We are excited to announce that the long-awaited Publica’s secondary book token exchange is now released!

Be one of the first to try it out: https://exchange.publica.com

What is Publica’s secondary book exchange?

Publica’s secondary book exchange allows everyone to resell books and buy books from other readers. Every book that has been published in Publica’s online book store can be re-sold or bought on the secondary market.

Now users can buy books from Publica’s ebook catalog or browse the secondary book exchange and buy books directly from other community members.

What are the benefits of secondary market?

Publica’s secondary book exchange was created with a purpose to solve several important issues in the publishing industry — authors aren’t paid when their books are resold. Readers and online storefronts can’t trade ebook licenses in secondary markets. Now, with the introduction of BOOK tokens and smart contracts, they all can win. Their new business models can evolve on the Publica protocol.

Benefits for readers

There are two major benefits for readers. Firstly, it is now possible to re-sell a book after reading it. Unless you want to keep your purchased books on your e-reader/wallet or keep a BOOK token as a collectible item, you can always go to a secondary market and sell a book to get some funds back.

Another benefit for readers is that now you can buy ebooks directly from other people. Usually, this means that you can expect the get a bargain price.

Benefits for authors

Authors can receive additional revenue every time their book is re-sold on the Secondary Book Market. Traditionally, authors are only paid once — when the book is sold for the first time. With the introduction of Secondary Book Market, Publica was able to leverage smart contracts and the Blockchain technology to reward authors every time their book is re-sold. Unlike the paper books, ebooks are always in a perfect condition!

Video tutorials

Check this video guide to get a better understanding of how to use Publica’s Secondary Book Exchange.

Explaining the process in details

In order to fully understand how Publica’s secondary book exchange works, let’s get back to the basics. Every book that is published on the Publica platform has a unique BOOK token that is associated with a book (each book has its own, unique BOOK token name).

After the successful book purchase, reader automatically receives to his/her specified wallet address one BOOK token that is representing ownership rights for one copy of a purchased book. In case several copies were purchased, a user will receive several BOOK tokens.

Now, this BOOK token has one important function — once a BOOK token is on your wallet, you can access a literary work using Publica’s e-readers app — in other words, you can read a purchased book.

It is also possible to send a book to another person. All you need to do is to specify the wallet address to which you would like to send a book, and send a BOOK token just like any other token. After this action initial owner of the book will no longer have a BOOK token on his/her wallet, hence the book will disappear from the list and will appear in the new owner’s e-reader. Imagine you are landing a book from a friend, the principle here is the same.

With the introduction of the Secondary Book Token Exchange you are now able to sell any BOOK token, as well as buy any listed book from other readers.

As Secondary Book Exchange is in fact a dedicated exchange service for trading BOOK tokens. You will first need to connect with a MetaMask account, deposit BOOK tokens to the exchange (please mind the associated transaction fees) and set the desired price in PBL tokens. When someone will purchase your BOOK tokens on the Secondary Book Token exchange, the author’s commission, as well as Publica’s fee will be automatically deducted and you will receive PBL tokens that can be withdrawn from the exchange or used for purchasing other books.

What’s next?

Feel free to give our Secondary Book Exchange a try!

While there are still many things to improve, we want to let you get some hands-on experience with the functionality! Let us know in case you have any questions or issues — we’re here to help!

Useful articles and tutorials:

Other useful materials and tutorials can be found here.