Is Steemit a Scam? Why I'm Really Here

Is Steemit a Scam? – Why I’m Really Here

Having assessed the financial nature of Steemit as an investment scheme, I have to confess that I’m not here just for the money. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to turn down any money my posts earn, but I’m here for other reasons too.

In 2007 I came across an micro payment publishing model used in China and Japan. In return for the equivalent of 20 cents, readers could read 1000 characters of a writer’s story. Authors would then publish new episodes on a regular basis. This publishing model worked particularly well with Chinese logographic characters and mobile phones. Some writers who published new episodes daily, had millions of fans and made thousands from each episode. There was no equivalent publishing system for western writing systems and has not been these past ten years.

As soon as I saw the nature of Steemit explained in an interview with Emmanuel Nataf of Reedsy.com, in a blog on TheCreativePenn.com, I knew my ten year search was almost over. I immediately thought of that Chinese micro payment system I had seen in 2007. Was Steemit finally the system that would open up the western world to micro-payment publishing?

Not Quite. Steemit isn’t a pay per view platform and there is no payments on historical posts older than 7 days. Also, upvotes vary in size and upvotes from whales can be huge. However, the blockchain certainly opens the possibility of micro-payment publishing becoming a thing in the near future.

In addition, blockchain technology would enables collaborators to each receive a contracted micro-payment portion of an ebook’s sale price. So author, copy editor, proofreader, illustrator, and marketers could all receive their share, in perpetuity, for each unit sold. It also means they could pass their income share on to their descendants if they wish.

Here is an infographic I’ve put together to illustrate how this sort of collaborative point-of-sale system might work.

Currently, an author needs to pay up front for each of these services, and they are expensive. With the blockchain automating this process, the best freelancers in each speciality could bid to work on the books they thought had the most promise. This would make speculative writing much easier to finance and produce some meritocracy to the system, which today is sadly lacking.

It also means that marketer(s) would be paid by results, which would be of real interest to me and to many other Indie authors. Currently, paying someone to market your ebook on social media is a bit like backing a race horse, once they have taken the money you have no idea just how much effort they will really put in. Mico-payments per sale, at the point of sale, would help incentivise social media marketers to help market our products, rather than leaving much of the marketing to authors who are often ill equipped to market even the best books. It would also free up authors to do what they do best, which is writing more books.

I am so excited by the opportunity the blockchain offers to Indie publishers, which is why I am on Steemit to experiement with mico-payment publishing. I also want to encourage you blockchain developers to produce the next evolution in Indie publishing. The platform that will finally break the stranglehold currently enjoyed by Amazon. Indie publishing is ripe for disruption.

Image by giphy.com

Other posts in this series:
Is Steemit a scam? Test 1
Is Steemit a scam? Test 2
Is Steemit a scam? Test 3
Is Steemit a scam? Tests 4 & 5