital collectibles, similar to the baseball cards many of us collected as kids. It can be in the form of art, music, video, or book. This digital file has its ownership recorded within the blockchain. This new digital concept has exploded across many fields and is projected to have a massive impact on the literary world. If you’re a writer, you should be looking into NFTs and how you can benefit from them.
How can writers create NFTs?
All kinds of media can be used to create NFTs, but the most popular ones are video, music, and GIF illustrations, and the most commonly used file formats are JPG, GIF, PNG, WAV, MP4, and OGG. Although NFTs don’t have a limit on file uploads, they’re minted to a marketplace that places that limit on them. Also, before minting, they must be in specific compatible file formats.
The most popular marketplace for NFTs sales is OpenSea, and this platform doesn’t allow document files. However, other marketplaces such as Mintbase, Unique.One, and DaVinci Gallery all support PDF files.
Although BooksGoSocial is not a marketplace for NFTs, it allows writers to bundle their works with NFTs. It’s also a carbon-efficient platform, built on the WAX blockchain and not Ethereum.
How do NFT ebooks work?
When a digital ebook is sold as an NFT, it doesn’t work similarly to how others purchased online through Amazon and the like. Instead, book NFTs work similarly to books that an author signs at a book convention, even digitally. It’s not that you own the only copy of the book that was released, but you own one of only fifty copies of the book that was released and isn’t easily reproducible by anyone.
This allows famous writers to release exclusive content as NFTs for first buyers. There can also be exclusive video, audio files, live readings, GIFs, and illustrations. The more exclusive the content is, the better. This means that an NFT book can be bundled with a one-of-a-kind supplement material that appears like a highly coveted buy for real fans.
An ebook minted as an NFT can include additional files with the entire manuscript and unique content. The additional files can be used as an important selling point, even more than the copy itself.
Several blogs, including dissertation services, sell special courses and guides, and you simply have to sign up for their email service. Similarly, NFT writers can create special PDFs as limited editions with unique content and custom-made guides to a blog’s following.
Exposure through literary NFTs
Making your book into an NFT can give it a bigger kind of exposure than social media platforms alone can give it. You can promote it through r/NFTs, Discord groups, Twitter giveaways, and Facebook groups. Even if you struggle to sell it for 50ETH, the amount of promotion you need for an NFT is similar to the kind of marketing any standalone book needs to get sold.
Benefits of NFT ebooks
There are several benefits that writers stand to gain from turning their literary works into NFTs, and two of such benefits are:
Bundling
Writers with a specific fandom can start to make a special collection of chapters, short stories, and exclusive feature content for fans purchasing the NFT version of their writings. This is, in fact, the popular way that independent writers and those with dissertation services and other writing services can make their ebook NFT more appealing to fans.
The visual parts like enticing video and graphics or other concepts make video and illustration NFTs appealing. If you combine this with a compelling non-fiction book or novel, you have the recipe for success.
Many published authors may choose the cover art for their novel while passing on several good proposals. Rather than discard them, they can also become NFT content readers get after purchasing the book.
Bundling makes it easy to see that fans of the trilogy will love the NFT version more than the standard book copy. Another possible idea for bundling is to sell both physical and digital content simultaneously. For instance, Nike sells physical artwork and digital content for the metaverse. Writers should be able to do the same.
Royalties
Amazon and other publishing platforms take their cut from sales commissions, but the royalty rate for NFTs is much higher, and it all goes to the author.
The standard royalty rate is usually around 15% because of the many transaction fees you have to pay as an NFT trader, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be higher. Every time the book NFT is sold or resold, your percentage of the royalties comes to you.
You shouldn’t underestimate the fact that you get some percentage of royalties every time someone buys your NFT ebook. NFT gives you the power as the writer, taking away middlemen and ensuring your hard-earned money comes to you directly.
Conclusion
NFT will soon explode in the literary world because of how it benefits writers. It’s only a matter before most books are sold as NFTs.
