A Key to Your Success or a Path to Failure?
With how large the internet is, users are constantly looking for that “next big thing” that could change the way we operate or create a massive success for those that invest in it. A great recent example of this is the rise in cryptocurrencies, with many celebrities, athletes, politicians, and tech giants championing this new form of currency. However, internet users and influencers are also championing something they believe could be a massive hit: Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
To understand if NFTs might be a success for you, you first need to understand what an NFT is. In essence, an NFT is a digital receipt that shows ownership of a digital good. These goods can vary greatly, such as an artistic image, an exclusive literary work, a musical composition, a video, and so much more. These digital goods are generally quite limited, such as an artist or designer selling only a certain amount of NFTs for a specific image. As such, the reason people choose to invest in NFTs is that they believe the limited availability of the NFTs will make them quite valuable and their value will grow over time.
So how does this concept apply to authors? First, some authors decided to sell their books as NFTs, meaning they would only sell a limited amount of copies of their book. Second, authors might have certain specials where purchasers can buy a certain amount of their book and they would receive an NFT for reaching a certain number of books purchased. Last, authors might sell particular art surrounding their book, such as their cover image, as NFTs for investors to purchase. On paper, this might sound quite lucrative, but there is quite a lot of risk to consider.
First and foremost, the limited availability of a commodity is not enough to make it valuable. For many authors, selling their book as an NFT might not garner the success that they are looking for because the internet investors who are looking for NFT books might not have heard of them at all. For example, one author might have an incredible book in a particular niche, but because they are a small author, they would not find the same success from an NFT book as a tech giant like Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos might find using the same practice. Second, there needs to be some kind of financial incentive for a reader to want to purchase your NFT book. If you are not a massive internet celebrity or well-known figure, the only real incentive for investors would be if your NFT book was cheaper than what it would be as a regular ebook, which is almost never the case. Third, should a reader choose to purchase your NFT book, there is the possibility that they might easily share the book with others. Considering how small ebook files are, it would be incredibly easy for someone who purchased your NFT book to give it out for free to other people through something as simple as an email, meaning you would lose quite a bit of profits from this digital distribution of your book.
Having said all of this, know that you can certainly choose to involve NFTs in your book publishing process, but it shouldn't be considered the ultimate secret weapon to make it successful. Along with NFTs, a lot of hard work and a strategic marketing plan is still needed to get the book into the readers' hands.
Are you looking for help publishing, marketing or selling your book? PRESStinely is here to help. Reach out to us to schedule a free discovery call!
Kristen & Maira