Publishing books has always been a slow and arduous effort. The licensing, editors, business associates, publishing companies, cover designers, printing companies, marketing representatives… All this hard work, and in the end, the author only gets paid a fraction of the profits.

Publica ambitiously aims to revolutionize the way we publish books like never before; it decentralizes sales and gives full control to both the author and the reader.

The Short and Sweet

Publica provides a platform by which authors can publish and sell books on the Ethereum blockchain

Pebble tokens (PBL) are used to purchase READ tokens that are unique per publication, allowing the reader to access the eBook

PBL can currently be purchased on KuCoin, Cryptopia, or EtherDelta

Wait, how does all of this work?

Publica provides a protocol for decentralized publishing. An author submits the literary work to the decentralized storage and links it to the smart contract. The author then uses the Publisher wallet-app to set up the sale of reading access keys for their work, or READ tokens. The READ tokens are available for purchase for pebble (PBL) for a price set up by the author. A reader can then purchase the READ tokens and have the book immediately available.

The Good

Publica has a plethora of advantages to their platform:

Immediate direct payment, reader to author

Transparent sales ledger. Ease of auditing

Free from geographic restrictions, sales error, censorship, or tampering

Irrevocable ownership of book. You own the access token, you own the book

Secondary market of books. The READ tokens can be traded among the readers, not subject only between author and reader.

Pay-as-you-read. The READ tokens can allow you to pay only for what you read, allowing cheaper costs to both the reader and author.

Piracy is impossible. The immutability of the blockchain makes piracy of the author’s work impossible.

The Bad

Costly Transition to digital publishing models.

Low internet access rate among majority of population. Leads to people unable to access the books

The Ugly

Uptake and success is dependent on the widespread author adoption

This single factor is huge. Given that there is currently no user base for the platform, Publica has to have a lot of marketing to get started. Without any authors using the platform, the platform fails. Thankfully, with the marketing team they have, and a group of self-publishers on their advisory board, they have set themselves up for operational success.

The team is comprised of 23 members, with 7 being developers. Combined, they have experience working with Sony, Walmart, Jaguar, Land Rover, The New York Times, Peugeot, and more. You can find their full team with LinkedIn profiles on their homepage.

What is Upcoming?

Publica has an aggressive roadmap ahead of them. In Q1 2018, they plan on accomplishing the following:

Webinar with community in January

Protocol architecture finalized

Reader app-wallet prototype + Web version

By the end of 2018, they plan on going live, with the first books on the platform.

Closing Thoughts

Publica is currently mostly under the radar. With the ongoing marketing and community involvement lately, we’ve seen massive growth in the trading of the pebble (PBL) tokens. The platform is trying to revolutionize the publication of books like never before, enabling both the author and the reader to have more control over their work and purchases. I am very excited for the future that Publica has to bring.