Should Book Royalties be Paid in Bitcoin?

Or said better, should authors have the option of being paid in Bitcoin, and/or the cryptocurrency of their choice?

That rather provocative question aside, I want to let you in on something interesting that happened to me yesterday while signing books at the Albany Book Festival. It was one of those mega book signing affairs where authors stand shoulder to shoulder in desperate attempt to sell even one of their traditionally or self-published titles. I actually gave away more books than I sold because my philosophy is thus: Grab a reader now with a free cookie so that later on she decides to become a regular customer who buys all my baked goods hot out of the oven (you see what I did there with the bakery metaphor, ha-ha).

As everyone knows, I'm not a big fan of traditional book signings or conferences in the 21st century. I believe that in the digital age, one's time is better off writing and publicizing on a macro global level, not on a scale so micro that you're practically begging the nerd standing in front of your table picking his nose to please, please, please by your new book. I guess the good thing about conferences, festivals, and signings is meeting like-minded authors and readers, but even that's over rated since most authors are a tad jealous of other authors apparent successes. Sorry, but it's the truth. 

But one thing these events do offer authors like me is the opportunity to ponder the state of writing and the writing life. Simply put, I don't know how most writers make it financially. So many of them have this look of desperation on their faces that you can almost feel the emptiness in their souls and their bank accounts. The sad fact is that even if you nail a $100K book advance, you're probably going to end up broke.

You pay the agent his 15%, you're down to $85K before you even get your first check. You pay Uncle Sam, you're down to around $65K (if we end up with one of the left wing candidates for President, that number will be more like $55-60K). You'll have to live on this for upwards of two years, which will almost certainly leave you in the red, even if you live cheaply in a cheap part of the world. If you work a day job, none of this applies of course. But I'm coming at you from the POV of a fiction writing maximalist, which I happen to be.

So how can we improve our financial lot in life as authors?

One way is to be offered the opportunity to convert our fiat-based advances and royalties to a digital currency of choice, mine being Bitcoin. Fiat currency loses a significant percentage of its value on an annual basis, while Bitcoin, despite is enormous volatility, has no choice but to increase in value over both the short and long term. We can always print more money, but Bitcoin, as a store of value, is entirely limited. In fact, there's only so much to go around. Never has the law of supply and demand been so glaringly applicable.

I performed a little experiment yesterday at the signing. I wanted to see how much money I could make while performing maybe a three or four simple Bitcoin trades over my smartphone via Robinhood. By the end of the morning, I'd made around $150. Add to this some book sales and in the few hours I stood there looking like an idiot, I made around $225. Not a bad take home for a few hours work.

But the point here, is not that you should become a day trader while writing your novels. The point is that while the precious few dollars you do manage to earn as an author will always lose their already paltry value, Bitcoin can only rise in value. Sure, you can put some of your fiat currency into a Vanguard account. But you need to be earning at least $5-6K per month for that to be worth it (in other words, deposits less than a $1K per month don't really grow all that much). But even just a small Bitcoin account in which you dollar cost average invest even $50 per week can, in the long run, earn you potentially hundreds of thousands, if not millions (yup, I just wrote the M word).

Don't believe me? Shaking your head? Asking yourself What's Vin smoking?  Just look to one of the many pro athletes who are now attempting to sign Bitcoin based contracts. Check out Bitcoin guru Anthony "Pomp" Pompliano's recent Tweet:

     

Pomp ✔ @APompliano

NFL Quarterback @MattBarkley tried to get the San Francisco 49ers and Cincinnati Bengals to each pay his contracts in Bitcoin.

Neither would do it.

Matt is just one of many Bitcoiners that are playing in the NFL on Sundays

1,840

12:07 PM - May 14, 2019

 

 

So while pro owners, publishers, and aggregate publishes like Amazon KDP might not be ready to disperse at least a portion of our royalties in digital currency at this time, I believe that sooner than later, it will become a reality. Certainly, we as individuals can convert a portion of our payments on our own, which is precisely what I do (I also invest in traditional products like gold, stocks, bonds, real estate, etc). 

 

As authors in a world where words are rapidly becoming democratized and cheapened, we need to come up with more and more innovative ways to make a buck. Standing at a book signing along with dozens of other authors trying to sell one or two books is most definitely not the answer. Embrace the enormous possibilities of promoting yourself on a global scale, and increase your fiat currency while investing in at least some digital currency while it's still relatively cheap. Your pocket book will thank you in the end. 

 

NOTE: The author actually lost $7.00 in Bitcoin value while writing this blog. But his overall gains for the past 24 hours are $175.84

 

Grab Primary Termination while it's still hot!

 

 

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