My dear reader,i had written this report for a trends vc analyst role but got caught up with stuff and missed the submission deadline. I intend to write more as i learn about web3 using different formats.

Enjoy the read

• Self-published authors earn up to 2x more per eBook sold than their counterparts in the traditional publishing industry. 

• Web3 enables a permissionless,censorship-proof and more profitable self-publishing industry.

Writers suffer from low incomes  due to  **rent-seeking behavior **in the industry:

• Up to 50% of hard copy book sale value is captured by distributors and retailers.

• Publishing agents skim off up to 15% of the book advance value from writers.

• Self-published authors have to incur upfront costs for editing, formatting and book cover art to ensure quality.

• Supply chain inefficiencies limit ability to pre-sell a work in progress. This increases the risk of book launch failure due to lack of a pre-tested product-market-fit,especially for new authors.

Web3 self-publishing marketplaces.

Web3 self-publishing players:

• Readl - marketplace bringing the publishing industry to web3

• Mirror - blogging and literary NFTs marketplace

• Adimverse - collaboratively create NFT characters for stories

• Paragraph - web3 version of substack 

• AlexandriaLabs - metaverse book library 

• PubDao - crypto writers collective 

• BookCoin - tokenizes hardcopy books through book NFTs

• Soltype - literary NFTs platform

• Headline - decentralised publishing platform

Publishing DAOs will disrupt legacy and centralized eBook platforms by:

• Creating tokenized marketplaces that guarantee quality and trust. VitaDao provides a marketplace for longevity research using IP-NFTs. Ospcienta DAO is creating an open science marketplace. ResearchDao provides funding for blockchain science.

• Removing upfront publishing costs through tokenized marketplaces where professional editing,formatting and art work can be paid via token allocation. This creates a community that will work towards increasing the value of the project.

• Tokenizing niche communities based on genre. SpiceDAO, a collective of Dune novels true fans bought the Dune Bible for $ 3 million. Cosmia is feminist publishing DAO and focused on the link between art and therapy

• Enabling writers to earn more through tokenization of existing hard copy books, secondary sales from NFTs and diversified income from token-gated experiences. Etherpoems secondary sales royalties are trustlessly shared by the contributors. Excerpts of Gridlock is a collection of NFTs based on the book Hope Runners of Gridlock. Stoner cats NFTs give token-gated access for holders to vote on story elements for upcoming show episodes

Independent writers will increasingly choose to tokenize their work in order to:

• Earn-as-they-they-work by leveraging flexible monetization models. Mint and earn from a poem, short story or blog post NFT instead of waiting to publish an anthology. 

• De-risk book launches by pre-selling their work as a serial,for example chapter by chapter.

• Create more value and depth for fans and collectors by experimenting with different formats. theVERSEverse makes poetry more accessible through visual art.Sasha Stiles adapted her work as an NFT. Cellarius uses a fan fiction format to enable fans  in co-creating  a science fiction universe.Designed

• Create or plug into tokenized communities of fans who will work towards increasing the value of the art as token/NFT owners.

Artificial Intelligence  will disrupt self-publishing services by:

• Enabling trans-human collaborations in literature. Proof of Story enables A.I-assisted creation of stories and characters while Sasha Stiles collaborated with an A.I poet alter ego to create Technelegy. 

• Reducing editorial costs and increasing content creation speed. 

• Enabling A.I assisted writing tools that match a writer's style to enable faster sentence and paragraph completion similar to A.I-assisted code completion tools.

• Reducing the cost of collaboration between writers and artists using programs like DALL-E 2.

• Publishing DAOs will create a marketplace for services.Media DAOs on Mirror enables tokenized collaboration on publications.The Platform DAO is an aspiring marketplace that bundles context for the art in order to add depth. Cosmia DAO is a marketplace for female writers.

• Publishing DAOs will act as talent curation platforms for legacy publishers through whitelisted writers. 

• Soulbound literary NFTs will serve as digital proof-of-erudition for social signalling similar to our hard copy bookshelves while NFTs for serial books will be used to signal alignment to a digital tribe.

• Scientific writing as a global public good can be funded faster and more transparently through the blockchain thus increasing trust and  innovation. Emergent Ventures was designed for speed and efficiency for scientific grants during the covid-19 emergency while DeSci labs and SciNet are experimenting on decentralized scientific writing.

• Tokenized true fans will fund quality over quantity and give niche writers a market. Emily Sagan fundraised $ 38,500 in ETH for her next book from 104 investors in a day on Mirror. Elle Griffin fundraised for her book starting with a prologue and first chapter which were purchased as NFTs at $2,000 in ETH. theVERSEverse and CryptoPoetry are niche literary NFT marketplaces enabling poets to earn per poem.

• Tokenization of hard copy books as NFTs on the permaweb will create more value for writers through secondary sales. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck has been minted on BookCoin

• Rare literary NFT DAOs will enable fractional ownership of super-rare items and provide token-gated access to users. FlamingoDao is focused on rare and high-value collectibles  beyond JPEGS. ConstitutionDao tried to acquire one of the 13 surviving  original copies of the U.S constitution, the DAO failed but its $PEOPLE token became a collectible.

• Mass adoption of web3 utility beyond financial applications might take time, delaying the promise of decentralized self-publishing

• Tokenization creates potential for crypto scams as seen in the early ICOs and recent NFT projects.

• Independent thought will flourish through a tokenized patronage model where true fans fund writers.

• The Decentralized Science (DeSci) movement that’s pushing for funding and publishing of scientific research on web3 will create unique and trustworthy global public goods that will make our lives better.

• Journalism DAOs will compete with traditional news outlets online and offline.

• Publishing DAOs will provide professional services for authors through tokenized marketplaces.

• Immersive literary NFTs will offer unique ways of interacting with literature

What if We Could Fund Artists the Way We Fund Startups?  Reflections on how a patronage-funded self-publishing industry could lead a literary renaissance .

NFTs and The Rebirth of the Reader - a deep dive into literary NFTs and new opportunities for writers in web3.

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