Make no mistake, fiction will get tokenized and turned into NFTs. It's just a matter of time. In fact, I'm offering up the first ever hard-boiled flash fiction NFT right now!!!
Showing posts with label crypto. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crypto. Show all posts
Monday, January 17, 2022
Wednesday, December 8, 2021
Books as NFTs?
Will books be sold as unique one of a kind NFTs? You betcha...and it's yet one more thing to scare the pants off the legacy publishing trade.
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Fiction Gets Tokenized? The World's First Hardboiled Short Story Offered as an NFT
I've been following the crypto space for a while now. Or more precisely, since 2017. I've been dollar cost averaging Bitcoin and other currencies since that time. On occasion I would attempt to make a trade but I would almost always lose money doing it (just ask my accountant if you don't believe me). Like writing, some people just have the gift for trading and others should stick to their day jobs.
More recently, I'd heard about NFTs or what's also known as Non-Fungible Tokens. I have no idea where this name comes from and what it means to "funge" something, but it sounds vaguely dirty to me. But anyway, I digress. According to Investorplace.com, the new crypto-like investments have taken the world by storm, turning digital works of art and other collectibles like photos of NBA players dunking a basketball, into tradable items available only on the digital blockchain.
And get this, some of these pieces of digital art are going for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Some have sold in the millions. Why? Like Bitcoin's attractive nature, there's only so much of the digital asset to go around. In the case of NFTs, what you get is a one-of-a-kind piece of art. Think of it as purchasing brand new Picasso online as a digital property. That is, he were still alive.
But NFTs, it turns out, aren't just limited to digital art and photos. Just a couple of weeks ago, the rock band Kings of Leon, offered up their latest album as an NFT. Now that's what got me to thinking, if you can sell digital art as an NFT, and if you can sell a basketball player crushing a dunk as an NFT, and you can sell an album of rock music as an NFT, why then can't I sell a piece of one-of-a-kind short, hardboiled fiction as an NFT?
So that's exactly what I've done. I've set up an account with the NFT trading portal OpenSea, and offered my flash-fiction short, Suicide by Cop, as an NFT. This is a move that is entirely counter-intuitive to the fiction publishing business in which a writer sets out to sell as many copies (or units), of his or her book to the reading public as he or she can, and therefore rake in a lot of money. Or, that's the theory behind publishing anyway. But my NFT is being offered to the highest bidder who will not only receive the story in digital, pixelated form, they will also receive a hard-copy manuscript with my signature which can then be framed for posterity.
Do I think my short story is going to sell for millions of dollars or the equivalent in Etherium (Bitcoin's main competitor on the blockchain)? God only knows, but it's a start. Like I said, as far as I know, I'm the only author doing this right now, so like Indian Jones, I'm just making this up as I go. But in the back and fore of my mind, I can't help but see other writers joining the cause. Creating short or even long fiction that's meant to be bought and sold to just one individual who wishes to own a one-of-a-kind piece of literature.
Kind of tickles the imagination, doesn't it?
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Should Book Royalties be Paid in Bitcoin?
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:
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
Neither would do it.
Matt is just one of many Bitcoiners that are playing in the NFL on Sundays
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