Publishing is a tough industry to break into. Even if people really dig your work, it can be tough to convince a publishing house to go along with it. When you do, you’ll find that legal matters are seldom simple and that no real support network exists to get the word out. So you’ll stump, and most of us who do so fail. I’ve decided to make a statement by giving the world my happiness book, Bring Back Satire, for free. All anyone needs to do is figure out how to view an IPFS node in their web browser to read the book and learn a few things about the philosophy of happiness that has come out of Aristotle’s work and the scholarship that has followed it.
I minted a single Bring Back Satire to Ethereum on January 16, and it started a revolution in my life that has resulted in me getting very deep into the NFT universe. How deep? Keep reading and you’ll find out.
That first print was a misprint, and the gas cost of a full run of the books is prohibitive. I was shocked to be able to navigate the process via WAX in one evening without having to make a single deposit of any kind into my wallet. There was a bit of a puzzle involved with the minting process just in terms of getting wax.atomichub.io figured out, but the first ten copies of the book have been minted.
I selected 15% in the royalty box and my strategy is to help my friends out financially by sending them these books to sell whenever and however they like; the royalty will enable me to earn income despite giving the book away due to the longevity of the collectors’ market for scarce literature. My reasoning in this mad distribution scheme is simple enough: a philosophy book about happiness is a good thing for people to be able to get at during a pandemic that is resulting in all sorts of misery. I really think tokens tied to it will pick up a certain amount of value as a direct result of the appropriateness of this gesture, but I'm not terribly concerned about it, as the main purpose of this project is to find the best way to distribute this book.
The NFT assets themselves are simply the equivalent of signed memorabilia that the market can set its own price for. I’ve placed one copy of Bring Back Satire for sale at around $50 in WAX and opened a no-reserve auction for another starting at around $5, then based on the way these endeavors go I will incorporate feedback moving forward. I’m not all that concerned about the price of each object, either, as I receive a 15% royalty each time one of them is traded. I’m perfectly content to distribute them far and wide, accepting trades even. Find the current sale at AtomicHub here.
I’m quite fascinated by this new market and I can’t wait to see how things continue to play out! It was a bit difficult to get set up on WAX, but the savings you’ll experience with respect to the costs of operation are more than worth the hassle involved with figuring out how this new ecosystem works. At least, that’s my first impression as a user.
By the way, if you’re a tokenholder of Bring Back Satire or member of the public looking to read the book, all you’ll need to do is navigate to the IPFS hash in the token and punch it into the tool at Pinata.cloud to pin it. Then, view the address in the explorer. Your browser window should fill with text and the PDF should become available for download. You can now feel free to read the book in your choice of reader applications.
Your pins help to ensure that the book will live forever, which is more than enough reward for me in terms of compensation for distributing it. Any rewards that end up coming my way through the royalty mechanism will simply serve to reinforce the notion in my mind that good deeds are their own reward.
